Action against trafficking in human beings: prevention, protection and prosecution Proceedings of the regional seminar, Bucharest, Romania, 4-5 April 2006

Trafficking in human beings is the modern form of the old worldwide slave trade. It treats human beings as a commodity to be bought and sold. The victims are put to forced labour, usually in the sex industry but also, for example, in the agricultural sector or in sweatshops, for a pittance or nothing at all. Trafficking in human beings directly undermines the values on which the Council of Europe is based: human rights, democracy and the rule of law.