A GLOSSARY OF TERMS
There are currently 2 terms in this directory beginning with the letter H.
Human Rights Due Diligence
First conceptualized in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, it refers to companies’ actions to identify, assess, and address human rights abuses resulting from their actions. While exercising human rights due diligence, a company may prioritize risks that are known to be most relevant to their sector or their own position in the supply chain. Human rights due diligence may be conducted by companies alone, or by working with other stakeholders such as other companies, suppliers, buyers, NGOs, etc.
Human Trafficking
In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.
Article 3 of the Trafficking Protocol defines the crime of ‘trafficking in persons’ in terms of three elements, the action, the means and the purposes:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
This definition is simultaneously very cumbersome and indeterminate. The action element requires some type of movement (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a person), whereas the means entail some form of coercion or abuse of power. The purpose element of the crime, ‘exploitation’, is not itself defined; the Protocol simply lists specific examples of exploitation, some of which are defined in other international legal instruments, which function as minimum requirements.
Canada defines human trafficking in the Criminal Code:
Trafficking in persons
279.01 (1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence and liable
(a) to imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of five years if they kidnap, commit an aggravated assault or aggravated sexual assault against, or cause death to, the victim during the commission of the offence; or
(b) to imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of four years in any other case.
(2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject-matter of a charge under subsection (1) is ) is valid.
Exploitation for the purposes of human trafficking is also defined in the Criminal Code:
279.04 (1) For the purposes of sections 279.01 to 279.03, a person exploits another person if they cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct that, in all the circumstances, could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service.
The Canadian definition of trafficking only includes two elements- movement and purpose; it does not require the means element as set out in the international definition of human trafficking. Moreover, the Canadian definition of exploitation is different than the ILO’s definition of forced labour. The Canadian definition requires that the victim “believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service”
Article 3 of the Trafficking Protocol defines the crime of ‘trafficking in persons’ in terms of three elements, the action, the means and the purposes:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
This definition is simultaneously very cumbersome and indeterminate. The action element requires some type of movement (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a person), whereas the means entail some form of coercion or abuse of power. The purpose element of the crime, ‘exploitation’, is not itself defined; the Protocol simply lists specific examples of exploitation, some of which are defined in other international legal instruments, which function as minimum requirements.
Canada defines human trafficking in the Criminal Code:
Trafficking in persons
279.01 (1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence and liable
(a) to imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of five years if they kidnap, commit an aggravated assault or aggravated sexual assault against, or cause death to, the victim during the commission of the offence; or
(b) to imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of four years in any other case.
(2) No consent to the activity that forms the subject-matter of a charge under subsection (1) is ) is valid.
Exploitation for the purposes of human trafficking is also defined in the Criminal Code:
279.04 (1) For the purposes of sections 279.01 to 279.03, a person exploits another person if they cause them to provide, or offer to provide, labour or a service by engaging in conduct that, in all the circumstances, could reasonably be expected to cause the other person to believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service.
The Canadian definition of trafficking only includes two elements- movement and purpose; it does not require the means element as set out in the international definition of human trafficking. Moreover, the Canadian definition of exploitation is different than the ILO’s definition of forced labour. The Canadian definition requires that the victim “believe that their safety or the safety of a person known to them would be threatened if they failed to provide, or offer to provide, the labour or service”
