Definitions / Taxonomy Database
This is an on-going project that aims to identify and define key terms-of-art in human trafficking and modern slavery.
As HTC agrees on comprehensive definitions for terms, it posts its findings and all previously used definitions on its website for commentary from the anti-human trafficking community. The purpose of the Definitions Database is to build a common vocabulary of terms and definitions that will help streamline both scholarly research and policy decisions. Sources and details regarding the debate that took place in defining each term will be posted in the near future.
Term Debates
Current Defined Terms:
- (April 20, 2010) - (February 9, 2010) - (January 11, 2011) - (March 1, 2011) - (March 1, 2011) - (April 19, 2011) - (April 19, 2011) - (April 19, 2011) - (September 27, 2011) - (September 27, 2011) - (September 27, 2011) - (September 27, 2011) - (September 27, 2011) - (September 27, 2011) - (October 25, 2011) - (October 25, 2011) - (January 24, 2012) - (February 14, 2012) - (February 14, 2012) - (April 17, 2012) - (April 17, 2012)Slavery is the condition of being under the control of another person, in which violence or the threat of violence, whether physical or mental, prevents a person from exercising her/his freedom of movement or free will.
Human trafficking is the recruitment and/or movement of someone within or across borders, through the abuse of power/ position with the intention of forced exploitation, commercial or otherwise.
Forced Labour: All work or service, legitimate or otherwise, which is exacted from any person under violence or the threat of violence, whether physical or mental, which prevents a person from exercising his/her freedom of movement and/or free will.
Debt Bondage is a creditor-debtor arrangement by which a person is forced to work off a debt, legitimate or otherwise, in which his/her movement and/or free will is controlled. When external factors, such as custom or force, eliminate the possibility of repayment by the victim and/or succeeding generations the condition becomes Bonded Labour.
Sex Trafficking is the recruitment and/or movement of someone within or across borders, through the abuse of power/position with the intention of sexual exploitation, commercial or otherwise.
Sex worker: A person who claims agency or choice to perform sexual acts in exchange for monetary and/or nonmonetary compensation.
Prostituted person: A person under the control of another who has limited agency and/or choice and is coerced to perform sexual acts in exchange for monetary and/or nonmonetary compensation.
Child Soldier: Any person under the age of 18 engaged in any capacity in an armed group or directly taking part in an armed conflict, due to the special level of vulnerability.
Irregular Child Labour: Excessive work or work that is detrimental to the welfare or education of children.
Migration: Movement of persons within or across international borders.
Regular Migration: Movement of persons within or across international borders authorized by the state of origin, transit, and destination (including Legal Immigration and Legal Emigration).
Legal Immigration: Movement of persons across international borders as authorized by the destination state.
Legal Emigration: Movement of persons across international borders as authorized by the state of origin.
Irregular Migration: Movement of persons, typically under duress and/or subject to extreme deprivation, within or across international borders that is unauthorized by the state of origin, transit, and/or destination.
Illegal Immigration: Movement of persons across international borders that is unauthorized by the destination state.
Illegal Emigration: Movement of persons across international borders that is unauthorized by the state of origin.
Enganche: A coercive system of labour recruitment based on wage advancement intended to entrap workers in a cycle of indebted subsistence.
Neo-bondage: A short-term/seasonal arrangement in which manipulation of wage advancement or loans to a labourer with severely limited economic opportunities results in the forcible exploitation of labour.
OTC (Organ, Tissue, Cell) Trafficking: human trafficking for the purpose of the forced and/or exploitative harvesting of a living person’s organ, tissues, cells, and/or body parts.
Forced Marriage: A union in which one or both spouses has not or cannot give free and full consent for any reason but not limited to age, disability, cultural, and/or the use of power/position.
Arranged Marriage: A union, orchestrated by a third party, in which both spouses give free and full consent.
Indentured Servitude: The condition in which an individual enters into a contractual agreement, freely or otherwise, binding him/her to work for an employer for a fixed term in order to repay a debt.
Indentured Servitude: The condition under which forced labour is exacted.