26 May 1983

Suppression of the traffic in persons and of the exploitation of the prostitution of others

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling that the enslavement of women and children subjected to prostitution is incompatible with the dignity and fundamental rights of the human person,

Recalling its resolution 1982/20 of 4 May 1982,

Having taken note of the report prepared by the Special Rapporteur in pursuance of that resolution,

1. Again invites Member States to sign, ratify and implement the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others;

2. Also invites Member States to sign, ratify and implement the International Convention for the Suppression of the Circulation of and Traffic in Obscene Publications, concluded at Geneva on 12 September 1923, as amended by the Protocol signed at Lake Success, New York, on 12 November 1947;

3. Recommends that Member States should take account of the report of the Special Rapporteur and draw up, subject to their constitutions and legislation and in consultation with the parties concerned, policies aimed, to the extent possible, at:

(a) Preventing prostitution by moral education and civics training, in and out of school;

(b) Increasing the number of women among the State's personnel having direct contact with the populations concerned;

(c) Eliminating discrimination that ostracizes prostitutes and makes their reabsorption into society more difficult;

(d) Curbing the pornography industry and the trade in pornography and penalizing them very severely when minors are involved;

(e) Punishing all forms of procuring in such a way as to deter it, particularly when it exploits minors;

(f) Facilitating occupational training for and the reabsorption into society of persons rescued from prostitution;

4. Further invites Member States to co-operate closely with one another in the search for missing persons and in the identification of international networks of procurers and, if they are members of the International Criminal Police Organization, to co-operate with that organization, requesting it to make the suppression of the traffic in persons one of its priorities;

5. Invites the regional commissions to help Member States and United Nations bodies wishing to organize regional expert meetings, seminars or symposia on the traffic in persons;

6. Suggests to the Secretary-General that he designate as a focal point the Centre for Human Rights, specifically the secretariat of the Working Group on Slavery, in close co-operation with the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Department of International Economic and Social Affairs;

7. Requests the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to consider the possibility of inviting the Commission on the Status of Women to designate a representative to participate in all sessions of the Working Group on Slavery, in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 48 (IV) of 29 March 1947;

8. Requests the Centre for Human Rights to prepare, in liaison with the United Nations agencies and organs concerned and with the competent non-governmental organizations, two complementary studies: one on the sale of children and the other on the legal and social problems of sexual minorities, including male prostitution, and to submit those studies as soon as possible to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities;

9. Encourages the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Department of International Economic and Social Affairs to utilize the available resources of all its branches with a view to undertaking interdisciplinary studies, and to co-operate with the Division of Narcotic Drugs;

10. Invites all the organs, organizations and agencies of the United Nations system concerned, particularly the United Nations Children's Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Labour Organisation and the World Health Organization, to bring the traffic in persons to the notice of their representatives and experts and to transmit their observations and their studies to the focal point designated by the Secretary-General;

11. Encourages the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to draw up, with member States, programmes for use in schools and in the media concerning the image of women in society;

12. Invites the World Tourism Organization to place the question of sex-oriented tourism on its agenda;

13. Requests the Secretary-General to take the necessary steps to have the report prepared by the Special Rapporteur in pursuance of Council resolution 1982/20 reproduced as a United Nations publication so that it may be widely disseminated;

14. Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the Economic and Social Council, at its first regular session of 1985, on the steps taken to implement the present resolution;

15. Decides that the activities recommended in the present resolution will be carried out within the limits of the resources provided for by the Secretary-General in the proposed programme budget for the biennium 1984-1985.