Portuguese

Background

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Ms. Siobhán Mullally, will conduct an official country visit to Guinea Bissau from 4 to 14 November. The findings of her visit will be presented in a public report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2025.

Objectives

In her Report, the Special Rapporteur will offer concrete recommendations to support the Government’s efforts in implementing a human rights-based response to trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and to strengthen prevention, protection and accountability efforts.

Reponses to the list of issues below would be greatly appreciated.

Other relevant information, not listed below, may also be included in your submissions.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

• Current trends in forms and manifestations of trafficking in persons, including all forms of trafficking, regardless of their national or transnational nature, and for all types of exploitation, including but not limited to: sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, domestic servitude, forced begging, forced labour, slavery or similar practices, forced criminality, organ harvesting, forced surrogacy; child and forced marriage;
• Efforts to implement the Universal Periodic Review recommendations as well as recommendations by UN treaty bodies in this area and follow up.
• Statelessness and trafficking in persons: prevention of statelessness and protection of stateless persons at risk of trafficking;
• Child Trafficking: Prevention of child trafficking and protection of child victims and measures to ensure the protection of young people at risk of trafficking, including unaccompanied and separated migrant, refugee and stateless children, and internally displaced children;
• Women Peace and Security: integration of prevention, protection and accountability for trafficking in persons into women, peace and security measures;
• Peacebuilding, prevention of trafficking in persons, and accountability
• Children and Armed Conflict: Recruitment of children by armed groups as a form of trafficking, for all purposes of exploitation, including forced criminality, and information on the application of the non-punishment principle, prevention and protection measures;
• Trafficking for purposes of child and forced marriage;
• Sexual exploitation: Trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation (prevention, protection and accountability measures), and trafficking as a form of sexual violence in conflict, including measures of prevention, protection and accountability;
• Rights of LGBT persons and persons of diverse gender identities and trafficking in persons
• Rights of Persons with disabilities: Prevention of trafficking of persons with disabilities, and measures to ensure disability inclusion in anti-trafficking and protection measures;
• Climate Change: Reponses to natural disasters, climate change and displacement, which contribute to heightened risks of trafficking;
• Role of civil society: Cooperation and partnerships, with civil society, trade unions, and human rights defenders, child rights organisations;
• Business and Human Rights: cooperation with the private sector and businesses in countering trafficking for labour exploitation, including in supply chains;
• Labour Exploitation: measures to prevent trafficking in persons for purposes of labour exploitation, protection of victims and accountability;
• The legislative, policy and institutional framework, including the legal framework criminalizing trafficking in persons in accordance with the definition set by the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol), and international human rights law, and to ensure assistance and protection to victims;
• National strategies and mechanisms of cooperation to tackle trafficking in persons and provide assistance to victims;
• Early support, including early identification and assistance to trafficked persons, with special emphasis on the unconditional nature of such support to the victim’s participation in the criminal proceedings;
• Access to effective remedies, redress and in particular compensation to victims and other measures aiming at the social inclusion of survivors;
• Accountability: Investigation, and prosecution of crimes of trafficking in persons, perpetrators and protection of victims’ rights in criminal proceedings, including the non-punishment principle of victims of trafficking in persons for offences committed in the course, or as a consequence, of being trafficked;
• International cooperation in prevention of trafficking, protection of victims, and in investigation and prosecution of trafficking in persons; as well as opportunities to strengthen international and regional cooperation to combat trafficking;

How inputs will be used

All submissions will be kept confidential. For more information on the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children and the activities of the mandate please click here.