PI-SF Task Force on Human Trafficking

Our Mission

The PISF Task Force on Human Trafficking is a subcommittee of the Parliamentary Intelligence Security Forum and was formed in the fall of 2021 after conversations surrounding human trafficking at the Forum in Budapest, Hungary. It is a consortium of Parliamentarians, lived-experience experts, government leaders and policy experts with the shared mission of combatting the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, human trafficking.

Currently, there are nearly 50 million people trapped in modern slavery throughout the world, and our common goal is to make our world more secure by reducing this number significantly over the next ten years. Human trafficking is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world. According to the United Nations Palermo Protocol, trafficking in persons is defined as “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,” and it includes, “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.”

The Task Force is a platform for convening law makers and leaders from a variety of perspectives to achieve this goal in several ways. First, we meet virtually four times per year to collaborate and discuss actionable policy solutions and legislation focused on the prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership elements of combatting human trafficking that can be implemented in our respective countries or supported collectively. Each quarterly meeting focuses on a different aspect of combatting modern slavery and begins with an expert speaker followed by discussion amongst members. Expanded opportunities to collaborate and engage further are often an output of the quarterly meetings, but these opportunities are optional and at the discretion of the individual members. The time commitment to the group is minimal, but the impact is great.

Additionally, the Task Force provides a panel of speakers to increase the awareness to the Parliamentarians and government leaders about human trafficking at the PISF forums during the year throughout the world, thus tying the topic into the larger conversation about global security. Finally, the Task Force seeks to accomplish its goal through providing an opportunity to network with likeminded colleagues and lived-experience experts, and share information about anti-trafficking laws and solutions from around the world. Our belief is that through collaboration we can accomplish more.