A. General Provisions (articles 1-5)
The first article of the Protocol outlines the relationship between the Convention on Organized
Crime and the Protocol. The relationship is built on three principles.
1)The Protocol supplements the Convention and shall be interpreted together with the Convention
2)The provisions of the Convention shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to this Protocol unless otherwise
provided herein
3)The offences established in article 5 of the Protocol shall be regarded as offences as established in
accordance with the Convention
The relationship between the Protocol and the Convention was rather difficult to establish during
the negotiations. The Protocol was negotiated in parallel with the Convention. The negotiations
proceeded at a different pace causing difficulties in determining the scope of the application of the
Protocol. Some Member States e.g. were of the opinion that the Protocol should not only cover criminal
acts falling under the definition of organised crime, but should also include acts committed by one or
two persons.
In order to become a Party to the Protocol, States must first be a Party to the Convention. The
Protocol contains several additional provisions to the Convention. The principle of mutatis mutandis means that the criminalisations that are covered by the Protocol should be applied as such. In
implementing the Protocol, the Convention is thus subordinate to the Protocol if the Protocol states
something additional to the Convention.
The Trafficking Protocol has three main purposes as outlined in article 2, namely to:
• prevent and combat trafficking in persons paying particular attention to women and children
• protect and assist the victims of such trafficking, with full respect for their human rights; and
• promote co-operation among States in order to meet those objectives
Besides combating organised crime and promoting international co-operation, victim protection is a
crucial element of the Protocol. The definition of trafficking as outlined in article 3 defines a variety of
practices and actors that can be involved in trafficking. Trafficking in persons means:
• 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 giving or receiving payments
or benefits to a person in control of the victim,
• for the purpose of exploitation.