Trafficking in human beings as a crime against humanity: A contribution to the debate about crimes’ policy requirement

Abstract

This work analyses if trafficking in human beings can be considered a crime against humanity. The possibility of including trafficking in human beings in the conducts considered by article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court has to be firstly examined. Besides that, it has to be taken into account that this article requires that those acts have to be committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack (contextual requirement) and assumes that such attack means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of those acts against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack (policy requirement). The debate on the possibility of non-State actors committing crimes against humanity has provoked strong academic controversy. Regarding trafficking in human beings, it has to be analyzed if the reclassification of the offence as a crime against humanity would contribute to combat it in a more efficient manner. The analysis should also take into account that such an eventual criminal authors’ responsibility does not exclude State responsibility according to standards of due diligence.