The definition of human trafficking in Art. 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime of 15 November 2000, provides the basis for combating human trafficking in Switzerland. In October 2006, Switzerland ratified this supplementary protocol and adapted the Swiss Criminal Code’s definition of the term accordingly.

Human trafficking is a serious human rights violation and criminal offence. It includes various forms of exploitation. According to Art. 182 of the Swiss Criminal Code, the following activities fall under human trafficking and are therefore punishable: Any person who as a supplier, intermediary or customer engages in the trafficking of a human being for the purpose of sexual exploitation, exploitation of his or her labour or for the purpose of removing an organ shall be liable to a custodial sentence or to a monetary penalty. The soliciting of a person for these purposes is equivalent to trafficking. To carry out their crimes, human traffickers may use threats, force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception; they may use of various means: 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.

In 2018, 13,754 victims of human trafficking were registered in the Member States of the European Union – the number of cases that go unreported is likely to be much higher. 72% of victims were female, and 22% of all trafficking victims were children. Switzerland is both a destination and a transit country for human trafficking. To strengthen efforts to combat these crimes, the Swiss Security Network is working together with the Federal Office of Police and other representatives of all three levels of government as well as civil society to draw up the third National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. This Action Plan will come into force in 2023.