A/HRC/31/57 39. All places of detention must be subject to unannounced visits by independent bodies established in conformity with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. The inclusion of women, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and other minority representation on inspection bodies at all levels would help facilitate the reporting of gender-based violence and discrimination and identify cases of torture and ill-treatment. C. Trafficking in women and girls 40. Human trafficking affects approximately 21 million adults and children worldwide, including 11.4 million women and girls.16 Human trafficking is a particularly egregious human rights violation and a form of gender-based violence specifically targeting girls and women for exploitation and placing them at high risk of physical and psychological abuse, trauma and disease. Systemic discrimination against women and girls, including lack of access to education, resources and employment, renders them especially vulnerable to trafficking. Trafficked women and girls are routinely subjected to confinement, severe physical and sexual abuse, humiliation and threats for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced and bonded labour and organ removal.17 These practices unequivocally amount to torture and ill-treatment (A/HRC/13/39). 41. While trafficking is perpetrated primarily by private persons, public officials actively acquiesce in or facilitate trafficking operations, for instance by accepting bribes or inducements and certifying or ignoring unlawful working conditions. 18 Furthermore, whenever States fail to exercise due diligence to protect trafficking victims from the actions of private actors, punish perpetrators or provide remedies, they are acquiescent or complicit in torture or ill-treatment (A/HRC/26/18).19 This is particularly the case whenever the conduct is systematic or recurrent such that the State knew or ought to have known of it and should have taken steps to prevent it, including criminal prosecution and punishment. 20 States must implement a combination of measures to combat trafficking, of which the duty to penalize and prosecute is just one.21 In designing measures to protect, support and rehabilitate victims of trafficking, States must consider the age, gender and special needs of victims with a view to protecting women and children from revictimization. 22 The criminalization and detention of trafficking victims for status-related offences and “protective” purposes can also amount to ill-treatment. D. Torture and ill-treatment of women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in health-care settings 42. Women are vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment when seeking medical treatment on the basis of actual or perceived non-conformity with socially determined gender roles 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 International Labour Organization, “Forced labour, human trafficking and slavery”. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Trafficking in Human Beings Amounting to Torture and other Forms of Ill-Treatment (Vienna, 2013). OHCHR, Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking (2010). See also General Assembly resolution 61/180. European Court of Human Rights, application No. 73316/01, Siliadin v. France, judgement of 26 July 2005. European Court of Human Rights, application No. 25965/04, Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia, judgement of 7 January 2010. See Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, art. 9. 11