A/HRC/35/37 Conference convened by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development. She also took part in an expert group meeting on key legal concepts within the definition of trafficking in persons, convened by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 10. The Special Rapporteur, together with the Foreign Trade Association and the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, co-organized a session on labour migration and trafficking in supply chains, held during the 2016 United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights in November. The session was attended by representatives of the business community, civil society organizations and Governments. 11. On 25 November, the Special Rapporteur participated as a speaker at the high-level event entitled “New ways to tackle human trafficking for forced labour along migration routes”, organized by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, ILO, IOM, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. B. Country visits 12. The Special Rapporteur visited Kuwait from 4 to 8 September and the United States from 6 to 16 December 2016, at the invitation of the respective Governments. The reports on the visits are contained in addenda to the present report. She thanks the Governments for their cooperation prior to and during the visit. She expects to visit Brazil on a mutually convenient date agreed with the Government. She is thankful to the Government of Cuba for extending an invitation for a country visit, to be conducted from 10 to 14 April 2017. III. Strengthening voluntary standards for businesses on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and labour exploitation, especially in supply chains A. International and national normative framework 13. States have an obligation under international human rights law to protect against human rights abuses perpetrated by third parties, including business enterprises, within their territory and/or jurisdiction. States’ obligations to prevent and combat trafficking in persons are clearly established in international human rights instruments. For example, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits slavery and forced or compulsory labour (art. 8) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child imposes on States parties an obligation to take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form (art. 35). 14. Regarding the obligation of States to eliminate trafficking in persons under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, States parties are required to adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish trafficking in persons as a criminal offence (art. 5). Under the Protocol, States parties also are required to establish comprehensive policies, programmes and other measures to prevent and combat trafficking in persons (art. 9 (1) (a)). Under the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, States are requested to effectively investigate, prosecute and adjudicate trafficking, as well as to punish individuals and legal persons found guilty of trafficking by imposing effective and proportionate sanctions (principles 13 and 15). 15. Under the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, ILO member States have an obligation to respect, promote and realize the principles concerning the fundamental rights which are the subject of the relevant conventions, including the elimination of forced labour, regardless of whether they have ratified those conventions. In this regard, under the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) States 4