A/HRC/29/38 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 26/8. It outlines the activities of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children and contains a thematic analysis of the Special Rapporteur’s vision of her mandate. II. Activities carried out by the Special Rapporteur A. Participation in conferences and consultations 2. On 8 October 2014 in Vienna, the Special Rapporteur was part of a panel on the theme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issue paper on the key concept of consent, held on the margins of the seventh session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention against International Organized Crime. 3. On 24 November 2014 in Vienna, she made a statement during the launch of the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014. 4. On 10 and 11 December 2014 in Geneva, she took part in a panel discussion on addressing the drivers of irregular migration through a comprehensive approach, during the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Dialogue on Protection Challenges: Protection at Sea. 5. On 13 March 2015 in Geneva, she addressed the twenty-eighth session of the annual meeting of the International Coordination Committee of National Human Rights Institutions for the protection of human rights. B. Country visits 6. The Special Rapporteur visited Malaysia from 23 to 28 February 2015, at the invitation of the Government. The report on the visit is contained in the addendum to the present report. She thanks the Government for its cooperation prior to and during the visit. III. Emerging trends and challenges A. Trafficking in persons and economic trends 7. Trafficking in persons, especially women and children, is a gross human rights violation. It is also a lucrative crime that generates US$150.2 billion per year in illegal profits.1 The flow of trafficking in persons evolves with the changing socioeconomic realities of society and traffickers adapt their modus operandi accordingly. 8. In the age of globalization, trafficking in persons cannot be examined in isolation from the broader socioeconomic realities that drive it, nor should it be tackled only from a criminal perspective. Factors such as poverty and inequality, lack of educational opportunity and access to health care, gender discrimination, including gender-based 1 International Labour Office, Profits and Poverty: the Economics of Forced Labour (2014), p. 13. 5