A Jurisprudential and Legal Analysis of Combating against Female Trafficking with a Glance at the Relevant International Documents

In modern societies, female trafficking has taken an organized and systematic form and has found a global spread. This process of global spread, together with an increase in the smuggling due to the economical issue of poverty are among the elements that play a role in female trafficking, resulting in sex slavery and prostitution, while at the same time it takes human dignity and moral heath at a serious risk. As a result, this offence results in social, cultural and moral repercussions in different societies. With a comparative approach, the present study reviews this problem from a legal and jurisprudential point of view, taking a look at the Iranian rules and regulations as well as the relevant international documents. Following some international developments, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol or UN TIP Protocol) was rarified by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000. Meanwhile, reports of women and children from Iran having trafficked to some neighboring countries caused the Act against Human Trafficking to be rarified quickly in Iran in 2005 (1383 a. h.). The present study has an attempt to show that the Iranian legislator has merely taken penal measures, while it has neglected preventive and suppressive ones. It has even neglected the relevant policies. This is while the international documents not only penalize this kind of smuggling; they also take non-criminal, preventive measures as well.