Rome Conference on the 25th Anniversary of the Palermo Protocol
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Pontifical Gregorian University, Piazza della Pilotta, 4, Rome
About the conference
Adopted in 2000, the Palermo Protocol is a key legal instrument in the global effort to combat human trafficking. It supplements the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, it aims to prevent, suppress, and punish human trafficking, especially of women and children. This Protocol encapsulates previous global commitments including the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, scores of International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and protocols, and others including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Over 180 countries now have domestic legislation criminalizing human trafficking and modern slavery.
Twenty-five years later, human trafficking remains widespread and is even growing. In 2023, the Global Slavery Index estimated that 50 million people are currently trafficked globally, generating over $236 billion in criminal benefit annually. The 2024 UNODC Global Report states that trafficking for forced labor, criminality, and child exploitation is increasing.
From 2019 to 2022, the number of detected trafficking victims increased by 25%. Cases of forced labor increased by 47%, and the number of child victims rose by 31%, with a 38% increase among girls. More boys were identified in regions with a high number of unaccompanied children. High- income countries also reported more cases of child trafficking, primarily for sexual exploitation.
To reflect on the Protocol’s 25th anniversary, the Sovereign Order of Malta, Praeveni Global, the Santa Marta Group, and the Pontifical Gregorian University's Institute of Anthropology will host a high-level conference in Rome on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 during the final month of the Jubilee 2025.
The conference will address practices, challenges, and strategies for improving global efforts to prevent and combat human trafficking.
The conference will address practices, challenges, and strategies for improving global efforts to prevent and combat human trafficking.
Objectives
This conference will identify:
- Action to implement concrete prevention measures (such as policy, standards, advocacy and training) and support measures (such as identifying, protecting, assisting, rehabilitating victims and survivors).
- Action to establish substantial integrated global efforts against human trafficking and modern slavery. It should complement other initiatives that aim to effectively strengthen the rule of law and become an integral part of both national and international responses to global threats - to security, public safety, and the stability of legitimate and ethical economic structures). Although human trafficking and modern slavery are often seen primarily as criminal justice issues, the rule of law encompasses a broader scope, including prevention, protection, and prosecution.
This Conference aims to promote dialogue on coordinated strategies and shared tools to combat human trafficking at every stage. It will also work to promote increased support for government and civil society organizations actively engaged in this effort.
Key priorities include:
- Raising awareness and changing attitudes through education, advocacy, and strategic communication, to reduce tolerance for exploitation and empower communities to act.
- Strengthening prevention systems.
- Early identification and intervention for individuals and groups at heightened risk, withtargeted outreach and protective measures.
- Guaranteeing protection, rights, and recovery for victims and survivors during and after exploitation, including safe reporting channels, access to justice, long-term assistance, rehabilitation, reintegration and reparation.
- Ending impunity through effective prosecution and accountability, ensuring perpetrators and complicit actors face justice, while dismantling the economic and financial structures that enable trafficking and modern slavery.
These priorities are designed to reinforce one another and drive systemic change. Together, they aim not only to respond to exploitation but also to create conditions for its prevention and eventual eradication at international, regional, and national levels.
Energize and encourage responses to dramatically increase prevention efforts and improve integrated support for victims, survivors, and the organizations that serve them, and to advance the elimination of human trafficking and modern slavery worldwide.
Strengthen collaboration through integrated responses across the entire trafficking continuum, from prevention and prosecution to post-exploitation recovery and reparation.
Promote comprehensive national action plans that foster a global network engaging key government and civil society actors to amplify prevention and response to human trafficking and modern slavery.