As we enter a new year, we do so having recently marked a significant milestone in the global fight against human trafficking: the 25th anniversary of both the UN Palermo Protocol and the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Adopted in 2000, these two frameworks reshaped how governments understand, prevent, and respond to modern slavery. Yet anniversaries are not only moments of celebration—they are moments of reckoning. A quarter-century on, trafficking persists at a devastating scale, and hard-won progress is increasingly fragile.
Today, an estimated 50 million people are living in modern slavery worldwide, generating more than USD 236 billion in criminal profits each year. The question before us in this new year is not whether these frameworks are important—they are—but whether governments have the political will to uphold and strengthen them now.
The Palermo Protocol: global consensus, uneven action
The Palermo Protocol established the first internationally agreed definition of human trafficking and set minimum standards for prevention, protection, and prosecution. On its 25th anniversary, Church leaders, UN experts, and civil society gathered in Rome to reflect on its impact—and its limits.
Underscoring the urgency of translating law into action, Vatican News reports:
Twenty-five years after the adoption of the Palermo Protocol… human trafficking remains widespread and is even expanding.
Mama Fatima Singateh, UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children, emphasized the importance of grassroots engagement. She explained that Churches, as a local presence in communities, like all institutions, contribute to “not only empowerment, but also building capacity… providing financial but also moral support in order to tackle this problem.”
Significantly, Singateh stresses that meaningful anti-trafficking work must go beyond policy statements to sustained, community-based investment. And what the human cost of inaction is:
I speak to survivors every day, and it breaks my heart. But I know that my voice is a very powerful voice to speak for them… and to influence policy that would ensure their protection.
Her words reflect a core truth of the Palermo Protocol: its success depends on whether states center survivors not just in rhetoric, but in resources.
The TVPA at 25: progress at risk
In the United States, the TVPA established a survivor-centered approach rooted in the “3Ps”: prevention, protection, and prosecution. As Aram A. Schvey writes in the DC Journal,
Before the TVPA, human trafficking existed in a legal gray zone. Law enforcement did not consistently prosecute cases, and the justice system often retraumatized victims, sometimes treating them as criminals — arrested for prostitution or immigration violations — while their exploiters operated with near impunity.
The law created vital protections—specialized visas, access to housing and medical care, and a civil right of action—that survivors rely on to rebuild their lives. Schvey states that the TVPA positioned the US as a global leader through the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, pressuring governments worldwide to improve their responses.
But this leadership is now under threat. Schvey warns that recent cuts to the State Department’s TIP Office “couldn’t come at a worse time,” stating that:
Any perception that America is retreating from anti-trafficking leadership invites global backsliding. Countries that have strengthened laws and enforcement under US pressure may view these cuts as permission to deprioritize trafficking, leaving millions more vulnerable to exploitation.
As trafficking tactics evolve—through online exploitation, cyber-scam compounds, and migration-related vulnerabilities—US disinvestment signals a dangerous retreat at a moment when stronger action is needed.
What this anniversary demands of us
Taken together, the anniversaries of the Palermo Protocol and the TVPA tell a clear story: strong legal frameworks matter, but they are only as effective as the funding, institutions, and political commitment behind them. Going into this new year, reflection must give way to action—especially action that prioritizes survivor services.
If the last 25 years taught us anything, it’s that progress is not inevitable. And that’s why we fight for it.
One fight that you can take up right now is demanding the Department of Justice restore the $88 million in grant funding dedicated to emergency services for trafficking survivors—funding that provides safe housing, medical care, and trauma-informed support when survivors need it most.
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