On 15 November 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention Against Organized Crime, which came into force on 23 September 2003. To supplement the Convention, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, also known as the “Palermo Protocol,” was adopted. The Palermo Protocol defines “Trafficking in Persons” as: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control of another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.” The Palermo Protocol further specifies that the use of any of the means described above renders any consent on the part of the victim irrelevant, and that the recruitment, transportation, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purposes of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if none of the means described are employed