The fight against trafficking has developed over the past century. It was the central political issue of the European women's movement of the 20th century. The author of the first mention of prostitution was the Austrian Jewish women's rights activist Bertha Papenheim. Although it is almost 100 years old it still sounds like current news:

"Viewing the products that the Moloch prostitution needs and engulfs, one can notice a frightening number of girls from countries of the east that fall victim by becoming products for prostitution around the world, even to brothels in Japan. The cause for it is found mostly in the economic emergencies of the population in Russia, Galicia, and Romania. That the economic distress plays a main role in issue is out of question. The spiritual emergency seems (…) a much larger and infinitely more fatal one.
The disrespect of women's human rights that is found in this double moral, reduces them to mere products."

So the trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation is not a new phenomenon and international laws were drafted and ratified in the earlier half of the century.

In 1949, the United Nations General Assembly passed the Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The most important convention states that "prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and endanger the welfare of the individual, the family and the community." Although the convention was not widely ratified and did not create a monitoring body, its spirit was by all means characterised by its moral damnation of prostitution.

Remarkably, only 44 years later, a normative foundation appeared: the UN World Conference on Human Rights 1993 in Vienna, the first international document, which contains the formulation "women's rights are human rights".

In Germany, traffic in women was first recognized as a social issue in 1980. Initially, there was the dispute concerning the new phenomenon of migration for the purpose of marriage leading to prostitution. Women's projects were developed in order to establish measures to prevent and prosecute trafficking for the purpose of prostitution and to improve the situation of the victims. For a long time, political regulations by the government were neglected, e.g. those regarding alien law and the criminal code. Public prosecution usually only led to the deportation of the victims of trafficking. Only in 1992, the government changed § 181 of the criminal code concerning trafficking in persons. This led to public prosecution but disregarded the situation of trafficked women, who are of prime interest to the women's projects.
In the mid 1990's a political re-evaluation of independently organised women's projects and NGOs took place. State institutions recognised the value of cooperation with those projects, whose expertise and knowledge were in demand.
In 1997, the nation-wide Working Group on Trafficking in Women was founded. It developed multidisciplinary strategies and measures across the relevant authorities, not just for the prevention and combating of trafficking in women but also for the protection of victims.
With independent women's projects gaining political acceptance on national and international levels, there are increasing hopes that the interests of the trafficked women can be represented more effectively In December 2000 the UN adopted an international convention against organized crime that includes a Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. The protocol is the most comprehensive international counter-trafficking instrument to date. Regrettably, only six nations have ratified the convention, and only four nations have ratified the protocol, out of the 40 ratifications needed. Germany has already signed this convention and will now ratify it.

In September 18-20 2002 European Conference on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings was held in Brussels with the following topics to discuss about:

• European Union Policies and outlook on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings
• Prevention of Trafficking
• Victims Protection and Assistance
• Judicial Cooperation
• Revision of the "Brussels Declaration".

Participants were government officials of member states and candidate member states, European Parliament, Europol, IOM and UN. It was a big success to bring together such an amount of high-ranking people to discuss the problem. Undoubtedly the most rapid possible ratification and implementation of the United Nations Conventions against Trans-national Organised Crime and its supplementing Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children is of particular importance and should serve as a basis for all future actions in the field of counter trafficking.
However, the Brussels Declaration fundamentally continues to assert State needs of investigation, prosecution and border control, rather than truly being grounded in human rights.