This week, 20 years ago, the global community adopted the world’s first international law on trafficking in persons. Its adoption followed damning cases of peacekeeper and humanitarian involvement in trafficking rings during the Balkans wars of the 1990s. Today, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons is almost universally ratified, symbolic of our collective will to eradicate the sale and exploitation of human beings. Despite 20 years of progress, the devastating social and economic shocks induced by COVID-19 mark our greatest challenge to combating trafficking. As we observe the 20th anniversary of the Protocol, the Global Protection Cluster is taking stock of the humanitarian Protection communities’ anti-trafficking response and how we can improve. Trafficking in persons remains the single largest rights violation exacerbated in times of crisis in which the humanitarian community does not have a predictable, at-scale way to respond. This must change.