Centre for Feminist Legal Research
Digital Library
Migration & Trafficking
Reports
The
European Commission, Report of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human
Beings, 22nd December 2004 aims to strengthen EU action against trafficking
in human beings, and where appropriate, to launch new initiatives,
programmes and activities. This report contains concrete proposals on
the implementation of the recommendations of the Brussels Declaration.
The report follows the structure of the Brussels Declaration and consists
off three major parts focusing on prevention, victim assistance and
protection, and on law enforcement aspects. There are two major themes
which run throughout this report, firstly, the need to integrate a human
rights perspective to address trafficking, and secondly, the need for a
multi disciplinary and integrated approach.
European
initiatives to combat trafficking led to the Draft Council of Europe
Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (“European
Trafficking Convention”), which contains law enforcement as well as victim
protection provisions, and applies to all forms of trafficking. The
Convention is divided into ten chapters and covers a broad range of
measures, namely: (i) purposes, scope, non discrimination principle and
definitions (ii) prevention, co-operation and other measures, (iii) measures
to protect and promote the rights of victims, taking gender equality into
consideration (iv) substantive criminal law, (v) investigation, prosecution
and procedural law, (vi) international co-operation and co-operation with
the civil society (vii) monitoring mechanism (viii) relationship with other
international instruments (ix) amendments to the convention, and (x) final
clauses.
The
Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was
held in Yokohama, Japan from 17- 20 December 2001. Theme papers on
Child Pornography, Prevention, Protection and Recovery, Private Sector, The
Sex Exploiter, Child Sexual Exploitation and the Law, and Trafficking in
Children have been reproduced to update understanding of the major themes
associated with commercial child sexual exploitation. These theme
papers were prepared as background reading. These papers were
sponsored by, but do not necessarily reflect the institutional views of
individual Congress co-sponsors.
The
Brussels Declaration was prepared in the spirit of contributions submitted
in the European Conference on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human
Beings held from 18-20 September 2002. This is one of the earliest and
the most comprehensive documents outlining recommendations to governments on
dealing with trafficking in human beings. The Declaration outlines
specific prevention and victim assistance recommendations, focusing on root
causes, research, training, awareness raising, immediate victim assistance,
and victim re-integration. The vast majority of recommendations in the
Brussels Declaration deal with trafficking of adults, and one paragraph is
devoted to specific recommendations to prevent the trafficking of children.
In
2003, UNICEF developed Guidelines for Protection of the Rights of Children
Victims of Trafficking in Southeastern Europe, May 2003. The
Guidelines urge the adoption of specific measures dealing with a wide range
of issues, from identification of child victims of trafficking to care and
protection, to training of personnel working with children. The following
guidelines set out standards for good practice with respect to protection
and assistance of child victims of trafficking from initial identification
up until the final integration and recovery of the child. They aim to
provide guidance to Governments and State actors, international
organizations and NGOs, in developing procedures for special protection
measures of child victims of trafficking. Child trafficking is defined
as ‘the act of recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation either within or outside
a country.’
