Month/year	Theme and Author	Read contents
May 3, 2007	Child Pornography and Human Trafficking: Cancun's Dark Side , by Heather Gehlert, published in AlterNet: The Mix is the Message, Rights and Liberties, A conversation with human rights activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro on the coastal city's violence and abuses -- and her lifelong mission to combat them	Read
April 23, 2007	Global fight against trafficking of human beings aspects and issues LINKS & RESOURCES Agency of Global Police	Read

It is estimated that more than 700,000 people a year fall victim to the phenomenon. The proliferation of the problem is directly linked to immigration policies and to the economic and social crises in certain States and regions of the world. Trafficking is facilitated by the complications of international judicial and police cooperation. Trafficking in human beings concerns all individuals but essentially affects women and children. Victims are taken in by enticing job offers or promises of a better life. They are quickly taken in hand by traffickers, brought into the Global Community illegally or with forged identity documents, and then forced to engage in activities that are highly lucrative for those who exploit them: work in illegal workshops, erotic shows, prostitution and begging. They are often beaten and raped to break their resistance or to deter them from denouncing the traffickers. Trafficking often has ties with organised crime. The Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, defines trafficking as 'the recruitment, transport, 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 over 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.

Trafficking is a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the Global Constitution: the right to dignity, the right to physical and mental integrity, the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the prohibition of slavery and forced labour. The Charter expressly states that trafficking in human beings is prohibited. A coordinated response by the many different players is needed to tackle this tglobal phenomenon.

The different actions being taken to combat trafficking fall into two categories:

• Legislative actions, and
• Operational actions.
  

The phenomenon of trafficking has always existed. To end what used to be known as the white slave trade several international conventions were adopted in the first half of the 20th century. They were subsequently replaced by the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, of 2 December 1949, which punishes any person who:

• procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person,
• exploits the prostitution of another person.

Parliament proposes provisions for the protection of victims of trafficking in human beings, in particular:

• the possibility of confidential legal proceedings,
• legal, medical, material and psychological assistance,
• the grant of a residence permit,
• repatriation to the country of origin.

It urges States:

• to establish policies, programmes and measures to protect victims of trafficking in persons against further victimisation and to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, especially through information and mass media campaigns,
• to take measures to alleviate the factors that make persons vulnerable to trafficking, such as poverty, underdevelopment and lack of equal opportunity.

 

Global fight against trafficking of human beings: aspects and issues

LINKS & RESOURCES

INTER GOVERNMENTAL RESOURCES:

International Labour Organization (IPEC): http://www.ilo.org/public/english

International Organization of Migration: (IOM) http://www.iom.int

Trafficking in Human Persons: http://www.interpol.int/Public/THB/default.asp

OSCE Office of Democratic Institute of Human Rights (ODIHR): http://www.osce.org/

UNITED NATIONS:

UN Divison for the Advancement of Women (DAW): http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/daw/index.html

UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/

UN Commission on the Status of Women: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/index.html

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM): http://www.undp.org/unifem/

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): http://www.ohchr.org/english/

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS:

Kvinnoforum, Sweden: http://www.qweb.kvinnoforum.se

National Organization for Battered Women's Shelters in Sweden: http://www.roks.se/index.html

Qweb Worldwide Network on Women's Health and Gender Issues: http://www.qweb.kvinnoforum.se

Violence Against Women and Sexual Exploitation - Papers by Dr. Donna Hughes: http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/pubvio.htm

Global Survival Network: http://www.ilhr.org/ilhr/reports/traffic/

Network of East-West Women (NEWW): http://www.neww.org/

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women http://www.catwinternational.org/

ECPAT International http://www.ecpat.net/eng/index.asp

Anti-Slavery http://www.antislavery.org/

LEGISLATION:

The International Convention against Transnational Organized Crime http://www.undcp.org/crime_cicp_convention.html

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm

Fourth World Conference on Women Platform for Action http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/plat1.htm

Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing Declaration http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/declar.htm

 

Report 1

 

Report 2

 

Report 3

 

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