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1. Mekong governments sign trafficking agreement
On 29 October 2004, a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU), available here as a PDF file, (see bottom of page
about reading PDF files), was officially
signed in Burma by ministerial representatives from Cambodia,
China, Lao, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. This agreement acknowleges
the importance of using the proceeds of assets confiscated from
traffickers to benefit victims and welcomes bilateral agreements
which promote safe and well regulated migration as this will
reduce opportunities for traffickers.
The governments commit themselves to: ensuring that those identified
as trafficked are not held in detention and that they are provided
with shelter, and appropriate physical, psycho-social, legal,
educational and health care assistance; reducing the vulnerability
to trafficking (e.g. through poverty reduction and improving
access to economic and education opportunities); and applying
national labour laws to protect the rights of all workers based
on the principles of non-discrimination and equality. The governments
will also agree a Sub-Regional Plan of Action, which is action-oriented
follow-up under the framework of the MOU. For more information
see the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the
Greater Mekong Sub-region website at: http://www.no-trafficking.org
2. UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking
considers mandate
At a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on 29 October,
Sigma Huda, the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons,
especially women and children, stressed that the human rights
of trafficked persons should be at the centre of all efforts
to combat trafficking and that her framework for action had
been shaped by the UN High Commissioner's
Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and
Human Trafficking. She said that she would seek to broaden
the debate on trafficking from a human rights perspective, examining
its forced labour and slavery-like aspects and locating it in
the larger context of migration and development.
Her activities, reports and recommendations will be aimed at
providing advice on human rights policy and action related to
human trafficking. She will pay particular attention to identifying
special measures to prevent trafficking of children and protecting
children affected by trafficking. She is also concerned that
trafficked people are often being treated as offenders under
current international mechanisms and believes that victims of
trafficking should not be treated as illegal migrants without access to legal aid and
counselling.
The Special Rapporteur on trafficking is mandated to make recommendations
on ways to uphold the rights of trafficked persons and can respond
to reports on possible human rights violations with a view to
protecting the actual or potential victims of trafficking. For
more details go to: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/gashc3795.doc.htm
3. Discussion of European Convention against
trafficking continues
The Council of Europe's drafting committee for its proposed
Convention on trafficking (CAHTEH) will meet again from 7-10
December 2004, in Strasbourg, France. The preamble, non-punishment
clauses, treaty monitoring mechanism and other issues will be
discussed and the final text should be adopted at the end of
the meeting. The Conveniton will then be sent to the Council
of Europe's Committee of Ministers for approval.
Many thanks to all of you who signed the Joint NGO Statement
on the draft Convention (169 organisations from 30 countries
have signed). We urge interested organistions to continue raising
awareness about the Convention and to lobby their respective
governments to ensure that the Convention properly protects
trafficked people. The October version of the Draft Council
of Europe Convention on trafficking; proposals from Anti-Slavery
International and Amnesty International for strengthening the
Convention; and the joint NGO statement on the Convention are
all available on Anti-Slavery
International's website.
4. Migrant Convention gets more support
in 2004
The November issue of Migrant News includes information on
the status of 1990 UN Convention on migrant workers which was
signed by seven new states during 2004.
The issue also looks at calls by Members of the European Parliament
(MEPs) that the justice and home affiars agenda for 2004-2008
(Tampere II process) should focus on immigration and asylum.
Specifically the MEPs called for: more legal migration avenues
and the adoption of common policies on combating illegal immigration,
clandestine employment and trafficking in human beings; measures
and funding for the social, cultural and political integration
of migrants; common standards of protection for repatriated
persons; and a common asylum procedure. For these stories and
more go to: http://www.december18.net/web/docpapers/doc1854.doc
5. European Commission presents handbook
on integration
On 10 November, the European Commission presented the first
edition of the European Handbook on Integration. The
handbook was produced by an independent expert in close co-operation
with the network of national contact points on integration created
by the Commission. It contains good practice and lessons learned
from the 25 member states of the EU and its aim is to promote
co-operation at the European level on integration by facilitating
the exchange of experience and information. The handbook can
be downloaded from the European
Commission website.
6. Other web resources on trafficking and
migration
The Academy for Educational Development in Washington, DC is
managing a website (http://www.Humantrafficking.org)
which will provide news on current trafficking issues (including
events, publications, NGO and government information, good practice
models) focusing on East Asia and the Pacific and the United
States. The website will be updated weekly and the HumanTrafficking.org
newsletter will highlight new additions to the website. For
more information go to: http://www.HumanTrafficking.org
To sign up for the e-newsletter go to: http://www.humantrafficking.org/newsletter/
The October 2004 issue of the Vital
Voices Trafficking Alert features an article on whether
sanctions should be used to counter human trafficking in the
light of the US Administration's decision in September to impose
non-humanitarian and non-trade related sanctions on Burma, Cuba,
Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Sudan, and Venezuela for failing
to make sufficient
efforts to counter human trafficking in their countries. This
issue also looks at anti-trafficking projects in Hungary, India
and Ukraine. For more details go to:
The papers and some speeches from the presidency conference
on Future EU Co-operation in the Field of Asylum, Migration
and Frontiers, held from 31 August to 3 September 2004 in
Amsterdam, are available on the website
of the Migration Policy Institute
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