| 1. ASEAN agrees Declaration Against Trafficking
in Persons
On 29 November 2004, the Governments of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam, which are the members of the Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN), signed a declaration against trafficking
in persons, especially women and children.
The Declaration acknowledges that social, economic and other
factors that cause people to migrate also make them vulnerable
to trafficking and reaffirms ASEAN's "desire to embrace
the spirit behind the UN Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime and its relevant protocols". Among
other things the Governments commit themselves to: establishing
a regional focal network to prevent and combat trafficking in
persons; sharing information on relevant migratory flows, trends
and patterns, strengthening of border controls and monitoring
mechanisms; and undertaking actions to respect and safeguard
the dignity and human rights of genuine victims of trafficking
in persons.
2. UN approves new resolutions on migrants
The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted two
resolutions on migrants in November 2004. The first (A/C.3/59/L.31)
is on the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families
and the second (A/C.3/59/L.51) is on the protection of migrants.
The second resolution strongly condemns manifestations and acts
of racism and calls on all states to consider revising immigration
policies with a view to eliminating all discriminatory practices
against migrants and their families. It also urges states to:
prosecute violations of labour law regarding conditions of work
of migrant workers; remove obstacles that may prevent the safe
and expeditious transfer of earnings and other assets of migrants
to their country of origin; adopt effective measures to end
the arbitrary arrest and detention of migrants; and enact domestic
legislation to combat the
international trafficking and smuggling of migrants.
The International Catholic Migration Commission and December
18, with support from UNESCO, engaged in a research
project to study whether governments extend the protection of
the international treaties they have ratified to migrants workers
by reviewing the country specific conclusions and recommendations
issued by bodies of experts tasked with supervising the implementation
of these conventions.
3. High Commissioner calls for new approach
to trafficking
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise
Arbour, has stated that many states still take a law-and-order
approach to trafficking, prosecuting trafficked people as illegal
aliens and undocumented workers rather than seeing them as victims
of crimes. She stressed that the root causes of trafficking
are development issues such as poverty, inequality, food insecurity
and migration. See
further details.
4. Recommendations published from conference
to stop child trafficking
The final declaration of the Stop Child Trafficking Conference,
held in Osnabrück, Germany, 2-4 November 2004, is available
on Terre
des Hommes' website.
5. Trafficked women and children abducted
from NGO shelter in Cambodia
On 8 December 2004, some 90 trafficked women and children were
abducted from a rehabilitation shelter in Phnom Penh where they
were being assisted by the Cambodian NGO, AFESIP (Agir Pour
Les Femmes En Situation Précaire). See US
State Department's press statement on the attack.
6. UK developments on trafficking
The UK Government has said that it will be in a position to
ratify the UN Protocol on trafficking once it has amended legislation
in order to "allow the execution of foreign requests for
the seizure of instrumentalities". This will be done through
the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill.
A Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Nigeria was
signed on 17 November with a view to improving bilateral co-operation
to tackle humantrafficking and to better protect the victims.
The UK Solicitor General, Harriet Harman, said "Human trafficking
is nothing less than modern day slavery. Our starting point
must be that those who are trafficked are victims. It is not
us who need protecting from them, but they who need protecting
from the traffickers."
7. Migration conference in Kazakhstan underlines
significant emigration
On 30 November, a comprehensive
conference on migration opened in the Kazakh commercial
capital, Almaty. Information showed that there had been a negative
migration balance for Central Asia's largest state of more than
two million people since 1991.
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