| 1. US Trafficking Victims Protection
Act reauthorised
On 15 December, the US House of Representatives unanimously
passed a Bill to reauthorise the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act. The Bill was first approved in 2000 and strengthened
in 2003. If the legislation is passed by the US Senate, it
will grant state and local law enforcement agencies funds to
investigate and prosecute consumers of sex services, brothel
owners and pimps.
2. Combating trafficking in children --
priority of Austria's EU presidency
The Austrian Interior Minister Liese Prokop announced at a
press conference to the start of the Austrian presidency of
the EU, that combating international trade in children will be
one of the priorities of their presidency. This follows
the UK presidency under which the EU plan on best practices,
standards and procedures for combating and preventing trafficking
in human being was drafted.
3. International Migrant's Rights Day
International Migrant's Rights Day on 18 December also
marked the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of their Families. As the UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan pointed out, to date only 34 states have ratified
or acceded to the Convention. He also urged those states that
have not done so to become parties to this treaty.
On the occasion of the International Migrant's Day, the Global
Guest Workers Programme was discussed. The present models of
these programmes are seen as problematic, since they contribute
to comodification of the migrant labour force. Furthermore,
guest worker models that tie the workers' right to stay and
work in a given country to a specific employment and employer
make the workers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
4. Kazakhstan ratifies the UN Convention
On 14 December 2005, the Kazakh president
Nursultan A Nazarbayev
signed a law ratifying
the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, committing Kazakhstan to put in place adequate anti-trafficking measures.
5. New publications
The American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian
Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) published a Human
Trafficking Assessment Tool (available here as a PDF file,
see bottom of page about reading PDF files).
The material is based on the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
and the relevant provisions of its host convention, the UN
Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The International Labour Organization published two studies on human trafficking involving
people originating from Eastern Europe. The first one focuses
on trafficking
for forced labour from Moldova, the second on trafficking
of migrants from the Ukraine.
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