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1. Council of Europe Convention to enter
into force in February 2008
On 24 October 2007, the Council of Europe Convention
on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings received the10th
ratification necessary for the treaty to enter into force. The
Convention will enter into force on 1 February 2008. At the
moment, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark,
Georgia, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia have ratified the Convention.
The countries that ratified the Convention will be subject
to monitoring of the Group of Experts on action Against Trafficking
in Human Beings (GRETA), a specialist body to oversee the implementation.
From 8-9 November 2007, the Council of Europe organised a conference
to share their views on the monitoring mechanism with member
states, international bodies, as well as NGOs, such as Anti-Slavery
International, La Strada International and Amnesty International.
On the occasion of the conference, Canada, one of the non-European
member states was urged to ratify the Convention to ensure its
global impacts.
2. EU Anti-Trafficking Day
The European Commission has declared 18 October an annual
anti-trafficking day and organised an inaugural conference in
Brussels. The event is entitled Trafficking
in Human Beings – Time for Action.
Two new documents were presented at the conference: the EU
Experts Group on trafficking in human beings presented a set
of indicators to evaluate policies, with the aim of enhancing
national policies' effectiveness of their anti-trafficking efforts.
The Commission also presented a set of recommendations on victim
identification and assistance.
An NGO Statement, initiated by La Strada International and
endorsed by a number of European and international organisations
was presented at the plenary session of the conference.
A
copy of the statement is available (this is available here
as a PDF file, see bottom of page about reading
PDF files) and more
information about the conference.
3. Coalition of Immokalee Workers to receive
the 2007 Anti-Slavery Award
Anti-Slavery International is delighted to announce that the
winner of the 2007 Anti-Slavery Award is the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (CIW) for their exceptional contribution towards tackling
modern-day slavery in the United States' agricultural industry.
The CIW is a worker-led community organisation based in Florida,
which works with farm workers trafficked into forced labour,
the majority of whom are from Mexico and Central America. They
uncover and investigate cases of slavery whilst raising awareness
of forced labour practises amongst the farm worker community.
CIW will be presented the award on 21 November 2007 at the TUC
Congress in London.
See
for more information.
4. Hotline for Migrant Workers awarded for
their work
The Hotline for Migrant Workers was awarded for Exemplary Contributions
at the Sderot Conference for Society.
The Hotline for Migrant workers was established in Israel in
1998 with the aim to promote rights of undocumented migrant
workers and to eliminate trafficking in persons.
5. Child marriages and trafficking reported
rising in India
A
survey conducted in West Bengal found that a growing awareness
against dowry is fuelling the incidence of child marriage and
trafficking.
Ishita Mukhopadhyay, the Director of the Women’s Studies
Research Centre at the Calcutta University that conducted the
study, said: “we found that the traffickers approach
the villagers in the guise of grooms without any dowry demand
and lure them into marrying of even minor girls.”
6. Trafficked persons to be able to press
charges anonymously in the
Netherlands
A new law is currently being drafted in the Netherlands
to enable victims of trafficking to press charges anonymously.
For two years there is a possibility to report a suspicion of
trafficking anonymously through a special hotline. Albeit the
reports from this hot-line cannot at the moment be used as evidence
in front of court. After the new law has been enacted, it will
be possible for a trafficked person to remain anonymous in criminal
proceeding. The victim’s personal details would only be
known to the police, the prosecutor and the court.
7. New publications and resources
GAATW published a report: Collateral
Damage. The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights
around the World. Exploring the experiences of eight
countries across five continents, this new research analyses
the impacts of anti-trafficking policies and practice on the
people living, working and migrating within and across borders.
The report considers the experiences of Australia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Thailand, the United Kingdom
and the United States of America.The aim of the report is to
contribute towards filling the lacuna in critical evaluations
of policy and practice in the field of anti-trafficking.
ICMPD (International Centre for Migration Policy Development)
published a
training guide and a background reader for frontline law enforcement
officers.
TUC UK published a study New
EU Members? Migrant Workers' Challenges and Opportunities to
UK Trades Unions: a Polish and Lithunian Case Study
(this is available here as a PDF file, see bottom of page about
reading PDF files). This report reveals that thousands of
Polish and Lithuanian workers are being exploited at work in
the UK.
ICMPD published a Training
Material for Judges and Prosecutors in EU
Member States and Accession and Candidate Countries
which was developed within the framework of the EU AGIS Project.
8. Events
London, UK, 10-11 December 2007 Council
of Europe Regional Seminar on Action against Trafficking in
Human Beings.
Barcelona, Spain, 10-12 December 2007 OSCE/ODIHR Workshop on
Compensating Trafficked and Exploited Persons.
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