WUNRN
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons - 30 July 2015
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Video Animation: https://vimeo.com/38283654
Not For Sale-Shadow
Animation Against Trafficking-Video
Martin|Williams Agency won a
CLIO in the animation category for this commercial Donna Drewick produced on
behalf of CRASH+SUES for the Not For Sale Campaign, an international movement
to abolish slavery.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true&LangID=E
“Fighting Human Trafficking Is Not Just about Law
Enforcement” – UN Expert
GENEVA (28 July 2015) – Speaking ahead of World Day Against
Trafficking in Persons, United Nations human rights expert Maria Grazia
Giammarinaro calls for sweeping changes in policy and on perception of
trafficking. Fighting trafficking is not just about law enforcement, the
Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children
reminds governments across the world.
“After more than a decade of efforts aimed at combatting trafficking in
persons, we have to recognize that results are still modest. The vast majority
of trafficked persons -not less than 20 million people globally- are not
recognized as such, and as a result do not have access to justice and remedies.
Trafficking means extreme exploitation -often in slavery-like
conditions- of women, men and children who are socially vulnerable, mostly due
to their being undocumented migrants. To tackle these gross human rights
violations, a policy shift is needed, and the same perception of trafficking in
persons should change.
So far, trafficking has been considered mostly a law enforcement issue.
Today, we should look at trafficking as an economic and social issue, linked
with global trends including migration. Therefore prevention is key.
To prevent trafficking in persons, national authorities should deal with
a broader area of exploitation, in the sex industry, in agriculture, fishery,
domestic work, garments, and the tourist industry.
Governments and the private sector must prevent and combat exploitation
wherever and whenever it takes place, especially when migrant workers are
involved, and tackle the driving factors of exploitation. Among them, one of
the most powerful is the lack of regular channels for migration.
In that regard, policy coherence is essential: the fight against
trafficking is incompatible with restrictive migration policies that place
people in a situation of irregularity and vulnerability to exploitation and
trafficking.
Furthermore, within mixed migration flows, an increasing number of people
migrate to flee from conflict and crisis areas. Better international
cooperation is needed to ensure that people entitled to international
protection are offered a viable solution in one of their preferred countries.
However, in the current situation, asylum seekers and refugees are
amongst the most vulnerable migrants, often exposed to the risk of trafficking,
including children traveling alone, women and girls who are raped during the
journey and exploited in prostitution at destination, men, women and children
obliged to accept inhuman working conditions to survive.
This is the policy shift which is much needed today: to prevent
trafficking and to protect trafficked persons’ rights, it is necessary to
protect the rights of all migrants, and of all vulnerable people, be them
foreigners or nationals.
Once someone is recognized as being subjected to exploitation and/or
trafficking, she/he should have immediate access to legal counseling,
healthcare, and tailored forms of assistance, in order to be able to claim
their rights.
These opportunities should be given without any condition. No legal
requirements should be established which actually denies exploited and
trafficked persons their right to access justice and remedies.
Trafficking - as in the case of historical slavery - takes place because
enormous economic interests lie behind exploitation of the global poor.
However, this can be stopped, if people of good will - both powerful people and
simple citizens - feel that trafficking is morally and socially unacceptable,
and take action against exploitation, injustice, and human rights violations.”
Maria Grazia Giammarinaro (Italy)
was appointed as Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women
and children by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2014, to promote the
prevention of trafficking in persons in all its forms, and to encourage
measures to uphold and protect the human rights of victims. Ms. Giammarinaro
has been a Judge since 1991 and currently serves as a Pre-Trial Judge at the
Criminal Court of Rome. She was the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for
Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the OSCE, and served in the European
Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security in Brussels,
where she was responsible for combating human trafficking and sexual
exploitation of children. She drafted the EU Directive on preventing and
combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims.
Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Trafficking/Pages/TraffickingIndex.aspx
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special
Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of
independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the
Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address
either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the
world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN
staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any
government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
For more information and media requests, please contact
Nathalie Stadelmann (+41 22 917 9104 / nstadelmann@ohchr.org)
or write to srtrafficking@ohchr.org