The OSCE Alliance Conference against Trafficking in Persons calls for an end to impunity
The OSCE Alliance calls for more prosecutions against human traffickers, U.S. Customs bans imports linked to the world’s biggest manufacturer of medical gloves, and the Asia Region Anti-Trafficking Conference takes place this week.
Identifying effective ways to increase the number of prosecutions against human traffickers is the focus of the 20th high-level OSCE Alliance Conference against Trafficking in Persons, which takes place this week in Vienna and online.
The conference’s theme acknowledges that, while many countries have legislation and action plans in place to combat human trafficking, impunity remains widespread across the world, including the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) region. It is estimated that there are 25 million victims of human trafficking globally yet, according to the latest reports, just over 11,000 traffickers were prosecuted in 2019 – roughly one prosecution for every 2,154 victims.
Against this backdrop of declining prosecution rates, officials opening the conference called for action and for more investment in this area.
The meeting opened with a video message from Coco Berthmann, a survivor of human trafficking and founder and president of the Coco Berthmann Scholarship Fund, who said that, ‘Perpetrators need to understand that their actions and crimes will be punished to the full extent of the law.’ She urged conference participants to take action.
Sandër Lleshaj, Albania’s interior minister, who addressed the conference remotely from Tirana, urged participants to recognize that, ‘Confiscation of property, revenue and assets generated by or used for criminal activities remains a crucial strategy. Confiscation directly discourages criminals and can be instrumental in compensating victims and supporting their rehabilitation.’ In a video message, Tanzila Narbaeva, Chairperson of the Senate of Uzbekistan, addressed participants on the role of the judiciary: ‘The role of supreme courts is key to ensuring consistency in jurisprudence and the correct understanding and interpretation of anti-trafficking legislation by first instance and appellate [appeal] judges. Special attention should be paid to training the judiciary and law enforcement officials.’
For three days, judges, investigators, prosecutors, law and policy-makers, experts and NGO representatives from across the OSCE region will discuss both the challenges and opportunities presented by efforts to enhance investigations into and prosecutions of human trafficking, and will consider the links between the prosecution of offenders and the protection of victims before, during and after criminal proceedings. The conference will culminate in recommendations from across the OSCE region on how to make prosecution a more effective and commonly used tool in combating human trafficking.
The conference can be joined remotely via OSCE’s Facebook channel or at http://osce.org/live.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
Professor Siobhán Mullally, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, has been appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children. She previously spent a number of years on the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA), latterly as its president.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection placed a detention order on imports of products made by subsidiaries of Malaysia’s Top Glove Corp Bhd, the world’s largest medical glove maker, an action taken against firms suspected of using forced labour. And a New York Times investigation has found that China uses forced Uighur labour to manufacture PPE masks, and has traced a shipment to the US.
The United Nations has raised ‘serious concerns of structural racial discrimination against non-nationals’ in World Cup host nation Qatar, in a highly critical report that was presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council last week.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has launched the application process for the International Survivors of Trafficking Advisory Council (ISTAC). The role of the ISTAC is to provide advice, guidance and recommendations to the ODIHR, and through the ODIHR to OSCE participating states.
On Wednesday, an interactive gathering organized by the U.S. Department of State will give you the opportunity to put questions to Ambassador John Cotton Richmond about the contents of the 2020 TIP Report and global efforts to end human trafficking. Register here to join.
The Asia Region Anti-Trafficking Conference is also taking place online this week, covering a wide range of topics. Please have a look at the schedules and videos here. Translations are available in English, Khmer, Thai and Indonesian for many of the sessions.
IOM is seeking a technical expert organization to review, consolidate and strengthen existing resources and good practice, and define an international working standard that can be applied across sectors and labour migration corridors in Southeast Asia.
The USAID Asia Counter Trafficking in Persons (CTIP) project is hosting the 2020 Counter Trafficking Research Summit: From Evidence to Action virtually on 10-11 November 2020. The summit will be open to all regions – not only Asia. If you’ve conducted research which has direct and applicable findings for governments, the private sector, or civil society organizations working in counter trafficking – and you want to share it – please apply.
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