Opening remarks by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Mrs. Maria Grazia Gimmarinaro at the Sixth session of the Working Group on the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, November 2015, Vienna

Sixth session of the Working Group on the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

16 November 2015, 10 am -1 pm

Vienna, Austria

Excellences,
Distinguished delegates and Members of the Working Group
Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, let me say a few words of solidarity regarding tragedies recently occurred in different countries.
Permettez moi de m’addresser particulierment a la delegation de la France dans ce jour de deuil national, pour dire mon sense d’horreur suite aux  attentats de Vendredi soir, que je ressent d’autant plus que Paris est ma deuxieme maison. Je souhaite exprimer ma tristesse, ma compassion et ma solidarite’ envers ceux qui ont perdu un etre cher.

Excellencies, Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

I welcome the sixth session of the Working Group on the Protocol to prevent, supress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, which provides an opportunity to facilitate the implementation of the Trafficking in persons Protocol through the exchange of experience and practices between experts, practitioners and State parties.

A stronger implementation of the Protocol is crucial to achieve better results in the struggle against trafficking.  

Based also on data coming from the UN Global Report on trafficking, which indicate that impunity still prevails, I would like to raise a concern and sound an alarm: it is my impression that trafficking in persons is not any longer high on the political agenda of governments.  This is a real paradox as human trafficking is still  a gross human rights violation  that affects all States - as source,  transit and/or destination  countries, in which trafficking especially for labour exploitation is becoming a systemic component in certain economic sectors.

Furthermore, human trafficking today is deeply inter-twinned with conflicts, poverty, human rights violations and persecution induced migration by sea or land. I would like to remember here the thousands of men, women and children, who  have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea, in South East Asia and  across many borders of the world, including children, while trying to escape from war, armed conflicts, terrorist attacks or extreme poverty. Probably some were victims of trafficking; probably some were at high risk of being trafficked at destination. For sure some surviving the perilous journey have encountered a destiny of labour exploitation and trafficking, due to their vulnerability and destitution. For sure many women and girls, who are  among the most vulnerable migrant populations, have been subjected on a regular basis to sexual violence and exploitation, often in addition to labour exploitation.

Trafficking today is intertwined with other phenomena such as mixed migration, asylum and smuggling. This means that trafficking is probably less visible, but not less dangerous than in the past.

(In fact those who are fleeing conflicts are at a higher risk of trafficking because of their desperation and lack of viable integration options. Faced with continued uncertainty, physical, emotional and psychological insecurity, financial strain and lack of legal and/or social inclusion in their host communities they are easy targets of unscrupulous traffickers who prey on their limited or lack of access to education, health care, housing and employment in the formal labour market. Those who do find jobs can often only work in the informal economy. By its very nature, the informal sector is unregulated, making it an ideal environment for unscrupulous employers and/or intermediaries to exploit and traffic workers. And so the trafficking cycle is perpetuated).

Therefore trafficking today is intertwined with other phenomena such as mixed migration, asylum and smuggling. This means that trafficking is probably less visible, but not less dangerous than in the past.

I am convinced that a new phase of anti-trafficking commitment is needed. I don’t mean that we should establish new laws and regulations.. I mean however that we need an innovative and forward looking approach for the implementation of existing obligations.

This is the reason why my mandate presented in October to the GA a report on the due diligence principles, highlighting State and non State actors obligations, for the first time in the field of anti-trafficking action. In fact the due diligence principle is key to reinterpret and implement in an innovative way existing obligations enshrined in the human rights instruments, and international standards dealing with trafficking in persons, first of all the Palermo Protocol.

For example, I recommended to expand extraterritorial obligations and international cooperation  in transnational cases; to focus more than in the past on prevention, with targeted measures for every type of exploitation, including the prevention of fraudulent recruitment practices in the labour market; to engage with the business community to ensure that appropriate measures be taken to prevent trafficking and forced labour in their supply chain; to adopt a holistic approach in order to ensure that measures established in related policy areas are coherent with the priority of preventing and combatting trafficking in persons. This is why, together with the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants and other mandate holders, I have been vocal in reminding States to protect the rights of victims or potential victims of trafficking during migration by ensuring, inter alia that State Parties’ anti-trafficking policies are not negatively affected by restrictive and exclusionary immigration policies which contribute to heightening the risks for trafficking and exploitation.

Moreover, my country visit to Malaysia at the invitation of the Government in February this year (as other visits undertaken by my predecessors), has identified, among others, the potential role of unregulated recruitment agencies in contributing to trafficking in persons (the majority of whom are migrants) for the purpose of labour exploitation and offered workable recommendations to redress such situation and avert further risks of trafficking.

The thematic report that I have submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in June of this year (A/HRC/29/38), outlines the vision for my mandate and the thematic priorities that I intend to focus on, drawing on the work and experience of my two predecessors, who achieved ground breaking work on the issue of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, since the establishment of the mandate in 2004.

In this regard, I would like to mention that I am currently undertaking research on the consequences and impacts that conflicts have on trafficking with a view of providing guidance to States and Non –State actors on understanding and addressing in innovative ways this situation.

Furthermore, the adoption of an inclusive and holistic approach to preventing and combating trafficking in persons which requires addressing the systemic/underlying social factors that create the vulnerabilities of victims and potential victims of trafficking is necessary. In this respect, I intend to dedicate a thematic report on the analysis of laws, policies and practices around the world and take stock of promising practices and lessons learned on the provision of unconditional assistance to victims and potential victims of trafficking, including children, who are frequently left without assistance or the necessary support to access remedies, including compensation. It is also my intention to look into remaining gaps in the conceptualization of the basic principles on the right to an effective remedy for victims of trafficking in persons developed by my mandate following extensive international and regional and consultations and mapping of existing practices of Sates, to ensure its operationalization at the national level.
I am also committed to continue consulting with and listening to victims, civil society and non-State actors, including victim support organisations, workers unions and businesses, which is absolutely crucial to combat trafficking in persons, for the prevention and fight against trafficking requires multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder responses.
Additionally, I am reaching out to the private sector, in particular engaging with businesses and employers, as well as trade unions, to look out for possibilities for public-private partnerships aimed at establishing effective actions to prevent and combat trafficking. To that end, it is my intention to bring together businesses in selected sectors to exchange experiences and practices with each other, review their assessment protocols through the lens of trafficking prevention, pilot the use of benchmarks and indicators and encourage multi-stakeholder initiatives, where they exist, to respect human rights and combat trafficking in persons, including the establishment of complaint mechanisms enabling vulnerable workers to report exploitation.

Finally, I would like to highlight that over the past decade, my mandate has adopted a broad concept of trafficking, and persistently reaffirmed the central role of the international legal definition of trafficking in persons, which the Palermo Protocol introduced for the first time. Today, the definition is interpreted in a way that is much wider in scope. In this respect, much credit goes to UNODC for developing issue papers on the key concepts of the trafficking definition, with a focus on vulnerability, consent and exploitation in cooperation with, inter alia Members States, the Inter-Agency Coordination Group and Trafficking in persons and my mandate. The development of these concepts represents an important milestone in international policy making and which I hope can advance progressive interpretations and jurisprudence at the national level. The importance of internationally shared interpretation of what constitutes trafficking cannot be overestimated for the proper understanding and implementation of the rights and obligation enshrined in the Palermo Protocol for the benefit of victims and potential victims of trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

I thank you for your attention and I look forward to a fruitful exchange.