- Target:
- Governments worldwide
- Region:
- GLOBAL
- Website:
- www.gaatw.org
Over the last ten years, human trafficking is gaining increasing global attention; many governments around the world are developing policies and laws to combat it, and hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent worldwide. The logical next step would be to examine these efforts to combat trafficking to assess how anti-trafficking measures are being implemented (including the way money is being spent) and what consequences they are causing.
We urgently need a rigorous review of the situation. Increasingly, human rights defenders and activists world-wide are concerned that these anti-trafficking measures are even leading to further violations. We need to ask what is actually being done by governments to prevent trafficking and to protect the rights of those that have been trafficked. Is it working? Who is benefiting? Are the rights of people migrating, or returning to their home countries, better protected by anti-trafficking policies?
CASE: The Indian Government considered women migrant workers a “particularly vulnerable lot” and “issued an order prohibiting any female household worker below the age of 30 from being employed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under any circumstance.” The concern was that women may be sexually/physically abused or trafficked into exploitative conditions. To avoid this ban, women have to take riskier migration options than their male counterparts, making them more vulnerable to abuse at the destination point.” (Collateral Damage, India chapter, GAATW p.129).
As part of our work to fight against trafficking in persons, we need to hold governments accountable to their international human rights obligations by reviewing their efforts and make appropriate changes to ensure that all anti-trafficking measures are effective and human-rights based.
This petition is part of the GAATW Stop, Look, Listen! urgent action calling for the implementation of a review mechanism and will be presented to governments during the fifth conference of states parties to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocols (including the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons) - October 2010.
SIGN THE PETITION BELOW, AND SUPPORT THE URGENT ACTION TO CALL FOR A REVIEW MECHANISM OF THE INTERNATIONAL UN PROTOCOL ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
Petition to the Governments that have signed the UN Human Trafficking Protocol:
We, the undersigned, call on governments who have signed or ratified the UN Human Trafficking Protocol to urgently support creating a review mechanism for the UNTOC Human Trafficking Protocol to ensure that all governments:
- Reflect on both the progress made to date on human trafficking and the gaps which remain in ensuring the objectives of the UN Protocol on Human Trafficking are met;
- Review legislation, policy and practice which has been implemented or used to combat human trafficking to see what impact has been made; and
- Use evidence based approaches to guide anti-trafficking responses, and engage in genuine dialogue with both trafficked persons and civil society service providers and advocates working on trafficking in order to ensure their views inform States Parties’ responses.
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The Stop, Look, Listen - what is really being done to stop human trafficking? petition to Governments worldwide was written by Gaatw and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.