Working against Trafficking (Open)

The 31st GWI Conference reaffirms Resolution 1998/6

Trafficking and Exploitation of Women and Children (1998, No. 6)

that NFAs:

• urge their governments to support and implement the Declaration and Actions of the World Declaration Against Commercial Exploitation of Children, Stockholm, Sweden, 1996; and
• urge their governments to protect women and children, both male and female, from exploitation by:
• implementing and enforcing laws prohibiting any type of exploitation of women and children especially trafficking and enforced prostitution;
• developing and supporting educational and training programmes to raise women and children’s awareness of how they can avoid becoming victims of trafficking and ensnared or enforced prostitution;
• developing and supporting educational and training programmes to raise public awareness of the social, cultural and financial implications of sex trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation;
• implementing and enforcing laws prohibiting sex tourism to foreign countries;
• ensuring that work permits, if applicable, for foreign workers are not just shields for exploitation of women and children; and
• assisting those who become victims of trafficking and exploitation.

and also reaffirms Resolution 2010/5 Human Trafficking Violates Human Rights:

The 30th GWI Conference resolves that:

• National Federations and Associations (NFAs) educate their members about the issue of trafficking as it relates to their countries, including addressing the primary causes that contribute to the practice;
• NFAs urge their respective governments to ensure that they have not only signed, but have also ratified the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (2003); if their countries have done so, NFAs monitor the status of their government’s implementation of the Protocol and take appropriate action where needed; and
• GWI use its standing committees, its consultative status with ECOSOC, its website and member networks to advocate for measures that would reduce the incidence of trafficking.

It wishes to update them with the following addition:

The 31st GWI Conference resolves that:

1. National Federations and Associations (NFAs) urge their respective governments to seek to end all forms of trafficking by introducing the concept of gender sensitivity in all circumstances that imply human trafficking; and
2. NFAs urge their respective governments to increase knowledge on trafficking, disseminate this widely and, when appropriate, ensure that combatting trafficking is a priority on all political agendas, and urge their governments to appoint an independent national rapporteur on trafficking.

Suggested Action:

1. NFAs are encouraged to contact NGOs, particularly women’s NGOs, to work together in order to introduce, promote and apply gender sensitivity. This means that every time when dealing with the issue of human trafficking NFAs and/or NGOs insist that the issue is included on the political agenda;
2. NFAs should urge their respective governments, parliament and policymakers to introduce and explain gender sensitivity in order that policymakers, local and national governments apply this to their policies to fight trafficking.