Statement of Sigma Huda, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children

Second session of the Human Rights Council, 20 September 2006
Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children

Mr. President, distinguished delegates, representatives of the UN and NGO community,

It is with great pleasure that I address the 2nd session of the Human Rights Council.
Mr. President
As highlighted in my report, http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=E/cn.4/2006/62 \t _blank E/CN.4/2006/62, since I took over the mandate in October of 2004, I have had opportunity to participate in numerous activities relating to my mandate in various parts of the world, notably in March 2005 when I addressed the Commission on the Status of Women in New York on the occasion of the Review and Appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and Outcome Document (Beijing Plus Ten Review), as well as in Tunisia, where I attended the World Summit on the Information Society at the invitation of UNICEF and the NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, where I participated in a panel discussion on protecting children from sexual exploitation through information and communication technology. 

Mr. President
I continue to receive several complaints of cases of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, on the basis of which I transmitted to governments numerous communications.  A comprehensive analysis of these communications can be found in Addendum 1 to my report, http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=E/cn.4/2006/62 \t _blank E/CN.4/2006/62. The communications concerned a wide array of issues including trafficking for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced labour (including forced domestic work), child labour, and exploitation of children in armed conflict. Communications also addressed disappearances of children, contemporary forms of slavery and systematic sexual violence perpetrated by states or armed non-state actors. A number of communications also addressed factors that cause or exacerbate trafficking in persons such as inadequate legislation, law enforcement gaps, corruption, refoulement despite a well-founded fear of torture or persecution, discrimination on the basis of gender, race or social status, poverty and lack of access to education. The communications sent and received since January 2006 will be summarized in the report that I shall submit at the next session of the Human Rights Council.

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, 
I will now present some of the main findings contained in my thematic report on the relationship between trafficking and the demand for commercial sexual exploitation. Mr. President, I would like to underline that this thematic report is based on an analysis of replies, provided by governments and non-governmental organisations, to a questionnaire I had circulated regarding the demand side of trafficking. 
Mr. President, all forms of trafficking of persons violate fundamental human rights and present issues of pressing global concern. I chose, however, to focus my present report on sex trafficking and, in particular, the role of the prostitute-user in creating demand, on the basis of various factors which I outline below, but also because I strongly believe that the issue of demand is of crucial importance in addressing trafficking of women and children from a human rights perspective, as was recognised particularly in Article 9 (5) of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. This definition of trafficking stands as the accepted international definition of trafficking. Indeed, since its establishment, the Protocol definition has been adopted verbatim into the domestic positive law of several states, and it continues to frame governmental and NGO anti-trafficking initiatives at the local, national, and international levels. 
I argue in my report that, in accordance with Article 9(5) of the Protocol, the demand side of trafficking should not be understood restrictively as the demand for trafficking victims of prostitution, labour, or services, but expansively, as any act that fosters any form of exploitation that, in turn, leads to trafficking. 
Mr. President, 
While the human rights of women and children are violated in many forms of trafficking, sex trafficking is a particular form of trafficking in which the human rights of women and children are violated because the victims are in fact women and children. This makes it important for me to focus on sex trafficking and in particular the role of the prostitute- user in creating demand. It must also be noted that the prostitute user is simultaneously both demand creator and virtue of the receipt of the trafficked person, a part of the trafficking chain. Moreover, the demand for commercial sex is often further grounded in social power disparities of race, nationality, caste, and colour.  Some prostitute-users actively seek prostituted women and children of different nationalities, races or ethnic groups for the purpose of exploiting these power disparities, engaging in a “highly sexualised form of racism”.
Mr. President,
Demand is the factor which has received the least attention and creative thought in anti-trafficking initiatives.  By and large, anti-trafficking policy has been directed toward detecting, preventing and punishing the conduct of traffickers, or toward stemming the supply of victims through educational campaigns or the like. While these projects are important and necessary, they must be complemented with targeted projects that discourage demand. In my report I reviewed and commented on various anti-trafficking measures employed throughout the world designed to discourage demand.
The laws and policies that penalise victims of prostitution and trafficking should be condemned. Measures taken to address demand should ensure that victims of trafficking are neither criminalised nor subjected to punitive measures such as deportation, which would render them vulnerable to other human rights violations and to re-trafficking.
To mention some good practices in this regard, allow me Mr President, to make reference to law in Sweden which prohibits the purchase of sexual services, which I feel is a particularly apt expression against the demand side of trafficking, for it not only formally condemns the use of prostituted persons, but does so in a context which explicitly recognises the gendered nature of the commercial sex industry. Moreover, a recently enacted law in Korea imposes tougher penalties on brothel owners and buyers, while protecting prostituted victims. Furthermore, the Directorate General on Crime Prevention of Venezuela has agreed to undertake an empirical study to determine whether the prohibition, legalisation or regulation of prostitution would affect or impact trafficking in persons.

Mr. President, 
In my report I argued that it has been claimed that criminalization, even when it is targeted only against prostitute-users, may have the unwanted effect of pushing prostitution out of sight, thus making trafficking victims more vulnerable to human rights abuses. However, it is equally true that legalisation of prostitution has the effect of making human rights abuses appear as if they were simply legitimate work, thereby “hiding” such abuses in plain view. 
The implementation of extra-territorial jurisdiction is an important and commendable development in strategies to target the demand side of sex trafficking. A number of states responding to my questionnaire, including Denmark, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, reported that they have implemented extraterritorial jurisdiction which would enable the prosecution of child sex tourists.  
The alternative to criminalising the use of prostituted persons is to allow such activity to remain or become legal.  Such an approach encourages the demand side of trafficking and, in my opinion, should therefore be discouraged.  My view was reiterated in the responses to my questionnaire as submitted by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women who argued that “Legalized prostitution gives new generations of men and boys the moral and social permission to engage in the exploitation of prostitution with a clear conscience. They say, “if it’s legal, it must be OK.” Moreover, the reply from the Turkish Government provided that “although [prostitution is] registered and under the control of the government, women live in slavery like conditions.”
Moreover, as noted by an NGO, it is counterproductive in practice to distinguish between demand for trafficking victims and the demand for the use of prostituted persons generally: “In practice, it is extremely difficult to prove that [this distinction] is within the knowledge of the offender, especially when sexual services are involved and consequently penal prosecution is not possible.” Some countries, including Norway prohibit all of its civil servants from engaging in the use of prostituted persons during official travel, whilst the United Nations code of conduct prohibits its staff from engaging in any use of prostituted persons.  
Mr. President, 
I would also like to highlight some of the studies and campaigns which have been carried out by governmental, non-governmental and community-based organisations in recent years.  ECPAT Belgium, for example, has undertaken a widespread information campaign targeting the demand for child prostitution and encouraging the community and tourists to report suspected child sexual abuse. In Leith, Scotland, community activists discouraged prostitute-users through public demonstrations, carrying placards with messages such as “You can’t get no satisfaction in Leith!” Another example of a State addressing the demand side is Germany and its program entitled “Prevention and Suppression of Child Abuse by Sex Tourists” which educates German holiday-makers regarding child prostitution abroad and provides them with details of institutions and organisations to contact if they suspect sexual exploitation of children.
Finally, Mr. President, I wish to commend anti-trafficking initiatives which further the aims of the Protocol Article 9(5) by discouraging the demand side of trafficking. I thank those governments and NGOs who provided crucial information and responses to the questionnaire. 

Mr. President
In 2005, I conducted country missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lebanon. I would like to thank the Governments and the authorities concerned for their cooperation with regard to these visits. 

I visited Bosnia and Herzegovina between the 21 and 28 February 2005 at the invitation of the Government. I chose to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina to learn about, on the one hand, the situation of trafficking in a post-conflict society characterized by a heavy international presence and, on the other hand, to analyse the progress being made in this context in the fight against trafficking through legislative, administrative and other measures. Mr. Chairperson, in my report I noted that despite major positive changes having been made to the laws and the institutional settings dealing with trafficking, weaknesses persist. 

On the basis of my conclusions, as outlined in my report, I recommended that, inter alia, increased attention must be paid to the emerging phenomenon of internal trafficking and that the mechanisms in place to combat trafficking and protect the persons involved must be reviewed and adapted so as to ensure that they properly cover nationals. In this context I emphasised the special need for specific measures to be put in place to provide for the protection also of nationals. Moreover, I suggested that measures are needed to address the emerging phenomenon of trafficking of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to other countries. Furthermore, Mr. President, whilst welcoming the National Plan of Action, particularly in that it focuses on prevention and that it addresses internal trafficking and trafficking of children, I encouraged the Government to take the lead in its implementation, including in supporting shelters and rehabilitation programmes. I further recommended that legislative reforms are necessary to ensure that prostitutes are not criminalized and that assets and illegally obtained property are confiscated, and that the proceeds go directly into a compensation fund for victims. With regards to the problem of irregular aliens, I suggested that when they are intercepted efforts be undertaken to determine their situation individually and to ensure that they have access to asylum procedures, if relevant, and that if they are victims of trafficking they receive adequate assistance and are not immediately deported. 

I underlined that measures to combat trafficking should particularly take into account laws on gender equality and poverty reduction strategies, since gender-based discrimination and poverty can turn Bosnia and Herzegovina into a country of origin of trafficking and foster internal trafficking.  

I look forward to further working with the Government in follow-up on my visit.

I visited Lebanon on 7 to 16 September 2005 at the invitation of the Government. I was particularly interested in visiting Lebanon because it is both a transit and a destination country for domestic migrant workers, a considerable number of whom are, according to reports I received, trafficked into exploitative labour situations. Lebanon is also a destination and transit country for foreign women exploited in the sex industry, in addition to which there is a problem of child trafficking to and within Lebanon. 

My visit to Lebanon allowed me to confirm that despite some progress and a clear willingness from the authorities to address the problems of trafficking and the human rights issues tightly linked to this, the Government is still not fully meeting international obligations with regard to trafficking in persons. In view of the several challenges I outlined in my report, I called on the authorities to take action under four broad categories: To:

(a) enhance national and international cooperation; (b) adopt legal reforms to criminalize all forms of trafficking and strengthen the labour law framework; (c) identify, protect and safely repatriate trafficked persons; and (d) assure an effective prosecution of acts of trafficking and related crimes. In particular I recommended that the Government should, in close cooperation with civil society and the international community, develop a comprehensive national strategy on trafficking embedded into a national action plan on human rights and take into account the United Nations Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking.

I look forward to further working with the Government of Lebanon to follow-up on my visit.

Mr. Chairperson, I thank you for your attention and look forward to a constructive dialogue with the distinguished members of this Council.  

Thank you








Statement of Sigma Huda, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, : Second session of the Human Rights Council, 20 September 2006