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THE THIRTY-FIRST MEETING OF THE ASSEMBLY OF DELEGATES OF THE
INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION OF WOMEN,
CONSIDERING:
That there has been a marked and continuous increase in
trafficking in persons, especially women, adolescents, and children, for
purposes of exploitation, according to data reported over the past two years by
governmental and non-governmental organizations, particularly the International
Organization for Migration (IOM); and
That this important issue has been addressed by the
Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) and the Inter-American Children’s
Institute (IIN), and that these two institutions, in association with De Paul
University of Chicago, have conducted a pilot research project entitled
“Trafficking in Women and Children for Sexual Exploitation in the Americas,” in
Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama;
ACKNOWLEDGING:
That the development of a plan of action to deal effectively
with the problem of trafficking in persons must be based on an assessment of
the factors that give rise to it, among them, poverty, unemployment,
discrimination, sexual abuse, violence against women, adolescents, and
children, corruption, criminal activity, lack of effective legislation, and
passport and visa fraud;
That trafficking in women and children for labor-related and
sexual exploitation purposes and other contemporary forms of slavery constitute
a violation of human rights;
That trafficking in persons is linked to other threats to
national and hemispheric security, such as trafficking in drugs, trafficking
small firearms and light weapons;
That the legal vacuum in some member states in respect of
trafficking in persons or the unenforceability of existing laws in others are
conducive to impunity for the traffickers and the social exclusion of the
victims, as there are no strategies for providing them with medical care or for
reintegrating them into society; and
That a multilateral response from governments, in
consultation with civil society organizations, is necessary in order to
formulate policies to prevent trafficking in persons, protect victims, and
punish traffickers;
BEARING IN MIND:
That in December 2000 the United Nations General Assembly
adopted the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol
to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, which, in Article 3, defines trafficking in persons as:
“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits
to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the
purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual
exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to
slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT:
The Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas in
Quebec City in 2001, wherein the heads of state and government committed “to
undertake the widest possible cooperation and exchange of information among
states concerning illegal trafficking networks, particularly women and
children”; and
OAS General Assembly resolution AG/RES. 1776 (XXXI-O/01),
“Support for the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime,” which urged all OAS member states to sign and ratify the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol thereto;
CONSIDERING:
That the “Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human
Rights and Human Trafficking,” a Report of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights to the Economic and Social Council (E/2002/68/Add.I), dated
July 2002, provides an extensive and detailed list of guidelines for building
an appropriate legal and institutional framework for preventing and suppressing
trafficking in persons and protecting the victims;
REAFFIRMING:
That trafficking in women, adolescents, and children for
exploitation in the Americas is an offense that must be prevented, suppressed,
and punished through the adoption of a multidimensional approach involving the
judicial system, the national and border police, immigration authorities,
health and labor ministries, consulates, and civil society, as well as the
victims and their families; and
OBSERVING WITH PROFOUND CONCERN:
The massive use of new information technology, including the
Internet, for purposes of prostitution, sexual tourism, child pornography,
fraudulent marriages, and other hidden forms of trafficking in women,
adolescents, and children;
The flagrant violation of the human rights of the women,
adolescents, and children who are victims of trafficking, who live in dangerous
and inhumane conditions during their transfer, reclusion, and exploitation in
the countries of origin, transit and ultimate destination, and the impunity of
the criminal networks (recruiters, carriers, and owners of establishments) that
thrive on this criminal activity,
RESOLVES:
1. To urge the member states:
a. To consider signing and ratifying, ratifying, or acceding
to, as the case may be, the following international instruments related to
trafficking in women, adolescents, and children: the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the United
Nations Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and
Child Pornography;
b. To take steps to implement effectively those treaties in
this area that they have ratified: the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child; Convention 182 of the International Labour Organization
concerning the Worst Forms of Child Labor; and the Inter-American Convention on
International Traffic in Minors;
c. To design, put in place, and carry out, where they have
not yet done so, multidimensional actions at the domestic level that provide
for, inter alia, legislative measures, public awareness, prevention, and
information campaigns, legal and medical assistance and protection to victims,
and their reintegration into society, where possible under domestic
legislation;
d. To consider establishing, where appropriate, a national
and bilateral or multilateral coordination mechanism, in which government
agencies and civil society organizations involved in this area participate,
along with government agencies in the countries of origin and/or transit and
ultimate destination, to improve information channels and the monitoring of
cases of trafficking, and their underlying causes, external factors, and
current trends;
e. To exchange information and best practices and develop
joint programs with the countries of origin for dealing with both domestic and
transnational trafficking; and to include the subject of combating the crime of
trafficking in persons, especially women, adolescents, and children on the
national agenda;
f. To engage the private sector, especially the travel and
tourism industry and the media, in strategies designed to eradicate trafficking
in persons;
2. To establish a focal point in the Permanent Secretariat
of the CIM to assist the efforts, information sharing, and activities of the
member states that so request to combat trafficking in persons, especially
women, adolescents, and children, at the national and international levels in
coordination with specialized international organizations, other pertinent
areas of the OAS, and sectors dealing with government agencies and
nongovernmental organizations.
3. To urge the Permanent Secretariat of the CIM to continue
working with other pertinent areas of the OAS on the issue of trafficking.
4. To urge the Permanent Secretariat of the CIM to continue
its research into the possibility of including other countries in the region,
so as to obtain complete information on the rest of Latin America and the
Caribbean and facilitate effective implementation of measures to combat
trafficking in women, adolescents, and children for purposes of exploitation.
5. To instruct the Executive Committee of the CIM to study
the advisability of establishing a special rapporteur on trafficking in
persons.
6. To urge the member states of the OAS, permanent
observers, international financial institutions, and the private sector to
contribute the resources necessary to achieve the aforementioned objectives.
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