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THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
HAVING SEEN the observations and recommendations of the Permanent Council on
the annual reports of the organs, agencies, and entities of the Organization
(AG/doc. ), in particular as they pertain to the annual report of the
Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) (CP/doc.3847/04);
RECALLING the resolution of the Inter-American Commission of Women entitled
"Fighting the Crime of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women, Adolescents,
and Children" [CIM/RES. 225/02 (XXXI-O/02)]; resolution AG/RES. 1776
(XXXI-O/01), “Support for the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime”; the Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas, held
in Quebec City in 2001, in which the Heads of State and Government pledged to
implement collective strategies, including those that emerge from the Meetings
of Ministers of Justice of the Americas in order to jointly combat emerging
forms of transnational criminal activity, including trafficking in persons and
the laundering of the proceeds and assets of crime and cyber-crime; and General
Assembly resolution AG/RES. 1948 (XXXIII-O/03), “Fighting the Crime of
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women, Adolescents, and Children”;
CONSIDERING that, in operative paragraph 4 of resolution AG/RES. 1948
(XXXIII-O/03), the General Assembly instructs:
“the Secretary General to appoint an ‘OAS Coordinator on the Issue of
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women, Adolescents, and Children,’ to be
housed in the Permanent Secretariat of the CIM and to be funded by a specific
fund created for this purpose with contributions from member states and other
external resources, to serve as a focal point to facilitate information exchange
and the efforts of member states that so request to prevent and combat
trafficking in persons, especially women, adolescents, and children”;
BEARING IN MIND that the issue of trafficking in persons has been considered
by different organs of the inter-American system and that an adequate level of
coordination must be established with a view to making treatment of this topic
more effective;
POINTING TO the study prepared by the Inter-American Commission of Women and
the Inter-American Children’s Institute (CIM/doc.9/02) as a valuable
contribution to addressing the problem of trafficking in persons and that the
CIM is conducting research on and building capability to carry out
counter-trafficking activities, in cooperation with the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), in other member states;
BEARING IN MIND the conclusions and recommendations of the Fifth Meeting of
Ministers of Justice or of Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas
(REMJA-V/doc.9/04) regarding trafficking in persons, especially women and
children; and
RECOGNIZING that progress has been made in the region, in particular, with
regard to the development of pertinent mechanisms and legal reforms to combat
and prevent trafficking in persons, and in the development of victim assistance
and protection and the punishment of traffickers,
RESOLVES:
1. To reiterate the request to the member states to consider signing and
ratifying, or acceding to, as appropriate, the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, that complements that
Convention, and that they adopt the national measures necessary to implement
these instruments.
2. To urge the member states to complete their internal processes for
determining whether to sign and ratify the Inter-American Convention on
International Trafficking in Minors.
3. To urge the members states to adopt, in accordance with their national
legal systems and international instruments in force in each state, the measures
necessary to implement the recommendations emanating from the resolution
"Fighting the Crime of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women, Adolescents,
and Children" [CIM/RES. 225/02 (XXXI-O/02)], so as to enhance their legal,
judicial, and administrative systems and to consider the establishment, where
appropriate, of a national mechanism to prevent and combat the crime of
trafficking in persons and to protect victims.
4. To welcome the recommendation of the Fifth Meeting of Ministers of Justice
or of Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas to hold a meeting of
national authorities on this matter, with the participation of the CIM, the IIN,
the United Nations, the IOM, and other related international organizations, for
the purpose of studying integral cooperation mechanisms among the States to
ensure protection of and assistance to the victims, prevention of the crime, and
the prosecution of its perpetrators, bearing in mind respect for the victims’
human rights. The said meeting will also facilitate the exchange of information
and experiences, policy dialogue, and cooperation among the countries of origin,
transit, and destination of trafficking in persons, as well as the establishment
or improvement of statistical records in this area.
5. To request the Permanent Council to convene, in 2005, in coordination with
the CIM and other appropriate organs of the Organization, the meeting mentioned
in the preceding paragraph, and to include participation by experts on this
issue, civil society organizations registered with the OAS, and other
organizations invited as guests.
6. To instruct the Secretary General to appoint an OAS coordinator on the
issue of trafficking in persons, as provided for in resolution AG/RES. 1948
(XXXIII-O/03).
7. To instruct the Secretary General to ensure that the OAS coordinator on
this issue will follow up on the conclusions and recommendations of the meeting
of national authorities provided for in operative paragraph 4.
8. To instruct the Secretary General to present, on the basis of the
contributions of the “OAS Coordinator on the Issue of Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women, Adolescents and Children,” a proposal for a broad strategy to
the Permanent Council that addresses the human rights, social policy, and
transnational crime aspects of all forms of trafficking in persons; and to
support the cooperation efforts and projects of the member states in this area,
as well as those of the organs and specialized units of the OAS, international
organizations, and civil society organizations.
9. To request the Secretary General to present a report each year to the
Permanent Council, in coordination with the OAS Coordinator, on the activities
being carried out by the various OAS organs to address the issue of trafficking
in persons, and on developments in the Hemisphere, taking into account the
information provided by member states, including progress in law enforcement and
the protection of and assistance to victims of trafficking.
10. To instruct the Permanent Council to give appropriate follow-up to and
ensure the implementation of this resolution, to provide the necessary funds for
the activities undertaken by the OAS organs to deal adequately with the problem
of trafficking in persons, and to convene the meeting of national authorities
provided for in operative paragraph 4 of this resolution, in accordance with the
resources allocated in the program-budget of the Organization and other
resources.
11. To invite the member states; permanent observers; organs, agencies, and
other entities of the Inter-American system; and other sources to contribute to
the specific fund provided for in resolution AG/RES. 1948 (XXXIII-O/03), as well
as other public and private entities.
12. To request the Secretary General to report to the General Assembly at its
thirty-fifth regular session on the implementation of this resolution. |
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