Key Ethical Guidelines on Human Rights and Trafficking

Ethical Guidelines on Human Rights and Trafficking  

There are currently no Australia-specific guidelines for working with trafficked persons, so our behaviour in this area is advised by those published by the United Nations. Two key documents (from the World Health Organisation and the UN High Commission for Human Rights) follow, and others are listed in the Resources section of this site. 

Consultation among Australian professional organisations will produce documentation designed for Australian individuals and organisations who work with trafficked persons. Comments on this subject are welcome at antislavery@uts.edu.au

Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked Women (2003)

These recommendations are part of a series of ethical and safety recommendations on violence against women of the Gender and Women’s Health Department of  the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO is grateful to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Daphne Programme of the European Commission for their valuable role in the preparation of this document. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of the World Health Organization, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine or the Daphne Programme of the European Commission.

The WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked
Women were written by Cathy Zimmerman and Charlotte Watts of the Health
Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The text of the Ten Guiding Principles to the Ethical and Safe Conduct of Interviews with Women who have been Trafficked are available in pdf here

Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking

This is the Report presented on 20 May 2002 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations for the UN Substantive Session July 2002 in New York.

The text of 17 Recommended Principles on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, and 11 Recommended Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking are available in pdf here

Australian Trafficking Visas:
15 recommendations to better protect victims of human trafficking*

Trafficking visa framework
1: That DIAC publish guidelines in the Procedures Advice Manual about the identification of trafficking victims and the operation of the visa trafficking framework.

2: That the period of visa validity of the Bridging Visa F visa be extended from 30 days to 3 months.

3:  That the trafficked person has the opportunity of obtaining independent legal advice relating to their immigration status before a Criminal Justice Visa is issued.

4: That the Witness Protection (Temporary) visa be granted early in the investigation and prosecution process, rather than at the end of the criminal justice process.

5: That the Migration Regulations be amended to facilitate the reunion of the trafficked person and their dependent children, wherever residing (if any) at the time of consideration and granting of the Witness Protection (Trafficking) (Temporary) Visa. 

6: That the Migration Regulations be amended to permit the trafficked person to include applications from members of their family unit, whether they are in or outside  Australia, at the time that the Witness Protection (Trafficking) (Temporary) Visa is granted or at any time during the currency of the visa.

7: That the Witness Protection (Trafficking) Visa framework be restructured to remove criteria requiring that the Attorney-General and the Minister for Immigration make decisions in respect of the grant of the visa and that a less onerous and more appropriate delegation be instituted.   

Better systems to identify people who have been trafficked
8: That training about trafficking be mandatory for all DIAC officers.

Expansion of screening mechanisms to include screening for protection claims when a person is identified as trafficked
9:   That DIAC expand guidelines on identification of trafficking victims to include examples of situations where protection needs arise out of trafficking experiences and to develop guidelines to assist decision-makers identify victims of trafficking in all screening and assessment documents.

10: That all trafficked people be assessed in relation to a claim for a protection visa.

Removal of barriers to immigration application
11: That the Migration Regulations be amended so that where a person is assessed as being trafficked to Australia, they will be permitted to make a visa application (other than for a protection visa) if their last substantive visa was issued subject to a’ no further stay’ condition.

12: That the Migration Regulations be amended to permit an application for a substantive visa by a person who would otherwise be barred by the effect of Section 48 of the Migration Act, if the person is reasonably assessed as being trafficked to Australia.

Complementary Protection/Humanitarian Visa
13: That a new Complementary Protection/Humanitarian Visa be introduced for those people who have been trafficked and who are unable to participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution, where there are factors of a compassionate or compelling nature.

Requests to Minister for the benefit of personal discretion in the public interest
14: That the Ministerial Guidelines be amended to include guidance about the identification and protection of trafficked people.

Additional Recommendation Relating To Victim Support
15: That the victim of trafficking support program be available to all trafficked people who are participating in the criminal justice system, including those who hold a substantive visa.

Submitted by Jennifer Burn – Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Download 15 Recommendations Details of Submission PDF

201 Years Since the Abolition of Slave Trade: is Australia Slavery-Free?
Media Release – Tuesday, March 25, 2008

25 March, 2008 - Sydney. Tuesday, 25 March, (“Freedom Day”) is the 201st Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act: the result of the 20-year struggle of British anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce. At that time, legalised buying and selling of human beings was a mainstay of many western economies across the globe. Today, there are more people being trafficked and enslaved than during the entire 350 years of legalised slavery when an estimated 27 million people worldwide were in forced labour, debt-bondage and servitude. Download full media release PDF

The Vienna Forum, 13-15 February 2008

The Vienna Forum, the first-ever global forum to fight human trafficking, was convened by the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), which was established in recognition of the fact that human trafficking takes many forms and that a co-ordinated and united approach is required.

This inaugural Forum in Vienna brought together 1,200 experts, legislators, law enforcement teams, business leaders, NGO representatives and trafficking victims from 116 countries. It explored the impact of human trafficking on the lives of individuals, their communities and on the economies of the origin and destination countries and so provided the platform for a new campaign of co-ordinated action to tackle the crime.

On the eve of the Forum, in a rallying call to raise international awareness, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said that the crime is so widespread within the global economic system that we have all become complicit in it: “The blood, sweat and tears of trafficking victims are on the hands of consumers all over the world. This is a crime that shames us all.”

Details of the impressive agenda are available at www.ungift.org

The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) is an alliance of major UN agencies. UN.GIFT was conceived to join forces and coordinate the global fight on human trafficking, on the basis of the international agreement reached at the United Nations. It was launched in March 2007 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with a grant made on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. To date, over 110 countries have signed the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children. This supplements the Palermo Convention against trans-national organised crime. UN.GIFT provides a framework for, and action by, all stakeholders – governments, business, academia, civil society and the media – so that they can support each other, work in partnership, and create effective tools to fight human trafficking.

National Compensation Fund

The Anti-Slavery Project has lobbied consistently for the development of a national victim compensation scheme for victims of federal crimes. The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 7 February, 2008, as follows:

Victims of federal offences and corporate collapses will be entitled to compensation and to make a statement to courts on the impact of the crime under laws to be introduced by the Rudd Government. The Home Affairs Minister, Bob Debus, told the Herald he planned to introduce a victims' charter of rights to give victims a greater role in the trial process.

The charter, which will be similar to the schemes in NSW and most other states, will assist victims of federal offences such as white-collar crimes, sex slavery, bribery and people smuggling.

"Victims do feel vindicated by the ability to make such a statement," Mr Debus said. "The victim is able to explain to the whole court and to the rest of world how they have felt. Without [that ability], there is the danger that people feel as if the court is just treating them completely impersonally. HIH victims, for instance, can be seen regularly complaining in the papers that they have not been acknowledged as they ought to have been."

Mr Debus said the charter would be introduced in the first session of Parliament but plans for a compensation fund would not begin until after the budget. The victim statements would be read out after the court's findings but would not be used in sentencing.

Human trafficking to Australia: a research challenge

Judy Putt

Abstract

Human trafficking is an issue that affects Australia. Yet despite the attention which trafficking has received at the national and international level since the UN General Assembly adopted the convention on transnational crime and its associate protocol on trafficking in persons, there are still no reliable data on the issues. While there have been several large-scale efforts to estimate and document human trafficking across the world, the estimates found in these reports vary over time and across regions, primarily because human trafficking is an extremely difficult activity to investigate. There are also differences in focus and in methodologies. As the evidence base is shaky and easy to challenge, it is important to consider how knowledge on this issue can be improved, in order to properly inform efforts to prevent and reduce trafficking. This paper summarises current evidence on trafficking to Australia and within the wider region, and highlights constraints that exist when endeavouring to interpret what this evidence tells us about the problem. It concludes with recommendations for further investment into research and monitoring

Read the full article here