Join the Uk Anti-Trafficking Network - Advocate For Change

Trafficking is the biggest violation of human rights and the third largest and fastest growing criminal activity in the world.

* Every year 2 million girls aged between 5 and 15 are coerced, abducted, sold or trafficked into the illegal sex market.

*  UN figures suggest that between 200-300,000 women are trafficked to Europe every year.

*  Well over $7 billion a year is generated from sex trade trafficking.

*  Current global figures indicate 200 million people are held in various forms of slavery.

*  Some four million people are trafficked globally today: 4% of all the world's migrants.

*  Two million children every year become victims of paedophiles and their networks as global demand for child pornography and child prostitution escalates.

Stop Trafficking

"Women and children are not property, but human beings. The international community should declare, loudly and more strongly than ever, that we are all members of the human family. Slavery simply has no place in a world of human rights".

UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan

"It is clear that governments acting individually cannot address the problem adequately".

Antonio Vitorino, EU Home Affairs Commissioner.

Dr. Helga Konrad, OSCE Regional Coordinator and Chair of the Stability Pact Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings for South Eastern Europe has agreed to find time during a brief visit to the UK to provide an update of the work of the Stability Pact Task Force. A meeting of the UK Anti-Trafficking Network will be held in London on 30 May 2002 at 3 Whitehall Court, Whitehall, London SW1A 2EL. The meeting is scheduled to commence at 17.00 hrs and conclude at 18.00hrs.  Prior registration of attendance is necessary.  Please email UKAT@womenaid.org or Fax: 020 7839 1790 or Tel: 020 7839 1790.

One of the main objectives of the Stability Pact Task Force (SP TF), set up in the summer of 2000 under the auspices of OSCE/ODIHR, is to enhance and further strengthen regional co-operation among the various anti-trafficking actors in the Balkan region and among the governments of the countries in the region.

In this era of globalisation human trafficking has been expanding dramatically. It has become one of the fastest growing and most lucrative criminal enterprises, generating billions of dollars annually for organized crime groups, which have long established their own criminal industry connected with related criminal activities such as money laundering and drug trafficking, etc. Additionally, the large influx of men in uniforms in the Balkan region has created a market for sex work and has attracted traffickers who seek to take advantage of the situation.

When the SP TF was established, it was obvious that the issue of trafficking was either at the bottom of the agenda of governments in the region, or was not even recognised as a serious problem. Many governments showed very little willingness to acknowledge the issue, considering it much less important than other crimes. Dr Konrad has stated, "The real anti-trafficking work - when we started our activities - was done almost entirely by some dedicated and courageous NGOs and by some representatives of individual agencies and IOs, but there was no concerted or co-ordinated response."

The SP TF on Trafficking in Human Beings has, within a very short time, raised the awareness of the complexity and acuteness of the problem, which brought human trafficking to the top of the political agenda of the countries of the region and beyond. For the first time the problem is dealt with in a co-ordinated way; for the first time there is cross-border co-operation on the issue and there is growing recognition that no institution nor country alone will be able to combat human trafficking effectively.

Based on results obtained by the fact-finding missions in the countries of the region and the commitments of the governments the SP TF have worked out a multi-year strategy in the form of the Multi-year Anti-Trafficking Action Plan for South Eastern Europe. This plan is a comprehensive approach to the complex crime of human trafficking in the Balkan region. It covers all identified needs and gaps and addresses all the elements required for a co-ordinated development of an effective and sustainable anti-trafficking structure throughout the region. The purpose of this plan is to promote the implementation of the Anti-Trafficking Declaration of South East Europe.

Pida Ripley, MA, AKC,

Founder WomenAid International

UK Anti-Trafficking Network - UKAT

WomenAid International 

Whitehall Court

Whitehall

London

SW1A 2EL

Tel: + 44 020 7839 1790 or + 44 020 7976 1032

Fax: + 44 020 7839 2929

E-mail: ukat@womenaid.org

http://www.womenaid.org