30 September 2005
Keep Human Trafficking High on Rights Agenda, U.S. Urges OSCE, September 27, 2005 (U.S. spent $295 million in four years to fight trafficking in 120 nations)
By Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Serious progress in the fight against trafficking in human beings has been made since the issue first was raised in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1996, a member of the U.S. delegation told an OSCE conference on human rights in Warsaw, Poland, September 27.
For the second year in a row, the annual U.S. report on trafficking found that all OSCE countries and partner states “have made significant efforts to combat trafficking and aid victims, although several only barely passed this minimal threshold,” said Janice Helwig, who serves as a staff adviser of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency that monitors human rights issues.
“But there is still an extraordinary amount of work to be done,” Helwig told the 2005 OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM).
The United States has devoted more than $295 million during the last four years to combating trafficking in more than 120 countries and is urging the OSCE chairman-in-office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, to keep trafficking high on the OSCE’s agenda.
Helwig said 20 OSCE countries enacted new laws or amended old ones to combat human trafficking in the past year, but added that all OSCE countries must improve implementation of anti-trafficking laws already on the books.
“Many countries have yet to criminalize sex tourism and involvement in trafficking by peacekeepers and other international personnel. Anti-discrimination laws are needed in countries of origin to address the underlying economic disadvantages for women and minorities that push vulnerable individuals into the grip of traffickers.”
Helwig also called on affluent countries to which people are trafficked to recognize the role they play in creating or allowing the demand that encourages human trafficking.
Trafficking generates $32 billion annually for organized criminal groups, according to an International Labor Organization estimate.
“Countries of destination need to develop compassionate approaches to victim identification, victim protection and long-term victim assistance, including a legal basis for residency status for victims of trafficking,” she said.
Helwig expressed regret that courts in many OSCE countries – in particular Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Ukraine -- have been imposing suspended or conditional sentences for serious trafficking crimes.
She urged states to review their laws to ensure that a proper legal basis exists for enforcing policies against exploitation, abuse and trafficking by troops serving abroad on peacekeeping missions.
A fact sheet on U.S. efforts to combat trafficking is available on the State Department Web site. The most recent State Department Trafficking in Persons Report is also available.
During the OSCE’s HDIM meeting, which took place September 19-30, participating states reviewed the implementation of their own and other states’ existing OSCE commitments. The term “human dimension” refers to all the human rights and humanitarian provisions of the agreements concluded through the process initiated by the 1975 Helsinki Accords, as well as the democratization commitments made by the OSCE since 1989.
The full text of Helwig’s statement (PDF, 3 pages) is available on the U.S. Mission to the OSCE Web site.
