Welcome Speech, John Von Doussa, President Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Ladies and Gentlemen it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Stop the Traffic 2 Conference.
My enthusiastic welcome is not attributable to the theme of this conference - the trafficking women for prostitution is an abominable trade and a harsh reality for many. However, I am pleased to be opening this conference. Following, as it does, so close on the heels of the federal Government’s announcements last week to introduce a significant package to allow Australia to better combat this insidious trade, the conference promises to have a very positive and practical focus.
I would like to take this first opportunity to applaud the Government’s announcement of this $20 million dollar package.
In particular, I congratulate the Government on its interagency approach to the issue. A number of federal portfolios have responsibility for the problem – no one agency is able to address the problem of trafficking alone or without working in co-operation with each other relevant agency.
The government package takes account of the causes of trafficking in source countries, it assists in ensuring legal and immigration processes in Australia are appropriate and it takes steps to address the attitudes to women that drive demand in Australia and allow trafficking to prosper.
Most importantly, it takes a victim-centred approach which is consistent with and protects the human rights of those who have been trafficked. The government package is a timely statement of Australia's obligations and commitment to trafficked persons, especially women and children.
It is against this backdrop, this commitment, that we hold the Stop the Traffic 2 Conference. This year’s conference therefore takes place in a climate where a genuine commitment to eradicating the sex slave trade has been made by those with both the power and resources to do so.
The Government’s announcement is particularly timely for our purposes today. It gives us an opportunity to congratulate those within government who have no doubt worked very hard on the package over the last six months. It allows us to applaud the tireless efforts of many of you here today to bring the issue of trafficking onto to the national agenda, to the forefront of the Australian mind. We recognise the not inconsiderable impetus that your efforts have given to the Government’s work.
It also provides a key opportunity for us all to build on the increased attention to the issue, to further communication between experts in the field, and to increase the spread of knowledge on the trafficking of women into Australia. It allows us to do this in a very concrete way, addressing the specifics of the package.
It is very encouraging that the Government, in formulating its package, consulted with my Commission - the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission - and a range of relevant non-government organisations such as Project Respect, our partner in organising this conference.
I sincerely hope that this dialogue will continue to underpin the implementation of the Government initiatives aimed at addressing the sex-slave trade.
Government contact with these organisations is vital for the identification, assessment and provision of appropriate medical, community and other services to women who might be victims of trafficking.
The participants of this conference can provide this expertise or have the networks to access the necessary information. Some of you work with victims of trafficking, others are committed to stopping the perpetrators of this sinister trade.
Our intention over the next two days is to draw on this diversity of expertise and experience. I hope the discussions will assist to operationalise the Government’s package by suggesting concrete steps to prevent trafficking, protect trafficked women and prosecute traffickers.
Human rights should be central at every stage of this process – not as an esoteric or rhetorical concept but as a very pragmatic framework within which problems are addressed and solutions implemented.
Traffickers violate the basic human rights of victims to be free from sexual abuse, exploitation and slavery. The sexual servitude experienced by those trafficked for prostitution intrudes into and violates a human’s privacy and personal integrity.
Victims of trafficking for prostitution often face physical abuse of a particularly violent nature, sexual abuse and rape that causes not only physical but psychological and emotional trauma for the victim.
The sustained violations of human rights that victims experience means that trafficking for prostitution must be seen as a grave breach of human rights.
In this way trafficking is distinct from people smuggling. Although people smuggling although often raises human rights issues, it is not in itself a violation of human rights. Smuggling lacks those elements of coercion, deception, lack of consent and ongoing exploitation inherent to trafficking.
A rights-based approach to trafficking involves not only prosecution of traffickers but protection of its victims. It must be remembered that victims of trafficking have come from and remain in a particular position of vulnerability.
Dealing with them requires a sensitive approach, aimed at assisting their recovery. Unfortunately there is no response to trafficking for prostitution that can nullify the abuses experienced by its victims or reclaim the years they have spent in servitude.
But we can ensure that anti-trafficking measures support victims to recover from their experiences and that they do not further adversely affect the rights of those who have been or are vulnerable to being trafficked.
A good first step is for all agencies working in the area of trafficking to keep central to the work the following two fundamental principles:
One, that human rights must be at the core of any credible anti-trafficking strategy; and
Two, that such strategies must be developed and implemented from the perspective of those who most need their human rights protected and promoted.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights bases all of its anti-trafficking work upon these principles.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights produced Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking in September 2002 which reiterate the primacy of the human rights of trafficked persons in combating trafficking.
Although these Guidelines and Principles are non-binding they inform the application of relevant international conventions, including: o The United Nations Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (2000);
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979);
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
This recognition of trafficking as of universal concern is necessary due to the global nature of trafficking in women. For this same reason any strategy adopted to address the issue needs to adopt a comprehensive international approach.
A comprehensive international approach is ideal as the way in which the issue is dealt with in other countries affects not only the way in which the problem manifests itself in Australia but the options open to us in addressing the problem once it is on our shores.
Australia is a demand country. Our proximity to the issue therefore lies on the demand side of the trade and with the victims of trafficking.
Australia can draw on the experiences of other demand countries. There are a plethora of international best practice examples. For example, in March this year the UK Government announced a six month pilot project to accommodate victims of sex trafficking in ‘safe houses’.
By recognising that trafficking of women for prostitution is an international problem we have more parties working towards a solution and therefore more resources to draw upon.
By recognising that it as one of today’s most urgent human rights issues we are more likely to see issue being addressed now.
This is the goal of the Stop the Traffic 2 conference - Welcome to the Conference and thank you for being committed to this goal.
