Friday, April 15, 2016
Maestro A (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
One of the most profitable and fastest growing criminal activities, human trafficking in Europe amounts to several hundred thousand per year. The global market in human/child trafficking is estimated at $12 billion with over 1.2 million child victims. Human trafficking, the “modern day form of slavery”, constitutes the severest violation of human rights. The policy resilient fight against human trafficking was accelerated by the 2003 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Anti-trafficking instruments have been adopted in Europe, notably by the Council of Europe and European Union, with the aim of enhancing inter-state cooperation and protecting trafficking victims. In 2011, the European Commission adopted a Directive in Trafficking in Human Beings and in 2012 a Strategy toward the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings. But with European States’ overemphasis on law enforcement and criminal justice responses has limited the identification of internationally trafficked persons. Prosecution and conviction rates remains low despite the ever increasing number of trafficked persons. These challenges and shortcomings underscore the necessity of adopting a gender and human rights-centered framework, as espoused by the EU, which would serve as a means of combating human trafficking and would encourage trafficked persons to come forward, testify against traffickers, enhance victims’ identification and increase prosecution and conviction rates. It is argued that a gender and human rights-centered approach will enhance the resilience of States’ policies and practices in fighting the crime of human trafficking while protecting the rights of trafficked persons.
