Site navigation
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.
