[Stop-traffic] ACHR Features: A new UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking

[Angelika Kartusch]

http://www.achrweb.org/features/ACHRF16-04.htm

Index:ACHRF/16/2004   Embargoed for: 14 April 2004    
          
A new Special Rapporteur on Trafficking

(...)

The 60th session of the CHR however is all set to appoint a new special
procedure - a special rapporteur on trafficking. The resolution on
special rapporteur on trafficking is being sponsored, among others, by
Australia, Costa Rica, Congo, Germany, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
Philippines and Poland. There are very few countries which are immune
from trafficking. Though a few existing special procedures such as the
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, the Working Group on
Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the Special Rapporteur on the sale of
children deal with trafficking in persons, a new Special Rapporteur on
trafficking is unlikely to meet any opposition either from the LMG or
the United States. 

(...)

The Special Rapporteur on trafficking is likely to be given a generic
mandate to, among others, gather, request, receive and exchange
information and communications from all relevant sources, including
governments, victims of trafficking themselves and organizations, on
violations of their human rights and fundamental freedoms; formulate
recommendations and proposals on appropriate measures and activities to
prevent and remedy violations of the human rights and fundamental
freedoms of victims of trafficking; and work in close relation with
other special rapporteurs, special representatives, working groups and
independent experts of the Commission on Human Rights and of the
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Yet, a
Special Rapporteur on trafficking may go beyond the generic mandate
accorded to the Special Procedures to play the pivotal role not only
with regard to reporting to the Commission on Human Rights about the
patterns of trafficking which require immediate attention and
intervention but also to provide expertise and guidance to the UN
agencies and other interested national and regional agencies to
streamline their programmes for combating trafficking in persons more
effectively.