Home Office
Printable version E-mail this to a friend

Home Secretary moves to ratify the Council of Europe convention against Trafficking in 2008

Home Secretary moves to ratify the Council of Europe convention against Trafficking in 2008

HOME OFFICE News Release (007/2008) issued by The Government News Network on 14 January 2008

Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, today announced her intention to ratify the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking by the end of the year. Ratification of the Convention against Trafficking will be yet another milestone in the Government's concerted strategy to protect the victims of trafficking and bring to justice those that exploit them.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said:

"One of the vilest crimes that threaten our society is the trafficking of human beings. This horrendous crime is the product of organised criminality, whose business is to make money from human misery.

"That is why I am announcing today my intention to accelerate plans to ratify the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking. We will make the necessary legislative and procedural changes before the end of this year as part of our wider strategy to combat trafficking.

"Ratification is not and should not be an end in itself. Efforts to rescue victims of trafficking and bring to justice those that exploit them will go on until we ratify and we will continue to try to improve our ability to combat this horrendous crime after we ratify.

"We have already achieved a great deal. In March 2007 we launched the comprehensive UK Action Plan on Trafficking on the same day as signing the Convention. We have also established a dedicated Human Trafficking Centre and provided £4.5m over the last 5 years for victim protection under the Poppy scheme, which supports adult women trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation."

Significant progress has been made towards ratification. This includes the agreement of a provisional implementation plan by the Inter-departmental Ministerial Group on Trafficking in July, the development of models of victim support and the piloting of a victim identification process under the police-led, multi-agency anti-trafficking operation, Pentameter 2. The Home Office also hosted, with the Council of Europe, a conference in London designed to share experience of implementing the Convention.

The criminalisation of all forms of human trafficking has already secured 68 convictions under the Sexual Offences Act and combating trafficking has been made a priority for The Serious and Organised Crime Agency.

On the same day the Home Office have announced a review of the Government's reservation on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The review will assess the continuing need for the reservation in the light of the plans to ratify the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking and following a number of child protection developments in the UK, including placing the Border and Immigration Agency's responsibilities to keep children safe from harm on a statutory basis.

Notes to Editors

1. At present 37 out of the 47 Council of Europe Members have signed the Council of Europe Convention on Human Trafficking. However, only 11 states have ratified thus far. Most member states are in the same position as the UK in that they have signed the Convention and are in the process of implementing it. Those that have ratified include Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Denmark, Russia, Slovakia, Austria, and France. The majority of these are source countries of trafficked victims rather than destination countries.

2. The UK Human Trafficking Action Plan can be viewed online at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/human-traffick-action-plan.

3. The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Human Trafficking can be viewed online at http://www.coe.int/t/DG2/TRAFFICKING/campaign/default_en.asp.

Free, Secure, Compliant UK Public Sector IT Recycling Service