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.