Skip to content | Change text size
 

Launch of 'Collateral Damage: The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights around the World' Report

Co-sponsored by the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law and World Vision Australia

Launch Details

Date: Friday, 5 October
Time: 11.30 am to 12.30 pm
Venue: Telstra Conference Centre, 242 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
Inquiries: castan.centre@law.monash.edu.au; tel 03 9905 3327
Public event - all welcome


Background to the Report:

Over the past seven years since the adoption of the UN Trafficking Protocol, a flood of resources has been dedicated to the prevention of human trafficking, the prosecution of those accountable and the protection of victims. While the objectives behind such efforts have been, and are, well intentioned, the impacts, in many cases, have been far less positive. In recent years, human rights defenders and service providers alike have become concerned that many strategies to eradicate trafficking have proved counter-productive for the very people they were intended to benefit. Against this background, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) commissioned the research and writing of a report focusing on the appraisal of the human rights repercussions of government policies and various anti-trafficking prevention initiatives onthe people living, working and migrating under them. The report considers the experiences of eight countries: Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Brazil, India, Nigeria, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States and, in the main, seeks to respond to two primary questions:

  • Have anti-trafficking measures provided scope for a greater number ofvictims to exercise their human rights more fully in obtaining access tojustice and protection from trafficking?
  • Have prevention initiatives instead had a negative impact on the varietyof people involved, including victims, perpetrators, policy makers andmigrant communities?


The report, entitled ‘Collateral Damage: The Impact of Anti-Trafficking Measures on Human Rights around the World’, differs from others of its ilk in that it is the first to focus - not only on ‘victims of trafficking’ - but on ‘victims of anti-trafficking’ as well. Adopting a human rights centred approach, the report assesses strategies and policy frameworks on the basis of their implications for victims and other persons at highest risk of being trafficked, rather than from the perspective of perpetrators or on the impacts on the phenomenon of trafficking itself.

Key issues for discussion from the Australia chapter include:

  • The effects of linking victim assistance to cooperation with law enforcement
  • Abuse of the Temporary Business (Long Stay) Visa (subclass 457) and its potential for labour trafficking
  • Expanding the scope of investigations of trafficking outside of the sex industry
  • Effectiveness of trafficking victim visa framework
  • Provision of victim support


Launching ‘Collateral Damage’

Collateral Damage was scheduled for international release in Bangkok at the Foreign Correspondents Club on 27 September 2007. The international launch will be closely followed by national launches in Australia, Brazil, Thailand and, potentially, the United States and the United Kingdom to draw attention to individual country issues and how they contrast and compare within the global framework of anti-trafficking. The Australia launch is scheduled for 1-8 October 2007 at events in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, where the majority of primary research was undertaken.

Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women

The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) is a partnership of over 80 non-government organisations and self-coordinated groups spanning five continents that work in collaboration to advance the human rights of migrant women and children among relevant authorities and agencies from across the globe. Founded in 1994 in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, GAATW’s overarching objective is in working towards the realisation of change among the varied political, economic, social and legal systems that contribute to the persistence of trafficking in persons and provide opportunity for human rights violations in the context of other migrations.

GAATW works locally and nationally through members and allies and internationally though its secretariat in Bangkok, Thailand.  In 2000 GAATW successfully advocated for a broad definition of human trafficking and key human rights protections to be included in the UN Protocol on the Prevention, Suppression and Punishment of Trafficking in Persons 2000, Supplementary to the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime. GAATW has published a number of practical handbooks and manuals in several languages explaining the human rights approach to trafficking and coordinated regional and global consultations on best practice prevention, advocacy and access to justice for trafficked and migrating persons.

Speakers

Ms Elaine Pearson:
Elaine currently works as a consultant to UNIFEM in Bangkok and research coordinator of the AusAID’s Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons (ARTIP) project in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos PDR and Myanmar. Elaine began her career in anti-trafficking with the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) in 1998 after graduation from law school in Western Australia.  During her two years with GAATW, she researched and wrote ‘Human Rights and Trafficking in Persons: a Handbook’, a publication still in use around the world for assisting victims of trafficking. During the past five years, Elaine has worked on anti-trafficking projects in the United Kingdom, Africa, Hong Kong, Nepal and the Mekong Region. She has written extensively on victim protection, the demand side of trafficking and on the organ trade. At Anti-Slavery in London Elaine was a leading member of the team preparing the groundbreaking report: ‘Human Traffic, Human Rights: Redefining Victim Protection’. Most recently, Elaine worked with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Bangkok on the Mekong Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women. She is due to take-up the post of Deputy Director with the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch in New York later this year.

Ms Eleanor Taylor-Nicholson:
Eleanor is a human rights lawyer currently working as advocacy coordinator and legal advisor to the International Secretariat of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women in Bangkok. Eleanor trained as a lawyer in Australia and worked as an associate in the Federal Court of Australia, prior to moving to Southeast Asia. She has spent the past five years as a consultant researching, writing and advocating for the protection of human rights in Asia, including as a legal advisor and editor of Chega! the Final Report of the Timor-Leste Commissionfor Reception, Truth and Reconciliation and as an advisor on systems for women’s legal assistance and victim protection.

Susu Thatun:
Dr. Thatun is an internationally recognized and esteemed expert on the trafficking of human beings. Her present work as the Senior Advisor on Child Protection and Trafficking with World Vision Australia has lead her to the development of long term strategy for WVA to combat all forms of trafficking in persons in Asia especially focussing on the protection of children and women. She is also responsible for informing the Australian government on the situation of trafficking in Asia, the impact and challenges of its policies and engagement in the region. Recently she has successfully guided the development of a three year regional anti-trafficking project (2007 – 2010) which has received full funding. She provides oversight to a number of anti-trafficking projects in Asia and is approached as a resource person for such initiatives in other parts of the world. She is also responsible for working with the governments in Asia to facilitate greater government-civil society collaboration to successfully combat the problem.

Ms Jennifer Stanger:
Jenny began her anti-trafficking/anti-slavery work 10 years ago as a founder and staff member at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST) in Los Angeles. She has provided services and human rights advocacy for survivors and collaborated with government and community agencies to respond to trafficking and slavery through mentoring, training and technical assistance. She is a founding member of Freedom Network USA, a national advocacy network and directed the Freedom Network Institute on Human Trafficking, a nationwide training and technical assistance project deployed in 25 American cities for two years.  Jenny relocated to Australiain 2005 and co-founded the Anti-Slavery Project at the University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Law, where she currently assists trafficked persons and coordinates anti-trafficking initiatives.