UN calls for immediate stop to human trafficking as Pinoy victims hit 80,000

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Written by Estrella Torres / Reporter
Monday, 07 June 2010 21:50

WITH human-trafficking victims in the Philippines hovering around 80,000, the call of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights gains much urgency and cries for immediate solutions, such as the strengthening of state and private agencies that deal with the “trafficking chain.”

The UN call marks the world celebration of International Migrant Workers’ Day, and focuses on human trafficking and the protection they are entitled to under international human-rights law.

Experts, led by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navanethem Pillay, highlighted the need to effectively implement the guidelines on human rights and human trafficking to safeguard the rights of the victims of trafficking in a forum sponsored by the Philippines and Germany with over 200 participants from governments, experts from international organizations and civil society.

The need is patently urgent, particularly on the victimization of women and children, as Denis Lepatan, chargé d’affaires and Philippine Deputy permanent representative to UN in Geneva, revealed that hundreds of thousands of persons from many nations are trafficked for purposes of exploitation each year, with 70 percent of victims being women and children.

The Philippines is the third largest source of migrant workers next to China and India, with over 8 million deployed in more than 180 countries. Lepatan said the sheer number of Filipino migrant workers in almost all member-countries of the UN—some of them poor and undemocratic—make them especially vulnerable to trafficking.

He urged member-governments to implement a rights-based approach in combating human trafficking. “It focuses on the needs of individuals at each step in the trafficking chain and, therefore, it can help save and repair more human lives which are being daily destroyed by trafficking.”

UN experts and key participants in the forum agreed to pursue specific measures on combating human trafficking that include enhancing training for government officials and service providers on the various dimensions on human trafficking and primacy of human rights.

The UN meeting also recommended the need to strengthen capacity of stakeholders in identifying victims of trafficking, provide them with services and assistance, and engage the media, civil society and private sector in the effort against trafficking.

The UN experts, at the same time, highlighted the importance of state ratification and adherence of states to the UN Protocol on Combating Trafficking in Persons and other international human-rights treaties.

Lepatan said responses to trafficking have traditionally concentrated on the law enforcement and criminal-justice aspects. “These fail to take into account the special needs of victims, especially women and children, who are lured by false promises into sexual and commercial exploitation.”

He stressed that the majority of victims are not properly identified and do not receive the protection they are entitled to under international human-rights law. “Most are often too scared to come forward for fear of prosecution as criminals or deportation as irregular migrants. Such stark realities make the application of a human rights-based approach to combat the trafficking ever more relevant and urgent.”

UN calls for immediate stop to human trafficking as Pinoy victims hit 80,000