18-20 September, Brussels
European Union Policies and Outlook on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings
Statement by Mrs Karamanou
Chairperson of the
Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities of the European Parliament
Ladies
and gentlemen,
I am very pleased and honoured, as Chairperson of the Committee on
Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities of the European Parliament, to take part
in this Conference on "Prevention, of and Fighting against Trafficking in
Human Beings". A conference organised by the International Organisation
for Migration (IOM), in close co-operation with the European Commission and the
European Parliament, in the framework of the EU STOP Programme. I very much
welcome the particular focus of the conference on the enhancement of
co-operation in the process of enlargement of the EU, since enlargement of the
European Union is a high political priority and an opportunity to discuss
matters of common interest to us.
Only one week ago, the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal
Opportunities of the European Parliament organised a hearing on the issue of
enlargement and what it could mean for women. What enlargement at least should
mean is democracy, respect of human rights, respect of the rights of minorities
and respect of the rights of women. This brings me on the issue under debate
today: European Union Policies and Outlook on Combating
Trafficking in Human Beings
I am well aware that trafficking does not only concern women, but it
cannot be denied that a very high percentage of human beings that are victim of
trafficking are women. 500 000 victims of trafficking enter Western Europe
annually, and flows from Central and Eastern European countries have
dramatically increased, in addition to the already existing flows from Africa,
Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Trafficking is a modern form of slavery,
and it often leads to forced prostitution. Both these phenomena are intolerable
violation of fundamental rights, and the Parliament has requested that fighting
them should become the first priority in Community action. You will understand
that therefore combating trafficking is of growing concern to our Committee. In
my view it is a woman's rights issue strongly related to the issue of equal
treatment of women and to the position and image of women in our society.
These facts cannot simply be seen as the negative effects of the
transition process that many of the candidate countries are going through.
Simply because these problems are not emerging today and are not restricted to
the candidate countries But on the other hand, most candidate countries share
problems that are of particular concern: trafficking of women and sexual
exploitation, prostitution, under-age prostitution, as well as child
pornography.
The Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities of the European
Parliament has always been very active addressing the issues of trafficking in
women and sexual exploitation, forms of violence against women that are simply
unacceptable. I only refer to the Daphne programme on violence against women
(2000-2003). Our committee has been the driving force in the development and
success of Daphne. It is my opinion that this programme should continue after
2003, possibly with a reinforcement of the areas of action concerning child
sexual abuse and exploitation and trafficking. It is essential that
organisations from the applicant countries will be included in these
programmes, as they will soon become full members of the European Union.
Besides Daphne, the STOP-programme remains a valuable tool to support
projects combating trade in human beings, the sexual exploitation of children
and help to victims. The second generation of STOP allows for continued
financial assistance until the end of this year.
From 2003 on under the new Programme, action to combat trafficking and
sexual exploitation will continue.
Besides these important programmes the last years we have seen proposals
coming from the European Commission on combating trafficking in human beings
and sexual exploitation of children. On this issue our active and
well-respected Member Marianne Eriksson, very
much involved in the theme of trafficking, drafted an opinion.
Recently the European Commission has put forward a legislative proposal
on short-term permits of stay for victims of trafficking. Members of our
committee are very much involved in the discussions on this proposal. Ms Patsy
Sörensen, member of our committee is the responsible rapporteur for the
report of the Committee on civil liberties. Throughout her career Ms
Sörensen has been very much involved in the issue of trafficking. As the
issue is that important to us, we do not only have Ms Sörensen combating
trafficking in the Committee on civil liberties, but also Ms Lousewies Van Der
Laan in our own committee doing an opinion on combating illegal immigration and
trafficking in human beings.
This proposal responds to the major difficulty we face in the reluctance
of victims to cooperate with the competent authorities. It seeks both, to
combat networks of traffickers and smugglers and to help persons who find
themselves in a particular vulnerable situation, among them many women.
I do recall that these initiatives - action programmes, legislative
proposals etc. - are important and you can see for yourself that our committee
is active in the field. It is in favour of promoting networks and partnerships
between the police, judicial, migration and social authorities, as well as
between NGOs and international organisations in the Member States and candidate
countries. It also called for enhanced co-operation between the EU and the
candidate countries, with the aim of improving legislation against violence
against women and increasing the measures to protect victims, including
strengthened co-operation with NGOs.Women's NGOs in the candidate countries
must receive increased support through the Phare programme.
But to conclude, I would like to refer to what I said at the beginning
of my intervention about the position and image of the woman in our society and
equal treatment. When we really want to fight this violence against women, when
we really want to combat trafficking, sexual exploitation, domestic slavery, we
have to change the position and image of the woman in our society.
Than,
close co-operation between the Member States of the EU on judicial matters or
matters of reinforced police co-operation, is not enough, although I
acknowledge the importance of it. Than, one should go one step ahead, or should
I say, one step back and analyse the position and image of the woman in our
culture. By doing that we will follow a proactive track that will bear fruit in
the long run on a more structural basis. Than we also have to talk about
political power, about participation of women at all stages of the
decision-making process and more particularly in the elections to the European
Parliament in 2004. The phenomenon of the
low representation of women in decision-making positions, in all spheres of
political and professional life is common to the current Member States of the
EU and the candidate countries. As an illustration, I only mention the weak
representation of women in the recently created Convention, which will prepare
the future of Europe. It is of course important to lay down in the Charter on
fundamental rights articles on human dignity (art. 1), prohibition of
trafficking and slavery (art. 5) and non-discrimination and equality between
women and men (art. 21-23). But if these principles are not reflected in the
institutions representing women and men in the EU, if there is no gender
balance in these institutions, if women remain to be invisible, if equality will
not be accomplished at a political level, than the message is that men are more
equal than women, than it will be very difficult to strive for equal treatment
of women in society and to improve the image and position of women in our
society. Therefore I say that we all should practice what we preach. The fight
against trafficking of women demands that women are playing a key role in this
combat.