OSCE official calls for human rights approach to combat trafficking in human beings

Ruth Freedom Pojman, OSCE Deputy Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, called for a human rights approach to combating trafficking in human beings on 16 October 2014 at a conference on victim protection in Canada and Europe at the University of Ottawa, co-organized with the Austrian and Swiss Embassies to Canada.

“The OSCE has been a leader in promoting a victim centred and human rights approach to combating human trafficking,” said Pojman. “We pioneered the National Referral Mechanism to promote a coherent and co-ordinated approach between relevant governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations to protect the rights of trafficked persons.”

Pojman concluded her four-day visit to Canada, during which she also held an array of meetings with leading anti-trafficking NGOs and government officials, including a meeting with the Human Trafficking Task Force, and Member of Parliament Joy Smith, who has led efforts to push for legislation and policies on human trafficking and authored a report on preventing sex trafficking and exploitation of women and youth published at the start  of 2014.

Canada issued its first ever National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking in 2012, proposing strategies to better support organizations providing assistance to victims and helping to protect foreign nationals, including young female immigrants who arrive in the country alone, from being subjected to illegitimate or unsafe work.

“It is critical to integrate human trafficking across all relevant policy areas as this issue cannot be addressed in isolation. Canada’s progressive models of immigration and labour policies are well placed to prevent and to address some of the key underlying issues which can create an environment for trafficking in human beings to thrive in,” said Pojman. 

Pojman also cited the importance of government procurement regulations to strengthen protections against human trafficking, as part of the duty of the State to ensure that the private sector and Canadian tax dollars do not contribute to human trafficking.