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Council of Europe

Parliamentary Assembly

Recommendation 1610 (2003)

Migration connected with trafficking in women and prostitution

[Assembly debate on 25 June 2003 (21st Sitting) (see Doc. 9795, report of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, rapporteur: Mrs Zwerver; and Doc. 9848, opinion of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, rapporteur: Mr Piscitello; and Doc. 9809, opinion of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography, rapporteur: Mrs de Zulueta).]

Text adopted by the Assembly on 25 June 2003 (21st Sitting).

1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution 1337 (2003) on migration connected with trafficking in women and prostitution.

2. The Assembly considers that this type of migration, which has developed into a gigantic, highly organised international criminal trade linked to the exploitation of women, cannot be combated effectively by member states acting on their own.

3. Therefore, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

i. begin as soon as possible the drafting of the Council of Europe convention on trafficking in human beings, which will bring added value to other international instruments with its clear human rights and victim protection focus and the inclusion of a gender perspective;

ii. ensure that the Council of Europe convention on trafficking in human beings includes provisions aiming at:

a. introducing the offence of trafficking in the criminal law of Council of Europe member states;

b. harmonising the penalties applicable to trafficking;

c. ensuring the effective establishment of jurisdiction over traffickers or alleged traffickers, particularly by facilitating extradition and the application of the principle aut dedere aut iudicare in all cases concerning trafficking;

iii. closely involve the Parliamentary Assembly in the drafting of the convention and provide the necessary financial resources to bring this work to a rapid conclusion;

iv. ask the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to investigate the conditions of detention of the victims of trafficking in detention centres and prisons of Council of Europe member states, as well as their conditions of deportation;

v. instruct the relevant intergovernmental committees:

a. to draft programmes aimed at assisting member states with legal reform initiatives, and in particular in drafting comprehensive laws on trafficking in human beings and amending penal codes and immigration laws in conformity with international law on trafficking in human beings;

b. to organise a round table on the different views on the problem of prostitution in Council of Europe member states.