03/12/2010 Political Affairs and Democracy | European Convention on Human Rights
Strasbourg, 03.12.2010 - The accession by the European Union to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings would ensure that “the Convention’s high standards and human rights approach are uniformly applied throughout Europe”, today said the participants in the Conference 'Parliaments united against trafficking in human beings', organised in Paris by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Committee on Equal Opportunities. To that purpose, the participants decided “to take up this issue further in their relations with EU institutions, in particular the European Parliament”.
The final declaration also underlines that “the effective implementation of the Convention provisions by the state parties is the main challenge ahead”, and stresses the conviction that “national parliaments should play an active role” in monitoring the effective implementation of the Convention.
"Trafficking in human beings affects us all as members of parliament. Victims of trafficking are powerless. We have the power to change their situation. We have the power to give them a voice", said José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Chairman of the PACE's Committee on Equal Opportunities. "Each of us has an individual political responsibility: let us not tolerate slavery. Let us not be powerless witnesses but fight against it", he added.
In the light of good practices identified during the conference, the participants recommended that the Council of Europe member states and national parliaments take a number of measures to promote the Convention.