29/11/2010 Equality and Non-Discrimination
Strasbourg, 29.11.2010 – Promoting the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking in human beings will be the subject of an inter-parliamentary conference which the Committee on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will be holding in Paris on 3 December 2010.
The participants will take stock of the action undertaken by the international organisations in this field, the implementation of the relevant international legal instruments and the involvement of national parliaments. They will define possibilities for a new parliamentary monitoring procedure to back up the work of GRETA, the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which is responsible for supervising implementation of the Convention.
The meeting will be opened by José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Chairperson of the Committee, and Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Speakers will include Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Hanne Sophie Greve, Chairperson of GRETA, and Baroness Butler-Sloss, member of the House of Lords (United Kingdom) and Co-President of the Parliamentary Inter-Group on Trafficking in Human Beings.
The Chairperson of the Committee will present the results of a questionnaire sent to heads of national delegations to the Assembly, taking stock of the activities carried out in this field. 24 national delegations have replied so far. The replies will be analysed at the conference in order to promote exchange of experience and pinpoint best practice.
At the close of the meeting the participants will be adopting a declaration comprising the main recommendations emerging from the work of the conference.
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The Conference, which is open to the press, will take place at the OECD Conference Centre, 2 rue André Pascal, Paris, Room 9, from 9 am to 4.30 pm.