25 May 2007

Human trafficking conference at Queen's

Human trafficking will be the subject of a major conference at Queen’s University today.

The conference was organised by the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s and sponsored by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Professor Jorge Bustamante will be in attendance.

He will speak on ‘Trafficking and Vulnerability of Migrants: A Conceptual Framework’ at the conference.

Statistics suggest that approximately 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Some 80% are women and girls, while 50% are children.

The aim of the conference, entitled ‘Human Rights and Human Trafficking’ is to promote a human rights framework to address trafficking of human beings among stakeholders in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The conference will identify human rights principles applicable to the practice and see how they can be implemented at national and regional level.

Conference organiser Dr Tom Obokata, assistant director of the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s, said its importance was on several levels.

“It is an international conference which brings together stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels, including representatives of the governments, non governmental organisations and international organisations such as the United Nations,” he said.

“Second it provides an opportunity to identify and analyse various human rights issues inherent in trafficking of human beings and facilitate a victim centre approach.

“Third, the conference will serve as a platform for information exchange, networking and cooperation among these stakeholders.

“Finally, the conference will hopefully raise awareness here in Northern Ireland as trafficking is becoming a serious problem.”

(JM/SP)