Committee: Social Cultural Humanitarian
Topic: Human Trafficking
Country: Dominion of Canada
Delegate: Lydia Glashouwer, Forest Hills Northern High School
In December of 1998, the assembly came to the decision to establish a committee to help prevent human trafficking and other transnational organized crime. This Ad Hoc committee has gathered 13 times, and during the 10th session the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children was put in place. Then in 2007, in Brazil, the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) was created to promote initiatives for local governments to address the human trafficking issues.
In response to this issue, Canada was one of the first nations to ratify the Protocol to Prevent human trafficking. On the local level, the royal Canadian mounted police went through with a human trafficking threat assessment between 2005 and 2009. Recently, it has been made clear that there is a lot of trafficking going on within the country, and many investigations have taken place across the country in a way to try and eliminate this. In 2017, the Public Safety Canada led a federal task force in response to trafficking, and the government is going to provide $14.5 million to establish an anti-trafficking hotline. Canada has increasingly been a hub for this illegal trafficking, and it can be seen that it has been doing, and plans to do much to prevent trafficking in the future.
It can very clearly be seen that Canada is very much so against human trafficking, and has been doing many things to try and prevent it. A new plan from 2018 poses the idea of the situation being split into three different sections: prosecution, prevention, and protection. In terms of prosecution, people can be put in jail for up to 14 years for trafficking, and people working in child protective services have been given training to be able to recognize when children are being trafficked. In order to prevent human trafficking Canada has put forward millions of dollars to provide support for victims and spread awareness about the issue. Finally police have been increasingly more strict towards cases involving trafficking, and the government has given victims shelter, medical and psychological care, food, and help with legal services. Although human trafficking is a huge issue in Canada, the country has been making many moves to try and combat it.
Works Cited
alexander.sauer. “Session 13 of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.” Unodc.Org, 2019, www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/background/session13.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.
—. “UNODC – Human Trafficking.” Unodc.Org, 2019, www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/index.html.
“Human Trafficking.” Publicsafety.Gc.Ca, 2016, www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/ntnl-ctn-pln-cmbt/index-en.aspx.
marcos.santos. “UN.GiFT – United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking.” Unodc.Org, 2019, www.unodc.org/lpo-brazil/en/trafico-de-pessoas/ungift.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.
ODS Team. “ODS HOME PAGE.” Un.Org, 2019, documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/V03/901/69/PDF/V0390169.pdf?OpenElement. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.
susannah.maio. “United Nations Launches Global Plan of Action against Human Trafficking.” Unodc.Org, 2010, www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2010/September/un-launches-global-plan-of-action-against-human-trafficking.html.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Refworld | 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report – Canada.” Refworld, 2018, www.refworld.org/docid/5b3e0b7f3.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.
- Lydia Glashouwer
