Trafficking in human beings : prevention and fight again.
Date: 2002-09-30
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security
Subjects: EU Member State, fight against crime, help for victims, sexual violence, trafficking in human beings

# 20.1

Trafficking in
human beings
Prevention and fight against

European Commission

Directorate-General
Justice and Home Affairs

A European Union strategy since 1996

Each year, at world level, hundreds of thousands of women and children are being moved
across international borders by trafficking rings. The European Union has been actively
engaged since 1996 in developing a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach towards
the prevention of and fight against trafficking in human beings. Here are a few examples of
the way this strategy has been implemented over the last four years, going backwards in
time.

2002

Targeting the traffickers: on 19 July, the Council of ministers adopted the European Commission’s
proposal for a Framework Decision to combat trafficking in human beings (common definition of
trafficking for the purposes of labour and sexual exploitation, which will be implemented in all 15
member states of the European Union as well as in the candidate countries; the penalty for
trafficking in all member states must be not be less than eight years' imprisonment).

Protecting the victims: the Commission has put forward on 11 February a legislative proposal for
victims of trafficking to be allowed to stay for a limited period if they are prepared to co-operate in
investigations and proceedings against their exploiters. The legislative proposal is currently under
discussion in the Council.

Russian federation: a feasibility study on dealing with trafficking in the Russian Federation is under
way. This project will be a joint EU/RUS/US project within the Transatlantic Agenda under which
information campaigns already have been carried out (Poland in 1998, Ukraine in 1998, Hungary
and Bulgaria in 1999-2000).

Eastern European countries: the Commission has also started to develop actions against
trafficking in East European countries, including Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine.

2001

Stop II programme launched: the adoption of the STOP II programme on 28 June 2001 allows for
continued support to projects on trafficking after the first five year STOP programme that financially
supported 85 projects to combat and prevent trafficking in human beings and the sexual exploitation
of children, including child pornography. On 5 November 2001, the STOP II Committee agreed on a
set of 18 new projects, eight of which (with a total co-funding of around € 750 000) will focus on the
victims. Currently, the process to adopt a set of projects for 2002 is under way.

Candidate  countries  involved:  EU  ministers  of  justice  and  the  interior  together  with  their
colleagues  from  the  candidate  countries  on  28  September  2001  agreed  12  measures  to  combat
trafficking, among them active operational co-operation, organisation of information campaigns and
providing assistance to victims.

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Trafficking in human beings

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Prevention forum: the Commission launched in May 2001 the European Forum on Prevention of
Organised Crime. In this context, a specific workshop on prevention of trafficking in human beings
has been set up.

Awareness raising campaigns: the Commission implemented anti-trafficking activities, including
an awareness raising campaign, in the Ukraine in co-operation with the International Organisation
for Migration. Feasibility studies on the subject were also carried out in Belarus and Moldova.

2000

DAPHNE programme launched: Following up from the DAPHNE initiative of 1997, the DAPHNE
programme, launched in December 2000, has a wider scope than the STOP programme in that it
covers the general issue of violence against women and children in which trafficking is included.
Although the DAPHNE programme is open for public entities, it focuses on the important role of NGOs.

United Nations: since December 2000, the UN Convention on transnational organized crime and
its accompanying protocol on trafficking in persons, especially women and children have been
signed by more than 100 parties.  These include the European Commission and all member states
of the European Union.  It is expected that these instruments will be ratified and implemented
shortly.

1999

Amsterdam Treaty: Since May 1999, the European Union’s actions to combat trafficking in human
beings are explicitly mentioned under the Title VI in the Amsterdam Treaty. The articles of Title VI
cover police and judicial co-operation.

Tampere European Council: The conclusions from the European Council in Tampere, Finland, of
October 1999 also give clear priority to the fight against trafficking in human beings.

Accession partnerships: The problem of trafficking in women and children has retained the
attention of the EU institutions in the framework of the pre-accession strategy and in particular of the
PHARE programme.  Fight against organised crime has been included among the priorities of the
accession partnerships of 1999 and 2001 for several applicant countries.

1998

New target initiatives: in a second Communication on further actions in the fight against trafficking
in women in December 1998, the Commission assessed progress made and recommended a
number of new target initiatives as well as the deepening of certain existing actions.

1997

National legislation review: In February 1997, the Council adopted a "joint action" calling on
member states of the European Union to review their national criminal legislation as regards
trafficking in human beings and judicial co-operation as well as to encourage protection of victims in
judicial proceedings.

DAPHNE initiative launched: the DAPHNE initiative to combat violence against children, young
people and women was launched. A four-year DAPHNE programme followed the initiative in
December 2000.

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Trafficking in human beings

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1996

A European strategy: In a first Communication on trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual
exploitation, the European Commission developed a European strategy to prevent and fight against
this phenomenon.

Europol involved: the mandate for Europol was extended in order to enable the organisation to
combat trafficking in human beings.

STOP programme launched: in November 1996, the incentive and exchange programme STOP
was launched to support actions by the persons responsible (public officials and NGOs) for the fight
against and prevention of trafficking in human beings and the sexual exploitation of children.

Published by the Information and Communication unit of the Directorate-General Justice and Home
Affairs of the European Commission, B -1049 Brussels – September 2002
 Website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/index_en.htm

NE-50-03-207-EN-N

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