Barne- og familieminister Laila Dåvøy

The Closing Session for the first joint seminar of the Nordic and Baltic countries against trafficking in women

Tallinn May 31, 2002

Ladies and gentlemen

First of all, I would like to thank the Estonian government for hosting the opening seminar of our joint Nordic-Baltic campaign against trafficking in women. And also many thanks to the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Information office that has done all the practical work to make this seminar a successful one. For two days now workshops and discussions have been taking place covering different aspects of society that influence and support this serious exploitation of women – and children; women’s status in society, legislation and not least; medias role. In my opinion this has been a very fruitful starting point for our joint campaign. For me, it was very interesting to hear the workshop presentations.

The main purpose of this joint campaign against trafficking in women is to raise awareness and to stimulate discussions on how to combat this serious crime. However, the campaign also gives us a great opportunity to establish a common platform for further co-operation.

Being at the 2. World Congress against Commercial Sexual Explotion of children in Yokohama in desember 2001, I really understood that we are talking not only about women, but also children.

Even if trafficking in women and children are being denounced in many contexts by the international community as an appalling and serious human rights abuse, and also a form of violence against women, we still have a lot of work to do to transform such statements of no tolerance into action and concrete measures. So far, most countries have a great potential for improvement to protect individuals, to prosecute traffickers, and to provide effective remedies for victims.

The last two days has shown again that trafficking in women - and children is a complicated and multifaceted problem that requires co-ordinated, interdisciplinary and international response.

The process of co-ordinating our efforts in a joint campaign is an on-going process. Thus this meeting is a very promising start for joining forces at many levels.

A successful campaign will require the involvement of the welfare and justice sectors, integrating gender equality as a basic perspective. During the campaign period we will have a lot of opportunities to look into different aspects of trafficking. Numerous issues will be raised; among them socio-economic and gender inequalities; migration issues and law enforcement; and the increasing involvement by organised criminal groups.

I am satisfied that the next subject to be pursued at the mid-October seminar in Vilnius will be the situation of victims of trafficking. Issues to be discussed there will include what can be done to prepare for better protection and support for victims and how to prevent revictimisation. I know that these are important issues to all countries participating in this campaign.

The campaign aims at mobilising the civil society against trafficking in women and children. My experience is that non-governmental organisations do have a very important function as mediating actors between the government and the civil society. I think that their involvement is crucial if we are to succeed in establishing functioning systems of protection and support for victims.

Norway has suggested making victim’s protection and supporting a subject for the next seminar. Thus we will take a special responsibility for the planning process together with the organising committee in Vilnius. In the process we have asked for help from the Norwegian organisation, FOKUS, which is a resource centre for women, gender and development that have 58 affiliated women's organisations in Norway. FOKUS is ready to be responsible for mobilising their Baltic and Nordic sister organisations and to co-ordinating their involvement in the planning process. I find this to be a great opportunity to involve the non-governmental organisations and to make use of their competence and experience in co-operation with the governments.

The third seminar which is also the closing seminar of the campaign will take place in Riga in November 28.and 29. On the agenda will be two important subjects.

One will be the demand that fosters forms of exploitation of women and children that leads to trafficking. An important reference for our campaign is the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children, that supplement the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. The protocol encourages states to take measures to discourage this demand.

I am not proud that many Nordic men do demand and purchase sexual services both locally and when abroad. In this respect they contribute to the increase in sex trafficking across borders. It is time now that men in general are challenged to take responsibility for disapproving such practices.

In Norway we are at the moment discussing to implement ethical rules of conduct for government employees against the purchase of sexual services, especially when travelling abroad. If my Government decides to implement such rules of conduct, we will hold this up as an example to other organisations and institutions in society, among them the business community, and invite them to do the same. Our Armed Forces already have their own code of conduct for military personell stationed abroad. It is my hope that we will be able to share with you experiences from implementing such "codes of conduct" when we meet again in November.

The other subject for the closing seminar in october will be to sum up the campaign and to discuss thoroughly how we can proceed together in our joint effort to combat trafficking in women. By November we will hopefully have gained important experience on co-ordinated co-operation. Networks will have been established. These may be invaluable prerequisites for combating trafficking in women and children effectively.

Will we reach our goal to inform and engage the public during the campaign period? I think we will to a great extent.

However, I consider this seminar in Tallinn to be a starting point for a process to achieve a solid Nordic Baltic fundament for co-operation to implement co-ordinated strategies, at both the national and international level. Will there be such a fundament by the end of November? I really hope so.

Norway, chairing the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2002, will invite all Nordic and Baltic Ministers involved in this campaign to engage actively and take this opportunity to building an even more solid fundament for co-operation against trafficking in women and children in our countries. We will prepare for an informal ministerial meeting in connection with the closing of the campaign. The ambition will be to reach an agreement on common strategies of co-operation and action to be taken in the years to come. The seminars are only a beginning.

By sharing these ambitions with you, I will end my speech wishing you all the very, very best for the campaign.

Thank you!