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	UN forum hears calls for measures to combat human trafficking by United Nations News Austria   14 February 2008   Policy makers and celebrities today joined their voices in calling for action against human trafficking, as the first-ever global United Nations forum on the problem opened in Vienna.   Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the pop star Ricky Martin received a petition from the group “Stop the Traffik” signed by 1.5 million persons calling for action on the issue.   Mr. Costa accused law enforcement authorities around the world of demonstrating “benign neglect” and appealed for coordinated action to fight the “monster” of human trafficking.   He said efforts to carry out the provisions of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons have been disjointed, with “victims often prosecuted for their illegal status; interdiction operations limited; few arrests, with inadequate retribution.”   He said the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), launched to facilitate implementation of the Protocol, has begun a process of collecting scientific evidence about the extent of this crime while building up profiles of traffickers and their networks. It is also working on enhancing witness protection. In addition, measures are being taken to examine the causes of victims vulnerability and to strengthen prevention.   Mr. Costa described some “uncomfortable truths” about the problem, which can involve children in conflicts, girls sold by their family into brothels, women enslaved into sex parlours, men in bondage “in southern plantations or northern sweat shops” and kids enslaved to beg in Europe and North America. Children are also sometimes forced to use “their nimble fingers to produce luxury goods.”   He urged all segments of society to join forces against the scourge, while calling for contributions to the UN account to fight human trafficking.   But Mr. Costa cautioned that “money and goodwill are not enough; we need concrete actions that will reduce vulnerability and make this crime a riskier business.” Toward that end, he said the Forum must adopt practical measures that will stop traffickers and help victims.   A chorus of voices joined Mr. Costa in decrying the problem. “Human trafficking is a vicious violation of human rights; it has no place in our world and I beg you to act now,” said the Grammy Award-winning Mr. Martin.   “We simply cannot tolerate human beings being bought, sold and hired like commodities,” Ursula Plassnik, Minister for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria.   Emma Thompson, Chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation, who yesterday opened an art installation in Vienna mapping the journey of a trafficking victim, told the Forum the harrowing story of a Moldovan woman who was trafficked to the United Kingdom and forced to work as a prostitute.   The Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking is bringing together 1,200 experts, legislators, law enforcement teams, business leaders, NGO representatives and trafficking victims from 116 countries.   In a related development, UNODC today launched a manual aimed at helping countries develop comprehensive programmes for the protection of victims and witnesses of crime.   Witness protection programmes are considered a key tool in the dismantling of human trafficking networks as well as combating other forms of organized crime.   The manual, Good Practices in the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime, calls for early identification of vulnerable and intimidated witnesses; management of witnesses by the police; protection of witness identity during court testimony; and, if necessary, permanent relocation and re-identification.   12 February 2008   OSCE representative urges parliamentarians to step up fight against human trafficking   The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Eva Biaudet, said today that parliamentarians have a crucial role to play in the fight against trafficking.   "The role of Parliament in the fight against human trafficking is not only to discuss and amend national legislation, but also a vehicle for national reflection on how to change the situation," she said, addressing participants from 116 countries at the first global Parliamentary Forum to fight human trafficking in Vienna. The event is part of the U.N. Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking.   Participants at the Vienna Forum discussed practical measures to increase the effectiveness of measures aiming to prevent human trafficking and bring perpetrators to justice. Lack of information and a disjointed response were named as reasons that have enabled human trafficking to continue.   Biaudet urged parliamentarians to call for a day of national reflection on human trafficking. "A day of national reflection during which parliamentarians from different segments come together to discuss and contribute towards concrete policies and results is needed to curb this crime. We should be more ambitious and mark today as our day of reflection.   We should come together in the near future as a true Global Forum, bringing our contributions, challenges and achievements in the battle against human trafficking," she said.   "Human trafficking takes many forms, and exists side-by-side with other unlawful activities such as forced labor, pedophilia, child exploitation, civil conflicts and organized prostitution. It is a violation of human rights".   "Women also have a critical role to play in building the political will to address human trafficking", Eva Biaudet, said. "Women are the driving force for political change, especially bringing issues historically accepted as private into the public sphere" she said.   "We, women leaders, represent a role model to others. In this Council, our goal is to demonstrate our responsibility and commitment to fight this crime that shames us all. It is critical for us to use our influence to effectively address the root causes of trafficking in human beings, including the growing inequalities between and within countries, as well as discrimination against national minorities, irregular migrants and women."
	US Senate Votes to Ban Waterboarding by AFP / AP / Reuters   Mar 11, 2008   Torture tactics tarnishing US image, says Human Rights First. (AFP)   The use of torture to extract evidence from detainees held at the US military jail in Guantanamo Bay has tarnished the image of the US legal system and alienated allies in the war on terror, a human rights group says.   "The use of evidence tainted by torture and other inhuman treatment is pervasive and systematic in the cases of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, and has already infected legal judgments made there," Human Rights First said in a report titled ''Tortured Justice''.   By hearing testimony extracted under torture when trying Guantanamo detainees, the United States is "tainting the legitimacy of the proceedings, both at home and in the eyes of the international community; alienating US allies and empowering terrorists", it said.   ''Tortured Justice'' was released two days after US President George W Bush vetoed legislation on intelligence funding because it called for interrogation methods to be limited to techniques outlined in a US military manual.   That would have excluded waterboarding, a method of controlled drowning, widely seen as a form of torture.   In vetoing the bill on Saturday (local time), Mr Bush called hardcore interrogation methods "one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror", and praised them for preventing another attack on the United States, such as those on September 11, 2001.   But according to scientific studies and former interrogators cited in Monday''s report, torture and other forms of cruelty do not produce useful evidence.   "There is no scientific record that establishes that torture and coercion are going to produce accurate or reliable information," report co-author Avi Cover said.   ''Tortured Justice'' quoted former FBI interrogator Jack Cloonan as saying the abusive interrogations conducted at Guantanamo were "a complete and unmitigated failure".   Better results were obtained by providing suspects with legal representation and giving them a fair hearing. "A tremendous amount of information came our way as a result of treating people humanely," Mr Cloonan was quoted as saying. The military commissions at Guantanamo were created by an act of Congress in 2006, which also allowed coerced evidence to be used against some suspects.   Feb 2008   US Senate Votes to Ban Waterboarding. (AP)   The US Congress on Wednesday moved to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects, despite President Bush"s threat to veto any measure that limits the agency"s interrogation techniques.   The prohibition was contained in a bill authorizing intelligence activities for the current year, which the Senate approved on a 51-45 vote. It would restrict the CIA to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual. That manual prohibits waterboarding, a method that makes an interrogation subject feel he is drowning.   The House had approved the measure in December. Wednesday"s Senate vote set up a confrontation with the White House, where Bush has promised to veto any bill that restricts CIA questioning.   Arguing for such restrictions, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the use of harsh tactics would boomerang on the United States.   "Retaliation is the way of the world. What we do to others, they will do to us — but worse," Rockefeller said. "This debate is about more than legality. It is also about morality, the way we see ourselves ... and what we represent to the world."   The legislation bars the CIA from using waterboarding, sensory deprivation or other harsh coercive methods to break a prisoner who refuses to answer questions. Those practices were banned by the military in 2006.   Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, backed by Senate Republicans Olympia Snowe of Maine and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, inserted the provision in December into a bill providing guidelines for the running of U.S. intelligence agencies this year.   The 19 approved interrogation techniques in the military field manual include prohibiting military interrogators from hooding prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes. They may not be stripped naked or forced to perform or mimic sexual acts. They may not be beaten, electrocuted, burned or otherwise physically hurt. They may not be subjected to hypothermia or mock executions. It does not allow food, water and medical treatment to be withheld, and dogs may not be used in any aspect of interrogation.   Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York dared Bush to veto the bill, saying that the president"s Iraq war commander, Gen. David Petraeus, rejects harsh interrogation. "If it"s good enough for General Petraeus and FBI Director Robert Mueller, it"s good enough for all of America," Schumer said. "If the president vetoes this, he will be voting in favor of waterboarding."   Feinstein noted Bush"s repeated declarations that the United States does not torture. "If he means what he says this is the bill to sign," she said.   February 10, 2008   Waterboarding is torture: UN rights chief.   The interrogation technique known as waterboarding qualifies as torture, the UN human rights head says.   "I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, told a news conference in Mexico City on Friday.   Ms Arbour made her comment after a question about whether US officials could be tried for the use of waterboarding that referred to CIA director Michael Hayden telling Congress on Tuesday that his agency had used it.   Violators of the UN Convention against Torture should be prosecuted under the principle of "universal jurisdiction" which allows countries to try accused war criminals from other nations, she said.   "There are several precedents worldwide of states exercising their universal jurisdiction ... to enforce the torture convention and we can only hope that we will see more and more of these avenues of redress," Ms Arbour said.   The US Congress is considering banning the practice, in which prisoners are immobilised and water is poured into their breathing passages to simulate drowning.   Ms Arbour referred to an arrest warrant issued in 1998 by a Spanish judge for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who died in 2006, on charges of torture, murder and kidnapping in the years that followed his 1973 coup.   Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s were known to use waterboarding on political prisoners.   Feb 7, 2008   US censured for waterboarding. (The Guardian)   The UN"s chief torture investigator criticised the US government yesterday for defending the use of "waterboarding", an interrogation method often described as a form of torture.   Manfred Nowak, the special rapporteur on torture, said: "This is absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law. The time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."   Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said: "I"m not willing any more to discuss these questions with the US government, when they still say that this is allowed. It"s not allowed."   * Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Visit the related web page
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