23-24 June 2021
ONLINE
implemented by UNODC with the support of the Government of Germany
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will hold an online Regional Expert Group Meeting (REGM) on ‘Fostering Cooperation between the Public and Private Sector to Counter Trafficking in Persons in Africa’ on 23 and 24 June 2021.
The REGM will contribute to a series of regional consultations forming part of the UNODC project ‘Public-Private Partnerships: Fostering Engagement with the Private Sector on the Implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its Trafficking in Persons Protocol’ (‘PPP Project’). This PPP Project aims to improve effective partnership between the public and private sectors with a view to better assisting Member States in their implementation of the UNTOC and its supplementing Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Trafficking in Persons Protocol).
One of the main outcomes of the PPP Project will be the development of a Compendium of Promising Practices on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to Counter Trafficking in Persons (TIP). The Compendium will examine lessons learnt based on the analysis of existing PPPs and other forms of engagement with the private sector to prevent and combat human trafficking. Four REGMs focusing on South Eastern Europe (funded by a different donor), the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa will gather insights from various geographical perspectives. The REGMs will involve knowledge exchange with leading public and private sector stakeholders who have a vested interest in countering trafficking in persons. The REGMs will foster a common understanding of TIP, based on the TIP Protocol and the latest commitments of State Parties. It will enhance the understanding on how partnerships with the private sector can assist Member States in their implementation of UNTOC and its Trafficking in Persons Protocol, and contribute to preventing trafficking, identifying traffickers and protecting victims.
The REGM will gather stakeholders of origin, transit and destination from the Africa region. Relevant representatives will derive from governments, the private sector, as well as relevant civil society organisations and academia. Participants of the REGM will have a vested interest in addressing trafficking in persons through fostering PPPs. In order to facilitate focused, constructive, solution-oriented and critical discussions, participants will be expected to analyse the current challenges posed by trafficking to the private sector, exchange good practices on how to better engage in the prevention of human trafficking and share experiences on innovative approaches to addressing human trafficking at the country and/or regional level. There will be a specific focus on PPPs as they relate to countering trafficking from within the supply chain, the financial sector and the technology sector.
This segment of the PPP Project will be conducted in alignment with UNODC Strategic Vision for Africa 2030, launched in February 2021. The Vision outlines the Office’s mission to provide more safety to Africa’s people, governments and institutions from drugs, crime, corruption, terrorism and illicit financial flows. The Vision seeks to strengthen crime prevention, enhance justice, address organized crime, ensure a balanced response to drugs, improve the rule of law and bolster resilience. Building on decades of partnership and engagement with African countries, UNODC will work within its unique mandate towards these goals with a focus on whole-of-society approaches and inclusion of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations.
UNODC is the guardian of UNTOC and its Trafficking in Persons Protocol. As outlined in Article 32 of the Convention, the Conference of the Parties to UNTOC (COP UNTOC) was established to improve the capacity of States Parties to combat transnational organized crime and to promote and review the implementation of the Convention. Amongst others, the tenth session of COP UNTOC adopted Resolution 10/3 which stresses the importance of partnership with the private sector. In paragraph 13, Resolution 10/3 encourages States, where appropriate, in accordance with domestic law and taking into account best practices or other promising measures developed in response to emerging trends in trafficking in persons, to: (d) undertake proactive parallel financial investigations, including through collaboration with public and private financial institutions, […]; (j) encourage the private sector to conduct due diligence with respect to their supply chains, including through measures to regulate, license and monitor public and private recruitment and employment agencies, including prohibiting recruitment fees being charged to employees, to help ensure that such agencies are not used to facilitate trafficking in persons; and (k) develop and implement national policies, in line with their national laws, to prevent trafficking in persons in government procurement and global supply chains, […].
Business leaders and private sector entities have the potential to support enhanced strategic responses to trafficking in persons, both at the national level and internationally. While the public sector leads crime prevention and criminal justice efforts, private sector enterprises can leverage their resources and networks to build sustainable and responsible businesses, raise awareness among employees, partners and clients in their companies, and contribute tools, critical data and instruments to help governments tackle the crime. Civil society and academia can also further complement those efforts by providing unique on-the-ground perspectives, highlighting the needs of trafficking victims, as well as developing rigorous research on the matter.
Examples of how PPPs can be effective in sustaining these efforts are multi-pronged. For instance, private sector companies have at their disposal a wide range of technological tools that can be used to support governments’ anti-trafficking efforts. Private companies have the capacity to identify and address cases of trafficking and exploitation in their supply chain. In that regard, the public sector might acquire new skills and additional knowledge on sustainable procurement processes, how companies identify and manage risks and the multiple forms that trafficking can take. PPPs can also significantly facilitate investigations to trace and eventually confiscate financial gains from organized criminal activities such as those involving trafficking in persons.
Incidents of trafficking in persons in Africa are diverse and affect its subregions differently. UNODC’s recent global report on trafficking in persons found that in 2018, victims from Sub-Saharan Africa were detected in a large number of countries in almost every region of the world. Both the diversity of the flows and the number of victims detected indicate that trafficking from Africa has a global dimension. Victims from all areas of Africa were detected in Western and Southern Europe in significant flows.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of detected victims have been generally trafficked within the subregion according to the UNODC report. Thus, in Sub-Saharan Africa, trafficked victims are generally trafficked within the same geographical area. Whereas trafficking flows from Sub-Saharan Africa to other subregions or regions are minimal, the MENA region shows a significantly larger share of trafficking flows across subregions or regions.
There are various forms of exploitation in Africa. In Sub Saharan Africa, forced labour constitutes the main form of exploitation linked to the trafficking of persons. According to the UNODC report, about 73 per cent of victims detected in 2018 were trafficked for forced labour, and 20 per cent for sexual exploitation in Sub-Saharan Africa. In North Africa and the Middle East, 40 per cent of victims were trafficked for other purposes such as forced criminal activity and the remaining 30 per cent for forced labour and sexual exploitation respectively.
The profile of the victims, however, changes widely in different parts
of Africa. Thus, the global report on trafficking in persons found that about 60 per cent of victims were children in Sub-Saharan Africa, with both boys and girls detected in significant proportions. However, analysis of data by geographical areas shows that child trafficking continues to be more commonly detected in West Africa than in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, countries in North Africa and the Middle East detected more adult men than other types of victims. The report also found that more than 70 per cent of people prosecuted for trafficking in persons in North Africa and the Middle East in 2018 were males.
Nonetheless, important work is being done in this region. For example, the African Union-Horn of Africa Initiative on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling (AU HoAI), established in 2014, serves as a forum for participating countries from the region to debate issues, exchange information, share experiences and create solutions to address human trafficking and migrant smuggling. In Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire – where the world’s largest cocoa producers account for 60 per cent of global production – companies in the chocolate and cocoa industry have engaged with different stakeholders to combat child exploitation in the supply chain and its multiple causes.
These joint efforts have led to the establishment of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), a multi-stakeholder partnership that brings together major chocolate brands, cocoa processors labour unions and NGOs to eliminate child and forced labour. Furthermore, a number of African countries introduced the specific offence of trafficking in persons in accordance with the UN definition after the entry into force of the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol. This shows a strong commitment to addressing the crime.
Whilst these increasing and meaningful efforts should be commended, the use of PPPs to counter human trafficking remains low in most countries of the region. Indeed, some private sector entities have engaged with public agencies, civil society and international organisations to help to counter trafficking, as is the case with the work under UNODC’s Blue Heart Campaign against human trafficking. The campaign seeks to encourage involvement and inspire action to combat human trafficking. In this context, many corporations have played a critical role in supporting the blue heart campaign through marketing and advertising and mobilising much-needed resources in the fight for justice for victims. However, more systematic and coordinated efforts to increase the use of PPPs and to enhance the level of private sector engagement is needed, including an exploration of how we can build on the current progress to overcome regional challenges and create sustainable partnerships to counter trafficking between the public and private sectors, which this REGM will seek to do.
The objectives of this two-day REGM include supporting a coordinated and streamlined multi-stakeholder response to prevent and counter the trafficking of persons in Africa, which will also assist in the implementation of UNTOC and its Trafficking in Persons Protocol. The REGM aims to identify effective methods, strategies, lessons learnt and promising practices to combat human trafficking through the creation of PPPs. It will involve the exchange of experiences and expertise amongst participants, international and regional organizations.
The overall aim of this REGM is to exchange on how the private sector, governments and relevant civil society organisations and academics can work together to prevent and counter trafficking in persons, with the view to contribute to the successful implementation of UNTOC and its Trafficking in Persons Protocol.
The REGM will also contribute to the PPP Project’s overall aim of fostering strategic partnerships, which will facilitate the prevention of trafficking, prosecution of traffickers, as well as the protection of trafficking victims. It will do this by providing a structured and moderated platform that will enable interactive and engaging discussions between public and private entities and civil society. The REGM will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and expertise to promote engagement with the private sector in order to address trafficking in Africa. Additionally, it will seek to encourage the establishment of effective networks at the regional and global levels to counter this crime.
The REGM will:
allow participants to exchange on relevant best PPP practices, strategies and approaches to prevent and counter human trafficking within Africa;
identify needs and gaps to strengthen the capacity of the private sector to effectively support Member States towards effective implementation of the UNTOC and its Trafficking in Persons Protocol;
foster stronger networking and coordination between public and private entities for the effective management of supply chains, financial activities and technological innovations for the prevention and countering of human trafficking.
The REGM will be articulated around a series of sessions and use a variety of methods, including panel discussions, presentations and case studies. It will focus on the analysis of supply chains, the financial sector and the technology sector and their relation, role and/or vulnerability to trafficking. It will cover the following general topics:
Following a nomination and application process, the REGM will bring together PPP practitioners from origin, transit and destination countries within Africa. The REGM will be held online in English with simultaneous interpretation in French.
National and international public agencies within this region of focus will be invited to nominate a maximum of two expert officials working in the area of PPPs designed to prevent trafficking or protect victims of trafficking. Each agency is encouraged to give a preference to officials who can share good practices and concrete experiences of creating PPPs to counter trafficking in persons or working closely with the private sector to counter trafficking in person.
Representatives from the private sector, particularly those working on corporate social responsibility, social performance, business and human rights, supply chain regulation and legal compliance – as their role relates to addressing human trafficking – will be invited to participate in the REGM to substantively discuss their experiences, best practice and expertise on PPPs to prevent and counter trafficking.
Civil society and academics with significant and concrete experience in creating or facilitating PPPs to prevent and counter human trafficking will be invited to share their views and insights of the same.
Selected participants of the REGM will be invited to prepare brief presentations relating to experiences, challenges, good practices and lessons learned on PPPs and their engagement to prevent and combat human trafficking.
Ensuring gender balance is a priority in UNODC’s activities. For this REGM, maximum efforts will be made to achieve a balanced gender representation. Organisations and agencies are therefore encouraged to nominate female experts and participants whenever possible.
This REGM will be held online in English with simultaneous interpretation in French.
Interested participants from the private sector, civil society and academia may apply to participate in the REGM here. Government experts will be selected on the basis of nomination by their governments.