Continuous Assessment on International Human Trafficking Law Essay

Continuous Assessment on International Human Trafficking Law - Essay Example The practical difficulties will first be explored by outlining the historical developments of anti-human trafficking international law. Secondly, this paper will analyse the European Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings 2005 (Convention of 2005) and the ECHR’s approach to international human trafficking in Ranstev v Cyprus and Russia (2010). Finally this paper will recommend appropriate amendments that can improve the Convention of 2005. I. Historical Developments in International Human Trafficking Law Trafficking in human beings has a long â€Å"legal and political history†.2 The term human trafficking was first used in internationally during the early part of the 20th century and even then it was confined to issues relative to white slavery which was a term used in connection with forced prostitution. Therefore the first anti-trafficking convention at international law was the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic 1 904 which attempted to eliminate the criminal trafficking of females for â€Å"immoral purposes†.3 By 1927, the term white slavery was discontinued as it was perceived to be inadequate in terms of reflecting the real nature of the problem of international human trafficking. As a result a number of international conventions were adopted including the League of Nations’ Suppression of the Trafficking in Women and Children 1921 and the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age 1933. Neither or these conventions offered a definition of trafficking and were largely concerned with the forced prostitution of women across borders. Moreover, these conventions only dealt with the issue of recruitment as it was perceived that detention in brothels fell outside of international law.4 The United Nations adopted the Convention on Suppression of Trafficking and Exploitation of Prostitution in 1949 which had three significant shortcomings. First it was not a binding convention i n the sense that it only called for cooperation. Secondly, it was based on self-reporting and thirdly, it did not define the term human trafficking.5 The assessment of human trafficking would therefore differ from state to state as each country would have its own definition of trafficking and self-reporting, regardless of how objective could not reflect the real nature of the problem internationally. Moreover, the voluntary cooperative nature of the 1949 Convention could not provide an effective obligation or commitment to reporting and cooperating on the appropriate responses to international human trafficking. By the decades of the 1990s, national governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations became increasingly concerned about the problems associated with transnational criminal organizations and the attending problems of human trafficking. Thus the UN implemented the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2000. At the same time th e UN adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children (Anti-Trafficking Protocol 2000).6 Significantly, the Anti-Trafficking Protocol 2000 provided for an agreed upon definition of human trafficking, therefore facilitating a harmonized approach to defining human trafficking and as a result