Position Paper Mun

POSITION PAPER
Committee: United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
Topic: Protecting victims of human trafficking in conflict and post-conflict situations
Delegation: Republic of Germany
Delegate: Abhinav Shankar
The United Nations estimates that between 800,000 and 4 million men, women and children are
deceived, recruited and transported in order to be trafficked and at least 510 trafficking flows have been
detected. Also, it is estimated that the human trafficking market is valued at $32-billion dollars. The
countries most affected due to human trafficking are located in Europe, the Americas and Asia,
according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. According to the United Nations Office of
Drugs and Crime, trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. It is a
global issue that affects most countries developed or not. As stated in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punishing Trafficking in Persons, there are three main elements that are the basis to recognize this
crime: the act, the means and the purpose. In the Trafficking in Persons Report, the United States
Department of State places each country onto one out of three tiers based on the extent of their
governments efforts to obey the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.
The Federal Republic of Germany is a transit and destination country for victims subjected to sex
trafficking and forced labour. But more than anything, it is a country of destination, which receives
people from countries like Argentina, Colombia, China and Peru. As reported by the United States
Department of State in 2014, the Federal Republic of Germany is positioned in Tier 1, which indicates
that the government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking, made efforts to address the
problem and obeys the Trafficking and Violence Protection Act standards. In moving up to Tier 1, the
German government has increased police and prosecutor capacity to fight human trafficking, improved
interagency cooperation and offered specialized services to help sex trafficking victims and labor
trafficking victims. The government strengthened anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, with section
232 in its penal code which prohibits all forms of human trafficking, prescribing penalties ranging from
six months to ten years imprisonment. The German Police has boosted its efforts to stop human
trafficking in 2008 where over 1300 police officials and customs took part in raids in cities. There were
no reports of trafficking during the period. The German government provided a value of five hundred
thousand euros for victim protection during the reporting period. The Federal Family Ministry (FFM)
used the funds to capitalize an umbrella organization representing 39 NGOs and counselling centers that
provided or facilitated shelter, medical and psychological care, legal help, and other services for victims.
Most of these NGOs focused on adult and female victims; however, a number of NGOs, in cooperation
with local governmental youth welfare services, also attended to many child victims. Some of these
NGOs had also made their services available to male victims. Germany now ranks in the top tier of 188
countries for its efforts to prevent or prosecute this crime.
Thanks to the Reports of Human Trafficking made by United States of America Department of State, the
countries can have an upholder of recommendations that can help to eliminate human trafficking; and
with the Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, the countries are provided with tools to combat
trafficking in persons both worldwide and domestically. NGOs can support identification of trafficked
persons and adequate support, including legal, psycho-social and basis support & referral and
integration of trafficked persons. According to all information collected, the Republic of Germany
proposes the following solutions to end the problem: All the delegations that are placed in Tier 2 and 3,
most follow the Minimum Standards for Elimination of the Trafficking proposed by the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act (TVPA), in order to start changing the statistics of human trafficking in their
countries and reduce the rate of trafficked people per year. Governments must work in collaboration
with international NGOs, as International Organization for Migration to have better results in the fight
for eliminating human trafficking, but also to support victims of this crime. Governments must provide
specialized training on human trafficking detection and investigation to all prosecutors, officials, social
workers and labor officials, as well as publishing a best practice guide on anti-trafficking investigations.
The Republic of Germany is open to receive any other proposal that will help the committee to find the
best possible way to eliminate human trafficking and continue to contribute with ideas to help
throughout the debate.
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POSITION PAPER

Committee: United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

Topic: Protecting victims of human trafficking in conflict and post-conflict situations

Delegation: Republic of Germany

Delegate: Abhinav Shankar

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