Promoting a Human Rights Response to Slavery and
Trafficking in Australia
Court Room Observers, Faculty of Law UTS: 2009
On Wednesday, 15 April 2009, Anti-Slavery Project (ASP) hosted
another very successful Court Room Observer Information Session. Law Lecturer
Robyn Pettit ably led the discussion again this year and hopes to meet us for
a further session at a later date.
High Court Hearing Canberra: 13-14 May 2008
In 2006 in the Victorian County Court Wei Tang, a Victorian
woman, was found guilty of possessing and using a slave and sentenced to 10
years of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 6 years.
When this story broke, Jennifer Burn (Director of the
Anti-Slavery Project) was approached by the ABC to make a comment. Her
texts are available as follows:
Outback truckies trade in child sex, drugs: 13 March 2008
It is important to realise that the movement or transfer
of children through abuse of a position of vulnerability or fraud or deception
for the purposes of exploitation is trafficking. In a bid to stop girls
as young as eight years of age from being paid for sex, Aboriginal elders
in Boggabilla and Moree convinced young women with first hand experience
in the truck stop trade to speak to Lateline.
Vienna Forum Mentioned in Australian Senate: 12 March
2008
On Wednesday, 12 March 2008, Liberal Senator ELLISON (Western
Australia) drew the Senate’s attention to the Vienna Forum and its implications
for Australian initiatives against human trafficking.
There are more than 2.5 million victims
of slavery and trafficking worldwide, and the industry
is constantly growing. With global migration rising
alongside economic downturn, the UTS Anti-Slavery Project
is responding to the spread of forced labour...
On Thursday, 1 October, the UTS Speaks series
featured Assoc Professor Jennifer Burn’s lecture
titled “Threat and Menace: With global migration
rising alongside economic downturn, how can Australia
respond to the emerging issue of forced labour?”.
Jennifer was introduced by the Hon Michael Kirby, Former
Justice of the High Court, and her lecture was attended
by a large audience. After the event, there was a short
interview with 2SER. Click this link to hear about the
legal gap on labour trafficking from Asian Women at
Work, Anti-Slavery Project and Samaritan Accommodation:
The
second Annual Trafficking Forum hosted by the Anti-Slavery
Project was held on 14 July at the Moot Court of
the Faculty of Law Building of the University of
Technology, Sydney. The focus of this year’s
Forum was the emerging issue of Labour Trafficking
in Australia.
Right: UTS Volunteer Students,
Jamie Ventura and Natasha Patney.
Representatives
of government, academia, legal offices, unions,
advocacy groups and NGOs participated in the day.
As
the program began, Associate Professor Jennifer
Burn introduced the topic of Labour Trafficking.
A
short DVD posed the question: “What is the
difference between a bad job and slavery?”
Participants
agreed that the day was most informative and thought-provoking.
Published Forum papers will soon be available.
Right:
Judge Michael McInerney (County Court Victoria)
and Ms Fiona David (AIC)
(Photographs taken by Jenny Stanger, Supervisor
Samaritan Accommodation)
Visa
Reforms 24.06.09
On Thursday 16 June 2009 at the Attorney General’s
Round Table in Canberra, it was announced that from
1 July 2009, changes to the Support for Victims
of People Trafficking Program (the Program) and
the People Trafficking Visa Framework (the
Visa Framework) will take place. Thus victims of trafficking
in Australia will have access to a more flexible support
framework for themselves and their families.
In summary, these significant changes mean:
De-linking victim support from visas.
Extension of the Assessment Stream and Bridging
F visa from up to 30 days to up to 45 days.
A period of up to 90 days assistance to victims
who are willing, but not able to assist with an investigation
and prosecution of a people trafficking offence.
A 20 day transition period for victims leaving the
Program.
Collapsing the temporary and permanent Witness Protection
(Trafficking) visas into one permanent visa and including
immediate family members both inside and outside Australia.
Lowering the threshold for issuing a Witness Protection
(Trafficking) Certificate from having made a “significant
contribution” to making a “contribution”
to an investigation.
Commencing the process for a Witness Protection
(Trafficking) visa earlier than at the completion
of a prosecution process by setting an independent
trigger.
CONGRATULATIONS TO JENNIFER BURN
AND ALL OTHERS WHO FOR SOME YEARS HAVE BEEN RECOMMENDING
THESE REFORMS: LIVES WILL BE CHANGED BY THEM!
Submission by
the Anti-Slavery Project UTS to the Australian Human
Rights Consultation 05.06.09
The submission of the Anti-Slavery
Project UTS to the National Human Rights Consultation
is prefaced by a summary of the work of the Project.
This is followed by statements about the human rights
abuses exhibited in slavery and trafficking in 21st
Century Australia. These emphasise that that there are
many gaps in Australia’s understanding of, awareness
of, and response to these abuses, and that they must
be addressed within a human rights framework.
Re what Australia can do better, our
core recommendations to the Consultation are:
Introduce an Australian Human Rights
Act that protects human rights of everyone in Australia’s
jurisdiction, regardless of their immigration status.
This Act should include protection for the right to
be free from slavery, servitude, forced labour and
other practices similar to slavery.
Increase the use of human rights
education to raise understanding and awareness of
important human rights issues like forced labour,
trafficking, and the rights of migrant workers. Rights-based
education should focus on engaging people who have
little or no access to information about their rights
and how to exercise those rights.
The submission goes on to address
details of the current situation in Australia known
from the experience of dealing with clients of the Anti-Slavery
Project legal services.
Further questions are posed:
How is Australia protecting the
special rights of child victims of trafficking?
How does Australia protect trafficked
people who would face danger if they were returned
home?
Do people who have been trafficked
and enslaved have a right to an effective remedy (including
compensation)?
How does Australia protect the
rights of migrant workers?
How can Australia improve its protection
of the rights of trafficked people?
How does the Anti-Slavery Project
support introducing an Australian Human Rights Act?
Why does the Anti-Slavery Project
believe rights-based education will improve human
rights protection?
The complete document (including detailed
recommendations) is available here.
Launch of the Guidelines for
NGOs Working with Trafficked People 04.03.09
On Tuesday 3 March 2009 at the Commonwealth
Parliamentary Offices, 70 Phillip Street, Sydney the
Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon Bob Debus MP, along
with Catherine Branson QC (the President of the Australian
Human Rights Commission) and Jennifer Burn (the Director
of the NGO Anti-Slavery Project), launched the Guidelines
for NGOs working with trafficked people.
The Guidelines were produced by the Working
Party of the National Roundtable on People Trafficking.
This group was chaired by Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination
Commissioner and included representatives of key Government
departments, the Workplace Ombudsman, the Australian
Human Rights Commission and NGOs.
Government Departments involved were
Attorney-General’s Department, Office for Women,
Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Commonwealth
Director of Public Prosecutions and The Australian Federal
Police. NGO members were the Anti-Slavery Project/UTS,
ACRATH, Scarlet Alliance, Project Respect, Salvation
Army, Victim Support Australasia, NSW Rape Crisis Centre,
and the Josephite Counter-Trafficking Project.
Left: The Hon.
Bob Debus, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister
responsible for the Australian Government people-trafficking
strategy, photographed on 3 March, 2009, with Catherine
Branson QC, President Australian Human Rights Commission
(left), and Jennifer Burn, Director Anti-Slavery
Project, UTS (right) at the Launch of the Guidelines
for NGOs working with trafficked people.
The Guidelines are a great achievement
and set out agreed standards for NGOs working with people
who may have been trafficked.
Anti-Slavery Project, University of
Technology Sydney
Faculty of Law, PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61-2-9514 9662 Fax: +61-2-9514 9685
