GOVERNMENT ACTION... AND INACTION

In 2009-2010 increasing numbers of national Governments (including Argentina, Peru, Thailand, the Philippines, Canada, Israel, the USA, Indonesia, Germany, Norway, Chile, France, Mexico, Italy, Kenya, South Africa and Austria) took note of our calls for civil society to be integrated into an 'inclusive' review mechanism in order for anti-trafficking responses to be meaningfully reviewed - without YOUR pressure commitments to civil society inclusivity can easily be forgotten.

At the 5th Conference of Parties to UNTOC (October 2010, Vienna, Austria) a resolution was adopted (Res. 5/5) in which a Working Group was established to draw up a terms of reference for a review mechanism which is to be: "transparent, efficient, non-intrusive, inclusive and impartial".

This Working Group held its first meeting between 17-19 May 2011 (Vienna, Austria) to work on a text for the terms of reference, based on a document prepared by Mexico which follows a similar model to the review mechanism already been adopted for the UN Convention against Corruption (UNTOC's sister convention).

As expected main points of disagreement during this meeting related to: INCLUSIVITY: Civil society and victim engagement in the review mechanism as well as the input of experts into the process; TRANSPARENCY: Publication of reports; MONITORING: Follow up to reports; COHERENCE: Thematic review or article by article, through one single mechanism or multiple mechanisms one for each protocol; FUNDING: UN regular budget or elsewhere.

Much of the background literature in relation to these discussions can be found here: