President speech: Launch of NGO Guidelines for Working with Trafficked People

Launch of NGO Guidelines for Working with Trafficked People

The Hon Catherine Branson QC

President, Australian Human Rights Commission

Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices

70 Phillip Street, Sydney

3 March
2009

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation,
the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and pay my respects to
their elders.

It is my great pleasure to be here with the Minister for Home Affairs and
Associate Professor Jennifer Burn to launch the NGO Guidelines for working
with trafficked people.

I know that Elizabeth Broderick – the chair of the National Roundtable
on People Trafficking Working Group which produced these Guidelines – is
deeply disappointed that she can not be here to congratulate personally everyone
involved. Liz is in New York as a member of the Australian delegation to the
United Nations Commission for the Status of Women.

Last year I relinquished my role as a Federal Court judge to start work as
the President of Human Rights Commission. This transition has prompted me to
think carefully about the best ways to promote greater understanding and
protection of human rights. I’ve learnt a lot from watching Liz Broderick,
and the other Commissioners, work and perhaps the most important lesson is that
we are never so effective as when we work together.

NGOs play a vital role in raising community awareness of trafficking and in
directly assisting trafficked people. The production of the Guidelines is a
testament to what can be achieved when NGOs and Government agencies pool their
experience and expertise to make sure those who have their human rights violated
in Australia get the support and assistance they need.

I want to congratulate Minister Debus for the leadership he has shown in
establishing the National Roundtable on People Trafficking as an ongoing forum
for NGOs and Government agencies to work together. I also want to pay special
tribute to Jennifer Burn, the Director of the Anti-Slavery Project, for devoting
the same expertise and energy that she brings to advocating on behalf of
trafficked people to the production of these guidelines.

There is, of course, no way to undo the abuses experienced by victims of
trafficking or reclaim the time they spend in servitude. But we can ensure that
we help people who have been trafficked recover from their experiences, obtain
information about their legal rights and options, and receive the type of
respectful and culturally appropriate services they deserve.

These guidelines are about making sure that trafficked people get access to
the best possible support. They provide practical advice to NGOs working with
the victims of all forms of trafficking on topics such as responding to
subpoenas, protecting the safety and privacy of trafficked people, providing
support during criminal trials, and identifying culturally appropriate services.
There is also a referral guide that lists the phone numbers of all the services
that can help trafficked people.

The Guidelines are accompanied by a two-page ‘Know Your Rights’
fact sheet which tells trafficked people how they can get advice about their
visa status, contact police and get support from the NGOs and the government
agencies represented here today. Trafficked people are usually non-citizens and
– as the Guidelines explain – they may have little or no information
of their rights under Australian law. This fact sheet has been translated into
Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and Tagalog so trafficked people can get the
information they need, in the language they speak.

These Guidelines are a blueprint for best practice that should prove
invaluable to established anti-trafficking NGOs and organisations helping
trafficked people for the first time. I hope that they will be widely
distributed among anti-trafficking NGOs, victims of crime support organisations,
welfare agencies, and unions, so we can create greater community awareness about
all forms of trafficking, including those forms of trafficking – such as
trafficking for forced labour in construction and hospitality industries –
about which too many of us know too little.

The damage that trafficking causes to the lives of women, men and to
Australia reminds us that not everyone in Australia enjoys the rights most of us
take for granted. The right to be free from slavery and servitude. The right not
to be forced to work or exploited through debt bondage. I suspect many people
do not even realise that practices like slavery take place in 21^st century Australia.

But I am sure that everyone here knows that too often it is those who have
suffered the greatest human rights violations who face the greatest obstacles
accessing justice. Some people who have been trafficked will not realise that
what has happened to them is a crime under Australian law. The right to an
effective remedy – including compensation – when rights have been
violated will always remain elusive if you do not know what your rights are or
how to get legal advice. My hope is that the Guidelines and the ‘Know Your
Rights’ fact sheet will help trafficked people get the support and
information they need to recover from their ordeal and enjoy their legal rights.

I am aware that many NGOs here today have ideas about how to strengthen the
protection of trafficked people and about how to develop strategies to prevent
trafficking. NGOs are in a unique position to identify the gaps in
Australia’s protection of human rights because it is so often NGOs who
help people that have fallen through them. It was NGOs who placed the public
spotlight of the plight of trafficked women and it is NGOs who argued so
persuasively that Australian laws and policies must provide greater protection
for the rights of those targeted by traffickers.

It is in this context that I would like to mention the Australian
Government’s National Human Rights Consultation which is now underway, led
by a committee chaired by Father Frank Brennan. I encourage you all to get
involved in the National Human Rights Consultation and share your experiences,
expertise and ideas about how we can strengthen understanding and protection of
human rights in Australia. You might think that this can be done in any number
of ways - through law reform, through education or by identifying new ways
– like the National Roundtable on People Trafficking – to bring
community stakeholders and government together to collaborate on urgent human
rights issues. Think of sharing your views with the committee.

Let me conclude by congratulating everyone who has been involved in the
production of these practical tools for helping trafficked people. It is
unfortunate that sometimes debates about how to improve rights protection in
Australia are portrayed as a stand-off between those who say everything is fine
and those who say everything is wrong. I hope that the ongoing work of the
National Roundtable on People Trafficking will continue to be an illustration of
what can happen when we bring people together and ask one simple question: what
can we do better?