FEWO Committee News Release
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Standing Committee on the Status of Women |
HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES OTTAWA, CANADA K1A 0A6 |
Comité permanent de la condition féminine |
For immediate release
NEWS RELEASE
Turning Outrage into Action to Address Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Canada
Ottawa, February 27, 2007 -
Today in Ottawa, Yasmin Ratansi, MP for Don Valley East and Chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, presented a report entitled Turning Outrage into Action to Address Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Canada. This report was developed following consultations with approximately 40 witnesses, including researchers, policy experts, law enforcement, and many organizations that provide victim services and/or are dedicated to raising awareness of the issue.
In its report, the Committee acknowledges that Canada has taken important steps to combat trafficking in persons. However, the Committee feels very strongly that more needs to be done to address the sex trafficking of women and children, which involves egregious abuse and degradation, and represents 92 per cent of all trafficking victims.
The Committee proposes a number of measures to improve the prevention of trafficking, the protection of victims and coordination among the many stakeholders involved in the issue. These include removing immigration barriers to women, increasing education, revising the conditions of the Temporary Resident Permit and creating a Canadian counter-trafficking in persons office.
The Committee also proposes the establishment of a National Rapporteur who would have the mandate of collecting and analyzing trafficking data, which would be reported annually to Parliament.
The Committee cannot emphasize strongly enough that implementing the Report’s 33 recommendations is essential to countering the trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Canada.
The Committee’s report can be found on the web at: www.parl.gc.ca/FEWO-e.
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