Vatican official calls for tougher stance against human trafficking

Published: 2004-04-19

ROME (CNS) -- Individual governments must join forces to combat human trafficking, said the Vatican's top representative at the United Nations in Geneva. During a debate on migrants' rights April 8, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said trafficking in humans is the worst among the violations of the rights of people on the move. In a speech during the 60th session of the Human Rights Commission and made public by the Vatican April 17, Archbishop Tomasi said a recent international protocol on the prevention and suppression of trafficking of humans is not enough. He said "national legislation (is) equally important to eradicate this scourge," adding that governments can use a document by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights for guidelines on dealing with the problem. Governments must join forces through "the collection and sharing of data, including the strategies and routes used by traffickers," he said. This would be an important "tool to step up both investigations and prosecutions," he said.

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