Australia in Switzerland
Bern and Geneva
Switzerland, Liechtenstein

statement712

Human Rights Council - 29th Regular Session

Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and girls

Australian Statement

16 June 2015

Australia thanks the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations for their report on embedding the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights throughout the work of the United Nations to improve development outcomes.

Australia thanks the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, for her comprehensive report setting out her vision of the mandate. Australia looks forward to ongoing constructive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on this important issue.

Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave abuse of human rights. Many of the areas the Special Rapporteur has identified as priorities for her mandate align with Australia’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-2019, which was released by the Australian Government in December 2014.

The National Action Plan provides the strategic framework for Australia’s ongoing response to human trafficking. Under the National Action Plan, Australia will continue to provide holistic and victim centred support to trafficked people, maintain a strong compliance framework and promote a collaborative response built on the participation of civil society, business and industry, unions and the community.

We would be interested in the Special Rapporteur’s views on how the international community can improve its engagement with the business community to combat the practices of labour exploitation, including exploitation in supply chains.