President Ma Ying-jeou on the afternoon of September 1 attended the closing ceremony of the 2010 International Workshop on Strategies for Combating Human Trafficking and reiterated previous assurances that the ROC will continue to resolutely support the United Nations' 2003 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. He added that the ROC is determined to work together with all other civilized countries to combat the transnational human trafficking. The president also signed a declaration against human trafficking, with the proceedings being witnessed by Premier Wu Den-yih, Minister of Interior Jiang Yi-huah, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Chin-tien Yang, and Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu. The declaration demonstrates the high level of importance that the government places on the prevention of human trafficking, he said.
President Ma stated that according to United Nations (UN) statistics, human trafficking has become the world's third largest illegal industry, trailing only the illicit trade in arms and narcotics. Profits from the trafficking of humans have reached US$320 billion and over 27 million people have been victimized, 80% of them being women and children. The president said that human trafficking is an age-old practice. In the late 1940s, the term "white slave" became prominent in the international community, with this practice seriously infringing on the freedom of humans, he said. As a result, the UN in 2000 specially ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the protocol formally took effect in 2003, marking a major step forward in combating the trafficking of humans, he commented.
President Ma stated that while the ROC is not a member of the UN, it supports UN’s laws and treaties aimed at protecting human rights and maintaining public welfare. Consequently, the government has incorporated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into domestic law. He said that he also asked the Ministry of Justice to carry out a comprehensive examination of the ROC's laws and regulations to determine whether any contravened these two covenants, and if so to make appropriate amendments to the laws. This initiative will ensure that Taiwan's human rights-related laws are in sync with international practice, he said. The president admitted that this is an ambitious project, but declared that it will help to boost Taiwan's protection of human rights.
The president furthermore stated that the US State Department in June of this year announced its Trafficking in Persons Report 2010, and noted that Taiwan is now listed as a Tier 1 country, putting it in a small group of countries that has most effectively combated human trafficking. This marks an improvement from 2006 when Taiwan was on the Tier 2 Watch List, and from 2007 to 2009 when Taiwan was on the Tier 2 list. President Ma said that the improvement this year is a reflection of the international community recognizing the efforts made by the government here in recent years in this regard. Of all 177 countries covered by the survey, only 30 nations were listed as Tier 1, and the ROC and South Korea were the only East Asian nations on the Tier 1 list.
President Ma stressed that prevention of human trafficking requires strict implementation of laws along with a comprehensive package of supplementary measures. For instance, he said that the government over the past two years has made considerable improvements in protecting the human rights of new immigrants. Via strict procedures and legal amendments, the status of 2,200 people residing illegally in Taiwan has been resolved, including 87 ethnic Tibetans and 2,113 students [, who are descendents of former KMT troops,] from Thailand and Myanmar.
The president reiterated that the ROC will continue to resolutely support the content of the UN's Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and will fight side by side with the international community to combat human trafficking groups in an effort to gradually reduce this shocking and shameful behavior. He also expressed his hopes that everyone will take advantage of the International Workshop on Strategies for Combating Human Trafficking to exchange opinions, reach points of consensus, and vigorously promote preventive measures.