On the initiative of the Council of Europe (COE), the sixth regional seminar aimed at supporting efforts to curb the trafficking of human beings and promote the signing and ratification of the relevant Convention is due to be held in Nicosia (Cyprus) on 15-16 February. Rough estimates by the UNO suggest that between 700,000 and 2 million women are victims of trafficking each year. The figures are still higher if we add other forms of trafficking such as the black market in organs and children. The trafficking of human beings represents a market with a turnover of some 32 billion dollars per year. Keywords of the seminar will be “prevention, protection and repression”. Delegates and members of NGOs involved in the field from various European countries will reflect on what methods need to be adopted to defeat this new form of slavery. The main speakers will include Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, assistant general secretary of the COE and Eva Biaudet, representative of the OSCE for the fight against the trafficking of human beings. Another seminar will be held in Berlin in April. So far the Convention on the trafficking of human beings has been ratified by Albania, Austria, Moldavia and Romania and signed by a further 30 countries.
