MEDIA ADVISORY

Technical Workshop of Senior Officials of AU Member States and RECs to Validate the Draft Policies on the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) in Africa

INVITATION TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

What:   Technical Workshop of Senior Officials of AU Member States and RECs to Validate the Draft Policies on the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) in Africa

When:   6-8 October 2021

Where:   Zanzibar, Tanzania

Who:   The Workshop will be organized by the African Union Commission Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs & Social Development (HHS) in cooperation with the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Why: Irregular migration in Africa is one of the major challenges facing migration governance in the continent. While there has been tremendous efforts to address this issue by many AU Member States including putting national legal frameworks to combat the crime, there is increasing evidence of many African citizens, particularly the youth; falling prey to these illegal networks perpetrating this vice. There is an urgent need to relook at the existing frameworks, including the 2006 Ouagadougou Plan of Action on the Prevention of Human Trafficking especially on Women and Children to enable the continent be proactive and responsive enough in addressing these new challenges associated with this crime.

The African Union Commission has developed draft policies on the prevention of Trafficking in persons and Smuggling of migrants in Africa. These policy documents have identified the gaps and provide guidance to Member States and RECs on how to address them. The policy drafts take cue and lessons learnt from the evaluation report of the implementation of the Ouagadougou Plan of Action on the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons. Additionally, the drafts also take inspiration from the Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA), the Global Compact on Migration and other regional and international policy frameworks based on best practices.

This workshop will therefore provide an opportunity for Member States, RECs and selected experts to provide inputs and validation of the drafts in order to improve the contents and basic structure of the documents. This is in preparations for the submissions of the same to the upcoming Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Migration, Refugees and IDPs slated to be held in November, 2021. The inputs received in the workshop will therefore be used to enrich the final policy drafts that will be submitted to the above STC for validation and adoption.

Objective of the Workshop:

The Main objective of this validation workshop is to achieve the following:

1. Seek technical inputs in the draft policy documents on the prevention of trafficking in persons and Smuggling of Migrants in Africa in order to enrich them further.
2. Validation of the draft policy documents in preparations for the upcoming STC on Migration, Refugees and IDPs.

Expected Outcomes:

The main outcome of this workshop will be a validated drafts of the policy documents on prevention of TIP and SOM with enriched texts based on inputs from the participants.

Participants:           

This workshop will bring together senior officials of AU Member States and RECs from ministries and or departments dealing with the prevention of trafficking in persons. Specifically, a mix of participants drawn from law enforcement, judicial, prosecution and human rights departments of AU Member States. The meeting will also invite experts from the UN, academia, civil societies, workers and private sectors dealing with issues of prevention of   trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants in the continent.

Journalists are invited to cover the Technical Workshop of Senior Officials of AU Member States and RECs to Validate the Draft Policies on the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) in Africa. Programme is attached

For further information, please contact:

1. Mrs. Wynne Musabayana | Head of Communication Division| Information and Communication Directorate | African Union Commission | E-mail:   MUSABAYANAW@africa-union.org | 
2. Mr. Gamal Eldin Ahmed A. Karrar | Senior Communication Officer | Information and Communication Directorate | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org

Information and Communication Directorate, African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org
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