Human trafficking protocol:

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Why in news?

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), in its 19th meet held in New Delhi, adopted a protocol to strengthen cooperation in preventing and combating growing menace of human trafficking, especially women and children.

Key highlights:

• The Experts Group discussed the issues pertaining to the growth of transnational organized crime on a global scale as well as the current experience of the SCO countries' efforts to tackle the most dangerous manifestations of transnational crime, including trafficking in persons.
• Human trafficking involves recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, for the purpose of exploitation.

 The salient features of the Protocol are as under:

• To strengthen cooperation in preventing and combating growing menace of trafficking in persons especially, women and children.
• To continue exchanging the national legislation to combat the menace of trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
• To provide protection and assistance in victims of trafficking within their competence.
• To develop cooperation between the educational (training) organizations (institutions) of the SCO member states in the field of training and advanced training of prosecutors, whose competence includes combating trafficking in persons especially, women and children.
• To conduct bilateral and multilateral activities, including thorough videoconferencing, on countering and combating the threat of trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

The next (20th) meeting of the Prosecutors General of the SCO Member States will be held in the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2022.

SCO:

• It is an intergovernmental organization founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001.
• The SCO currently comprises eight Member States (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).
• Four Observer States interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia) and six "Dialogue Partners" (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey).
• In 2021, the decision was made to start the accession process of Iran to the SCO as a full member, and Egypt, Qatar as well as Saudi Arabia became dialogue partners.
• The SCO has been an observer in the UN General Assembly since 2005.

Related laws in India:

• Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956: to deal with this issue.
• Article 23 and 24: Right against Exploitation of the Constitution of India.
• The Juvenile Justice Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act and also the Prevention of Child Labor Act, the Bonded Labor (Abolition) Act, among others.

What are the Indis’s Efforts against Human Trafficking?

• The Ujjawala scheme was launched in 2007 to put an end to the trafficking of children and women.
• Anti-Trafficking Nodal Cell was set up in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in