Criminal law amendments against trafficking of human beings and sexual exploitation

N.C.W. welcomes the amendments to the Criminal Law recently passed through Parliament to increase penalties for traffickers of women for prostitution, following the White Paper "Towards Better and More Expeditious Administration of Justice".

As a result, offenders who live off prostitution will have their establishment's licence withheld for three months and will be prosecuted if they recruit women from overseas for prostitution. Through its network with its EU (ECICW) and international counterparts (ICW), NCW Malta has been lobbying for the criminalisation of the buying of sexual services and the protection of unwilling participants in the sex trade.

NCW hopes that this legislation will be accompanied by social support structures that can offer women the opportunity to break away from such a life.

Other measures need to be taken with the co-operation of all EU member states for a security policy and a common legal framework to break down organised criminal networks, as defined in The Hague programme and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, through which trafficking of women and children is carried out.

For more information visit the Websites: http://ec.europa.eu/ justice_home/news/information_dossiers/the_hague_priorities/index_en.htm; and http://www.unodc.org/unodc/crime_cicp_convention.html.