The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) conducted an evaluation visit to Ireland in December 2016. The
purpose of the visit was to assess developments for GRETA’s second evaluation of Ireland’s implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. The Government response to GRETA’s list of
questions in relation to the second evaluation round was submitted in July 2016.523
The delegation met a wide range of stakeholders from Government and civil society during the visit. These included the Department of Justice and Equality Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Department of Justice and Equality, the Human Trafficking Investigation and Coordination Unit of An Garda Síochána (national police force), the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), the Legal Aid Board, Tusla, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), local offices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and representatives of NGOs, trade unions, researchers and lawyers.
As part of the visit, the delegation visited a Tusla-run residential unit for unaccompanied minors and two accommodation centres for asylum seekers, Mosney and Hatch Hall, which also provide accommodation for victims of human trafficking.524
522 US State Department (2017). 523 Council of Europe (2016a). 524 Council of Europe (2016b).
IHREC, as well as other civil society organisations,525 made a submission to GRETA in advance of the second evaluation. The IHREC submission, submitted to the committee in September 2016, made recommendations in relation to improvements to the State’s response to combating human trafficking and providing support to victims. Some of the recommendations were: to place assistance and protection of victims of trafficking on a statutory basis; to develop a tailored mechanism for identification of child victims of trafficking; that a clear timeline be put on the review of the formal identification process signalled in the draft Second National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Trafficking in Human Beings;526 and that appropriate single-gender accommodation facilities be provided for victims of trafficking as accommodation in the direct provision system is not appropriate.527
The GRETA Second Evaluation Round report was published in September 2017.528
9.4
LEGISLATION
As reported for 2015, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015529 was published in September 2015. Early enactment of the Bill was a priority for the Government. The Department of Justice and Equality has said that the Bill
is the most comprehensive and wide ranging piece of sexual offences legislation to be introduced in almost a decade. It strengthens existing law to combat child pornography, the sexual grooming of children, incest, exposure and other offensive conduct of a sexual nature. Under the Bill it will be an offence for a person to pay to engage in sexual activity with a prostitute or a trafficked person, regardless of nationality. The person providing the sexual service – the prostitute – will not be subject to an offence. The purpose of introducing these provisions is primarily to target the trafficking and sexual exploitation of persons through prostitution.530
The Bill, which had cross-party support in the Oireachtas, cleared all stages in the Seanad and second stage in the Dáil during 2016, and was signed into law on 22 February 2017.531 A coalition of NGOs, the Turn Off the Red Light campaign, supported the draft Bill throughout its passage into law, welcoming its passage through second stage in the Dáil in November 2016, and urging its speedy
525 Immigrant Council of Ireland, October 2017.
526 The Second National Action Plan had not been published at the time of this submission. 527 Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (2016).
528 Council of Europe (2017b).
529 http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Criminal_Law_(Sexual_Offences)_Bill_2015. 530 Department of Justice and Equality: Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, February 2017.
531 Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 (No. 2 of 2017). The Act was partially commenced on 27 March 2017 via the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 (Commencement) Order 2017 (S.I. No. 112 of 2017).
enactment. The Turn Off the Red Light campaign supported the Bill’s approach of criminalising the purchase of sex, along the lines of the approach taken in Sweden, France, Northern Ireland and Canada.532
The Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) expressed concerns about the Bill, and argued that criminalising the purchase of sex would marginalise sex workers and force them into unsafe situations. In October 2016, SWAI released a legal opinion on Part 4 of the Bill, which argued that the provisions would expose sex workers to unsafe working conditions. 533 SWAI welcomed other measures of the Bill, such as those on child protection, consent and the rights of people with disabilities.534 In January 2016, the Minister for Justice and Equality launched the Second National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. Contained in the Strategy was a commitment to introduce a specific offence of forced marriage into Irish legislation. The AHTU drafted measures to criminalise forced marriage for inclusion in the Domestic Violence Bill.
According to the AHTU, the new offence will also criminalise conduct that causes others to enter into forced marriages, including removing or luring someone from the State. The legislation will also aim to cover cases where a forced marriage takes place outside the State, and will set out the penalties for committing the offence. This Bill was approved by Cabinet in December 2016 and is expected to be made law in 2017.535