2 December 2002 the Danish Minister of Social Affairs and Gender Equality, ms. Henriette Kjaer will launch a national action plan against trafficking in women. The national activities under the Nordic-Baltic Information-campaign will be running in connection with the launching. The aim of the Danish campaign is to give relevant information to women who have been trafficked and to raise awareness about the issue among “customers” of trafficked women and the public in general to ensure that information on all aspects of the trafficking in women are widely spread. 

On top of these measures, new legislation regarding trafficking in human beings has already been introduced. Just prior to the parliamentary summer recess, the Danish Government succeeded in passing a bill on human trafficking (L 118). The bill added human trafficking as an offence to the Danish Criminal code, thus improving the possibility of prosecuting backers by, for instance, allowing the police easier access to break the confidentiality of communication. The criminals behind the trafficking can now be sentenced to up to 8 years imprisonment. 

Nordic-Baltic information campaign aimed at combat of trafficking in women

At a meeting in Vilnius on 15 June 2001, the Nordic and Baltic ministers for gender equality decided to realise an information campaign concurrently in the Nordic and Baltic countries. In August 2001, the Nordic ministers for justice agreed to back up the campaign. The Nordic Council of Ministers will finance the Baltic part of the campaign while the national governments will finance the Nordic campaigns. The goal is to heighten knowledge on and awareness of trafficking in women and also kindle a discussion of the problems. A joint seminar held in Tallinn on 29 - 31 May 2002 launched the campaign. Subsequent joint conferences were held in Vilnius in October and a third seminar in Riga, 27-28 November finished the cross-national part of the information-campaign. 

Denmark’s part of the information campaign

The activities of the Danish campaign will be synchronised with a generally reinforced national effort to combat violence against women. The Danish initiatives will be outlined in a national action plan that will be published 2 December 2002. Read the full action plan at www.lige.dk.

Denmark applies a two-pronged approach. 

First, Denmark focuses on strengthening the police’s possibilities for prosecuting the backers. Just prior to the parliamentary summer recess, the Danish Government succeeded in passing a bill on human trafficking (L 118). The bill added human trafficking as an offence to the Danish penal code, thus improving the possibility of prosecuting backers by, for instance, allowing the police easier access to break the confidentiality of communication. 

Second, starting 2 December 2002 we will be running advertisements in the major national newspapers with information on trafficking in women, making the target groups aware and informed about the whole problem of trafficking. 

Through this information campaign, besides creating a general debate, Denmark wants to improve the support to the victims of trafficking. We will therefore establish a hotline where victims of trafficking, potential customers who want to assist the women to a way out and the general public can get information on the possibilities for support and the rights and regulations on this issue. Questions could be on issues like social aspects, health and language. Besides this there will be established teams of cultural mediators who will do out-reach work among the victims of trafficking.

Denmark is also planning a seminar where authorities and NGOs that may be contacted by victims of trafficking can exchange experience and develop cross-sector cooperation. The improved cooperation aims at strengthening the work on repatriating the women to their home countries.
 
The overall objective of the campaign is to disseminate concrete information to relevant players in the area while also increasing awareness about the entire trafficking problem.
 
Our target groups are primarily potential customers, the general public and victims of trafficking.