Athens Ethical Principles

The Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement considers that each business company has a potential to contribute to eradication of human trafficking. The anti-trafficking actions of the business community will enhance immeasurably the activities of governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations. The End Human Trafficking Now! Campaign puts the business companies front and centre of the anti-trafficking fight.

The outcome of the first phase of the campaign has been the adoption of a set of ethical principles against human trafficking during the Athens Roundtable of the Business Community against the Trafficking of Human Beings on 23 January 2006. In signing the ethical principles, businesses not only express their solidarity with the victims of trafficking, they also commit to contributing to anti-trafficking efforts by implementing these seven principles. The Athens Ethical Principles continue to receive strong support from the business community worldwide

By signing the Athens Ethical Principles the business companies pledged to:

1.    Explicitly demonstrate the position of zero tolerance towards trafficking in human beings, especially women and children for sexual exploitation.

2.    Contribute to prevention of trafficking in human beings including awareness-raising campaigns and education.

3.    Develop a corporate strategy for an anti-trafficking policy which will permeate all our activities.

4.    Ensure that our personnel fully comply with our anti-trafficking policy.

5.    Encourage business partners, including suppliers, to apply ethical principles against human trafficking.

6.    In an effort to increase enforcement it is necessary to call on governments to initiate a process of revision of laws and regulations that are directly or indirectly related to enhancing anti-trafficking policies.

7.    Report and share information on best practices.

For further information please refer to the complete version with preamble in English, French, German, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese (traditional) and Chinese (simplified).

The commented version of the Athens Ethical Principles is available in English and Spanish.

To see the current list of signatories, click here.
To sign on to the Athens Ethical Principles or for more information, click here.

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