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The spain Presidency of the European Union
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International Conventions for Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking
Human trafficking can be considered a modern form of slavery. It is a widespread phenomenon that is closely linked to organized crime but also to economic migration and exploitation as well as to discrimination based on gender or other grounds. After setting out the international legal framework for preventing and combating human trafficking this issue of the Topical Term provides a brief overview and comparison of the two major conventions in this field: The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime ("Palermo-Protocol") and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. -
Classroom crucifixes
In its judgement of 3 November 2009, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the display of crucifixes in the classrooms of a state-run school constituted a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the ruling, this practice is an infringement of parents' rights to educate their children in line with their convictions and of children's right to religious freedom, as protected by the Convention. The German Federal Constitutional Court also used similar ar-guments in its ruling on crucifixes and crosses in compulsory state schools in Ba-varia.