PURPOSE: to authorise Member States to ratify the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with regard to matters related to judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
NON LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Decision (EU) 2015/2071 authorising Member States to ratify, in the interests of the European Union, the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, of the International Labour Organisation as regards Articles 1 to 4 of the Protocol with regard to matters relating to judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
CONTENT: by this Council Decision, Member States are authorised to ratify the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with regard to matters related to judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
Member States should take the necessary steps to deposit their instruments of ratification of the Protocol with the Director-General of the International Labour Office as soon as possible, preferably by 31 December 2016.
To recall, the Union is promoting the ratification of international labour conventions, classified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as up to date, to contribute to the Union's efforts to promote human rights and decent work for all and to eradicate trafficking in human beings both inside and outside the Union.
The Forced Labour Convention, 1930, of the International Labour Organisation, which the Protocol of 2014 supplements, is a fundamental ILO Convention and has a bearing on rules which make reference to core labour standards.
The 2014 Protocol covers the area of protection of victims of crime governed by Article 82(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The Union has already adopted common rules which cover this area to a large extent, in particular through Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. The Protocol may affect those common rules.