The Interdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking in Persons (IWG-TIP) was the body responsible for the development of

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

related to

human trafficking in Canada Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

until the organization was replaced by the Human Trafficking Taskforce in June 2012. The IWG-TIP was established in 1999 and was co-chaired by the

Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Global Affairs Canada (GAC; french: Affaires mondiales Canada; AMC)''Global Affairs Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (). is the department ...

and the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

. Seventeen agencies and departments of the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

participated in the

working group A working group, or working party, is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. The groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdis ...

. The group produced a

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...

in 14 languages with the intention of educating at-risk women about how they might avoid being trafficked. This pamphlet was distributed internationally. The IWG-TIP promoted the idea that victims of

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

should be primarily served by

community organization Community organization or Community Based Organization refers to organization aimed at making desired improvements to a community's social health, well-being, and overall functioning. Community organization occurs in geographically, psychosocially, ...

s. In 2004, the IWG-TIP was mandated to create a national anti-human-trafficking plan, and both politicians and

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s (NGOs) proceeded to remind the IWG-TIP of this unfulfilled mandate for the following eight years. The IWG-TIP continued to promise to establish such a plan throughout these years. On March 31, 2004, the IWG-TIP website was updated to state that it was having a meeting with academics and NGOs "to discuss various elements of a potential federal anti-trafficking strategy," but no more updates were made to the website over the following four years.

References

{{Human trafficking in Canada Human trafficking in Canada 1999 establishments in Canada Organizations established in 1999 2012 disestablishments in Canada Organizations disestablished in 2012 National human rights institutions Human rights organizations based in Canada Women's rights organizations Feminist organizations in Canada Organizations that combat human trafficking Women's rights in Canada Working groups