UK Foreign Office Minister of State, Baroness Anelay, commends work of Honduran Congress to improve post-legislative scrutiny processes
UK Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Baroness Joyce Anelay, today met the President of Congress, Mauricio Oliva, to evaluate a UK-funded project aimed at strengthening congressional post-legislative oversight processes.
The project, implemented by Global Partners Governance and their local Honduran partners, is using the introduction of human trafficking legislation as a test case to improve oversight by Congress on how such laws are effectively implemented. They will release a report of their findings early next year. The hope is that their recommendations can be applied to the implementation of other laws, thus improving how Congress is able to monitor the effective implementation of legislation.
According to official statistics, minors are among the most vulnerable groups exposed to labour and sexual exploitation and modern slavery in Honduras. Baroness Anelay saw firsthand the severe challenges some underprivileged children face in Honduras during her visit to Casa Alianza in Tegucigalpa, a UK-funded NGO that works for the wellbeing of children.
As the Minister responsible for human rights, Baroness Anelay emphasised the UK’s stance against modern slavery, which encompasses slavery, human trafficking, forced labour and domestic servitude. Baroness Anelay praised President Oliva’s commitment to improve Congressional oversight measures of such important legislation, thus ensuring it is applied as effectively as possible.
Speaking after this meeting, Baroness Anelay said:
Measures to counter practices such as human trafficking are only as effective as their implementation. Effective oversight by Congress is an important element to this process and with this project we aim to help the Honduran authorities introduce strong, resilient and accountable procedures to ensure this is done. It is my hope that these can then be replicated across a wide range of legislation in due course.