Organ Trafficking and Organ Transplant Tourism
The Law Council is deeply concerned about human trafficking for the purposes of organ removal, organ trafficking, itself, and organ transplant tourism. Such practices have the potential to result in detrimental and fatal consequences for victims.
The Terms of Reference for the Inquiry require the Committee to have regard to the offence of Organ Trafficking under division 271 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (the Criminal Code) and whether it would be practicable or desirable for:
- this offence to have extraterritorial application; and
- Australia to accede to the 2014 Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs (the Convention).
The Law Council notes that there are several offences under Division 271 which relate to organ trafficking rather than a singular offence provision. It is not clear, therefore, which offence is currently proposed to have extraterritorial application. Further, the proposed extraterritorial application of the organ trafficking offences in Division 271 has not been identified. This makes it difficult for organisations such as the Law Council to provide an assessment on the intended level of extraterritorial application.
This submission focuses on examining whether:
(a) the four offences relating to organ trafficking in the Criminal Code, namely, 271.7B (offence of organ trafficking – entry into and exit from Australia), 271.7C (organ trafficking – aggravated offence), 271.7D (domestic organ trafficking), and 271.7E (domestic organ trafficking – aggravated offence) should have broader extraterritorial application than that which already applies.
(b) Australia should accede to the Convention; and
(c) Australia should enact broader organ transplant tourism offences beyond the existing ‘movement of people’ offences.
You can read the full submission below.