On the occasion of the National Day of Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery on 10 May, 2014, Francois Hollande announced the French National Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings 2014-2016 by the Minister of Women’s Rights. It will be presented on Wednesday, 14 May, 2014.

This Plan, prepared by an inter-ministerial and inter-institutional taskforce in 2008, and of which the publication and launch thereof had been delayed, is expected to respond to the needs of victims in France, to financially aid organisations working in this domain, to reinforce French international cooperation in combatting trafficking in human beings, and to satisfy France’s international obligations.

This announcement came as part of the National Day of Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery which was derailed by the controversial refusal of the Front Nationale Mayor of Villers-Cotteret to participate in the day. Manueal Valls had laid a wreath that Saturday on a monument commemorating the abolition of slavery and to General Dumas, who was born a slave in Haiti and who was father to the writer, Alexandre Dumas, in the 18th arrondissement, while George Pau-Langevin, Minister of the Overseas Territories, visited Villers-Cotteret to pay homage to the general.