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Article 2.Statement of purposeA. Negotiation textsRolling text (A/AC.254/4/Add.1/Rev.1)Fourth session: 28 June-9 July 1999“Article 3 1“Purposes“The purposes of this Protocol are:“(a) To establish the smuggling of migrants as a criminal offence under therespective national laws of States Parties, [when committed in the context of transnationalorganized crime, as defined in the Convention]; 2 and“(b) To promote and facilitate cooperation among States Parties to prevent,investigate and prosecute the crime of smuggling migrants.”Notes by the Secretariat1. At the informal consultations held during the fifth session of the Ad HocCommittee, the discussion on article 3 focused on whether to remove the square bracketsfrom subparagraph (a). It was decided to retain the square brackets and add the followingtext, as proposed by the United States of America: “when involving an organized criminalgroup as defined in the Convention” (see A/AC.254/L.85/Add.2, para. 8). Concerningsubparagraph (b), some delegations preferred to add the words “as well as to protect thevictims of such smuggling, including their human rights”, while others were of the viewthat human rights should be covered in article 5 (see A/AC.254/L.85/Add.2, para. 9).1Some delegations were of the view that the Ad Hoc Committee would need to consider whether to link the offencescovered by the migrants protocol with organized crime and, if so, how.2This formulation was provisional, as it would depend on the outcome of the negotiations regarding definitions in thedraft convention. The article would need to be reviewed in the light of choices made with regard to options that appearedlater in the text. In addition, this article would need to be reviewed to ensure its consistency with the convention. At thefourth session of the Ad Hoc Committee, several delegations suggested removing the square brackets, while one delegationsuggested deletion of the subparagraph. It was also suggested that the text contained in the square brackets should be movedto subparagraph (b) or to article 4. At the same session, some delegations suggested that the phrase “when life, safety orfreedom of the migrant is at risk” should be inserted after the word “migrants”. Some delegations suggested that the subparagraphshould be focused on the prevention, investigation and prosecution of the smuggling of migrants committed byorganized criminal groups. It was also suggested that the subparagraph should be moved before subparagraph (a). It wasfurther suggested that the words “as well as to protect the victim of such smuggling, including their human rights” shouldbe inserted at the end of the subparagraph. Mexico suggested that the protection of victims should be included either in thisarticle or as a new article 1 bis (see also A/AC.254/L.61). Several delegations supported the proposal, while other delegationsconsidered that human rights should be covered under article 5. One delegation suggested that, as an alternative, subparagraph(b) of this article could be combined with article 5.459