| << Back |
Main menu >> |
|
IV. CiviL and PERSONAL rights in ukraine: THE STATUS OF LEGISLATIVE SECURITY AND EXERCISE |
|
In the modern world trafficking in people is among the most flagrant and widespread violations of human rights and freedoms. For this reason the prevention of modern forms of slavery and the slave trade has been among the priority challenges for the Commissioner for Human Rights ever since this institution was established in our country. World globalization and the ever-growing interdependence of individual countries and entire regions have caused in the late 20th century an alarmingly widespread practice – slave trade and its gravely dangerous variety – trafficking in women and children. According to UN data, more than 4 million people are trafficked every year across borders worldwide to be used for slave labor. More and more countries are becoming involved in slave trade that is gaining unprecedented proportions. While throughout the 19th century 12 million slaves were shipped from Asia and Africa, during the past 30 years alone about 13 million Asian girls and women were brought to Europe for slave labor. This well-organized transnational criminal business is closely linked with illicit trafficking in drugs and weapons with the use of the latest in technologies, information technologies and, specifically, the Internet included. The basic and primary cause of the slave trade is the uneven socioeconomic development in individual countries and regions of the world. The high level of unemployment and arduous socioeconomic problems breed destitution of a huge mass of people, converting them into a potential risk group for slave traders. Women are perhaps the worst off. They are among the first to lose jobs and suffer from discrimination in the labor market, domestic violence and lack of social support. All this forces them to migrate abroad, thereby increasing the risk of falling into the hands of modern slave traders. According to unofficial data, about 40 million people in Eastern Europe, the majority of them women, live under the poverty line. Ukraine faced the problem of trafficking in people in its latest dimension after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Rampant unemployment, especially of women (over 80%), accelerated decline in the standards of living, and the country’s gradual integration into the global market of exchange of goods and services – all these factors created the conditions for the spread of this type of crime in Ukraine. Besides, the country’s strategic geographic location and the “transparency” of its borders contributed to a certain extent to Ukraine finding itself at the crossroads of the world’s highways of trafficking in “live commodities.” International criminal groups quickly seized the opportunity to use Ukraine both as a transit and donor country. According to the information of the International Migration Organization, about 400,000 Ukrainian women went abroad during the past few years in search of work. Of this number more than 100,000 were caught in the nets of sex industry dealers. Among the main countries receiving “live commodities” from Ukraine are Eastern Europe, Turkey, Greece, Israel, the US, and the United Arab Emirates. Ukraine’s consular offices abroad identified in 1998 alone over 6,000 such Ukrainian women in Turkey, 3,000 in Greece, and about 1,000 in Serbia. These are only approximate figures, because obtaining objective and official information is almost impossible: trafficking in people is plied illicitly among a rather close circle of slave traders and anyone who divulges any information or cooperates with law enforcement bodies runs the risk of being murdered. The issue of preventing trafficking in people has been in the focus since 1994-1998 when numerous cases of illegal adoption of Ukrainian orphans by foreigners were revealed. To investigate these facts, the Parliament set up a special temporary commission that included MPs of the thirteenth convocation. The commission initiated a number of criminal cases of irregularities during the adoption of orphans by foreigners in Lviv, Odessa, Ternopil, Kyiv and Donetsk. The parliamentary commission established that the illegal adoption of the orphans actually had the nature of hidden trafficking in children. At that time MP Nina Karpachova, deputy chairman of the Commission for Human Rights, initiated and authored a number of draft laws on preventing uncontrolled adoption of orphans in Ukraine. In conformity with the amendments introduced to the Marriage and Family Code of Ukraine (Chapter 14. “Adoption”) and the Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine (Chapter 35. ”Adoption of Children who Reside on the Territory of Ukraine by Ukrainian and Foreign Citizens”) and other regulatory instruments, a strict judicial procedure based on international standards for adopting orphans on the territory of Ukraine was established and a State Center for Adoption of Children was set up under the Ministry of Education. Its responsibility is to record centrally all the orphans and citizens who want to adopt children left without parental care. Such measures greatly contributed to the reduction of cases of transgression of authority during the adoption of orphans in the country. But at the same time a large number of cases of trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation were revealed in the period from 1996 to 1998. The dimensions of this crime made it necessary to take decisive actions, primarily of a legislative nature. A barrier had to be promptly put up against the spread of the crime and criminal liability for trafficking in people had to be legally enforced. The preparation of respective amendments to operative legislation lasted more than one year. Statistical and analytical information was gathered, the legislative expertise of other countries was thoroughly studied, and specialists began formulating the concept of a relevant law. Most importantly, the draft took into account international standards, in particular those enshrined in the conventions for the suppression of the trafficking in women (1904, 1910, 1921, 1926, 1933) and the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. 1949. Ukraine is a signatory to most of these international legal instruments, but their provisions are practically not applied, since they have not been properly stipulated in national legislation. Taking into account international standards, MP N.Karpachova drafted a law that defined the notion of “trafficking in persons” and established criminal liability for this type of crime. On March 24, 1998 Parliament adopted an amendment to the Criminal Code, proclaiming it law. Its underlying basis was the concept justifying the requirement to establish criminal liability for trafficking in people, primarily the victims of this crime – children as well as grown-ups, both women and men. Article 1241 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine defines the notion “trafficking in people” as follows: “Open or clandestine taking into possession of a person for legal or illegal displacement with or without the person’s consent across the state border of Ukraine or without such displacement with the subsequent sale or other payable transfer for sexual exploitation, use in porno business, involvement in criminal activity, debt slavery, adoption for commercial purposes, use in armed conflicts, exploitation and labor.” Besides, Article 1241 of the Criminal Code also stipulates: “These same actions committed against a minor, by several persons repeatedly, by preliminary collusion of a group of persons, with the use of an official status or by a person on which the victim is in material or other dependence, as well as actions stipulated in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the present Article committed by an organized group, or related to illegally displacing children abroad or not returning them to Ukraine, or with the purpose of extracting from the victim organs or tissue for transplantation or forced donorship, or if such actions have caused grave consequences.” Practice has proved the correctness of the approach set out in Article 1241 of the Criminal Code. A number of appeals to the Commissioner for Human Rights describe incidents when children as well as grown-up women and men, mostly invalids, were abducted or bought and subsequently forced into mendacity. Throughout 1998 and 1999 such cases were registered in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as well as in Mykolaiv and Odessa oblasts. Once the law came into effect, law enforcement bodies began actively bringing criminal charges against and calling to account persons involved in the trafficking in people. Criminal charges against offenders who violated the provisions of Article 1241 were instituted in Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Mikolaiv, Chernihiv, Cherkassy and in other oblasts a well as in the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol; the majority of those arrested and charged were Ukrainian recruiters. At January 1, 2000 a total of 17 criminal charges* were instituted; the guilt of three offenders was proved and courts sentenced them under Article 1241, yet another case is being considered by the Starokyivsky city district court of Kyiv, and the rest of the cases are still investigated. An important factor in this process was the active participation of representatives of the highest managers of the MIA and its territorial units. In particular, Militia Colonel-General M.Korniyenko, manager of the MIA Chief Directorate and MIA Deputy Minister, demonstrated a profoundly professional understanding of this problem. Owing to his direct intervention, three criminal charges under Article 1241 were instituted in Kyiv during the past six months. Within the structure of Kyiv’s militia a special unit is being set up to suppress trafficking in people. Militia Lieutenant-General V.Melnikov, MIA Deputy Minister and member of the National Coordination Council for the Prevention of Trafficking in People under the Commissioner, is taking an active part in its work. Ever since criminal charges and investigations of criminal cases of trafficking in people in Ukraine were instituted, the Commissioner for Human Rights has been constantly exercising parliamentary control over the application of Article 1241 of the Criminal Code. The first criminal charge, by which the guilty received court sentences, was the so-called Kherson case. In 1998 and 1999 two residents of Kherson – Tetiana K., 31, and Liubov M., 28 – illegally trafficked girls and young women from Kherson to Serbia for work in nightclubs and subsequent exploitation in the sex industry. They used a reliable and what seemed like a first-class procedure. The recruiters chose women in financial straits, predominantly from among their acquaintances, and offered them work as dancers in Serbia’s nightclubs. The owner of the club was Tetiana K.’s husband, a citizen of Serbia. All the passport arrangements and tickets were taken care of by the “benefactors” and the recruits were to pay off the cost later on. In Serbia the husband met the credulous girls and drove them to the nightclubs where he sold them for DM 2,000 each. On July 13, 1999 the Suvorovsky city district court of Kherson sentenced the offenders according to their degree of guilt. Notably, Militia Major-General M.Marchenko, manager of the MIA Directorate in Kherson oblast, exercised personal control over the progress of this case. Thus, an important precedent was set in Ukraine’s practice of law and the case was adjudged in court. Although the effectiveness of Article 1241 was confirmed in practice, its formal components of a crime were not retained in the draft of the new Criminal Code of Ukraine. It was only after the Commissioner appealed to Parliament that the provisions of Article 1241 were included in the draft of the said code. The fact that the operative Article 1241 was ignored in the draft of the new code had an international response. In a letter of October 22, 1999 addressed to the Chairman of Parliament, Helle Degn, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and Gerald Stoudmann, Director of the OSCE Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, supported the Commissioner’s stand on the legal prohibition and criminal liability for all forms of modern slaver, specifically trafficking in human beings. In the letter it was pointed out: “The OSCE holds Ukraine in its highest consideration regarding its leading role in taking steps to combat trafficking in human beings. It is widely acknowledged that Ukraine’s adoption of criminal legislation on the issue as embodied in Article 1241, Article 7 and Article 26 of the present Criminal Code, as well as the establishment of a National Coordination Council for Prevention of Trafficking in People under the authority of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights are two extremely positive developments that have positioned Ukraine as a leading country on this issue. “It has recently come to our attention that the Parliament is preparing to adopt a new Criminal Code, which due to tight deadlines may not include the above-mentioned provision on prevention of trafficking in people. May we suggest that it would be a most regretful setback for Ukraine, if such a development did occur.” Even after this article was included in the draft of the new Criminal Code attempts were made to amend its transnational implications (i.e. displacement across national frontiers), which actually would restrict the effect of the law to essentially national circumstances only. In this respect the position of the Commissioner for Human Rights was consistent: in the new wording of the Criminal Code the element of the crime “trafficking in people” as in effect in Article 1241 should be retained with all its transnational attributes of this type of crime. However, the Commissioner’s position on this issue was not always met with the support and understanding of some state officials and individual mass media who tried either to belittle the dimensions of trafficking in people in Ukraine or else reduce it to problems of prostitution or illegal migration. Direct accusations were leveled against the Commissioner for indulging in the defense of “harlots” at a time when the state was challenged with much more important issues. To neutralize such attitudes, public awareness work had to be carried out by explaining the essence of this issue and its seriousness for Ukraine and by drawing the attention of officials of all levels to the need of dealing with this issue as quickly as possible. Such work yielded results. Society gradually became aware of the need to suppress the crime. An important step in designing mechanisms to combat trafficking in people in Ukraine and to check the further uncontrolled spread of this crime was made after President Leonid Kuchma agreed with the Commissioner for Human Rights to hold on December 16, 1998 a special meeting of the Coordination Committee for Corruption and Organized Crime Control under the Ukrainian President devoted to this problem. At the meeting the Commissioner made a report on the problem of suppressing trafficking in women and children in Ukraine. Among other things, the report stressed that the crime is progressing at a rate that has lately gained the attributes of a national danger; the state lacks a uniform policy on this issue; and all concerned parties should combine their efforts to check the trafficking in people. Following the discussion of the report, the Coordination Committee for Corruption and Organized Crime Control under the Ukrainian President adopted a decision on taking urgent measures on suppressing the use of women and children in criminal business abroad. In the decision trafficking in children and women was recognized as an issue of state importance, a range of questions was identified for additional legislative regulation, and a number of ministries and agencies were instructed to effect definite measures to combat this crime. It was also stressed that representatives of ministries and agencies should take part in setting up a special commission for checking trafficking in people. Regrettably, the executive failed in the end to establish such a commission. On the initiative of the Commissioner a National Coordination Council for Prevention of Trafficking in People under the Commissioner for Human Rights was established on June 15, 1999. Its main purpose is to unite efforts of all interested parties in preventing the spread of this abominable crime. A number of international organizations took an active part in setting up this Council: the representative office of the International Migration Organization (IMO, head Steven Cook), Ukraine mission of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, coordinator Peter Burhard), and the Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights BDIHR/OSCE (director Gerald Stoudmann). In particular, a trilateral project was launched to support the activity of the Council. Apart from international organizations, the Council membership included representatives of a number of Ukraine’s ministries and agencies that are empowered to effect measures on suppression of trafficking in people, specifically the Ministry of Internal Affairs, National Central Bureau of Interpol under the MIA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, State Committee for the Protection of the State Border, the then Ministry for Family and Youth Matters, as well as representatives of NGOs, specifically the La Strada-Ukraina. Notably, the establishment at the national level of a coordination body on suppression of trafficking in people was the first such attempt in Europe. Later on, other agencies, organizations and the diplomatic missions of Greece, the US, Germany, and the Embassy of Australia in Russia became interested in the work of the Coordination Council and in exchanging information on a permanent basis. A letter addressed to the Commissioner for Human Rights by the US Embassy pointed out that it would appreciate receiving information about the activity of the Coordination Council and undertook to inform the Commissioner about the combat of the transnational slave trade in the US and other world countries. The Ambassador of Greece to Ukraine, Mr.Dimitris Kontumas, also expressed interest in cooperating with Ukraine in this area. During a meeting with the Commissioner, he remarked that Greek society was already aware of the danger that trafficking in people and illegal migration entails. During the past few years, more and more Ukrainian women are being brought into Greece legally and illegally with the purpose of their subsequent sexual exploitation. Therefore, the Greek diplomat met with approval the Commissioner’s proposal that he take part in the work of the Coordination Council as a permanent member. As it proved, Ukraine shares common problems on trafficking in people not only with its immediate neighbors. Lately, a growing number of Ukrainian women have been leaving for Australia for temporary or permanent residence through marriage announcements, in particular. But upon arrival on the Australian continent the life of many of them takes a far from cheerful turn as they were made to believe initially. More often than not they become a prey of shadowy business dealers. This problem was the subject of discussion during the Commissioner’s meeting with Mrs.Renel Foster, manager of the migration service of the Australian Embassy in Moscow, when she arrived in Kyiv on a special visit to the Commissioner. Since Australia and Ukraine share common interests in suppressing trafficking in people and have a need to exchange information, the Commissioner and the Australian Embassy in Moscow agreed to closer cooperation within the framework of the Coordination Council. The Commissioner for Human Rights was also actively involved in combining efforts to check the crime on an international level. In 1998 and 1998 the Commissioner repeatedly met with Gerald Stoudmann, director of the Bureau of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights BDIHR/OSCE, who became interested in the expertise of the Ukrainian Commissioner and expended a lot of effort to make the OSCE treat trafficking in people as a key issue. At the level of the OSCE a plan of action and definite proposals for projects and initiatives are currently designed for the prevention of the slave trade. Serious attention to the issue of suppressing trafficking in people and to the expertise of Ukraine were also demonstrated during the Commissioner’s meeting with the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Mrs.Helle Degn, on February 22, 1999. Mrs.Degn expressed her complete support for the new democratic institution in Ukraine and confirmed the readiness of the OSCE to continue assisting the Commissioner’s office as the key institution of human rights protection in Ukraine. Throughout 1998 and 1999 a number of meetings were held with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bryan Burdekin, to formulate a common strategy on suppression of trafficking in people. Lately, the High Commissioner’s Office has been doing a lot to lend trafficking in people a priority status in the area of human rights protection. During the meeting with Mr.Burdekin, an agreement was reached to cooperate in the suppression of the trafficking in people, especially children. All the above-mentioned issues were also discussed during meetings with ombudsmen from Hungary, Russia, Poland, The Netherlands, Spain, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Slovenia, and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Belgium, Antoine Duquesne. “In the suppression of trafficking in people we are advancing along the same road as you,” the Minister pointed out. “You are right in saying that in search of a better fortune the unhappy people become victims of the slave trade. Therefore, it is necessary to effect definite measures as quickly as possible, rouse public opinion, and show the scope of this calamity. In Belgium we still have to do a lot in this area. But it would be vain to count on success singly. Only cooperation of our efforts will give us a chance to counter international crime.” Along with Belgium and Germany, Ukraine became the third country in Europe to establish criminal liability for trafficking in people. Besides, Belgium has gained positive expertise in legislatively regulating a set of problems related not only to criminal prosecution of slave traders, but also to the protection of the victims of the slave trade and creation of conditions for the victims to cooperate with law enforcement and judicial bodies. Belgium’s expertise is extremely important for Ukraine as it continues designing corresponding measures to deal with these issues in a comprehensive manner. The establishment of a legal framework for the suppression of trafficking in people served as a powerful spur for designing a set of other organizational, legal and information measures to deal with this problem. On September 25, 1999 the Cabinet of Ministers adopted an elaborate government program on the prevention of trafficking in women and children, taking into account the proposals and remarks of the National Coordination Council. The program introduced a comprehensive approach to dealing with the problem in the following three areas: punishment of persons involved in the trafficking of women and children; preclusion of this crime through awareness and information campaigns among potential victims of trafficking in people; measures for the recovery of the victims after their return to Ukraine. Control over the implementation of this program was to be exercised by the Ministry for Family and Youth Matters, but, regrettably, this ministry was liquidated in the course of administrative reform. Building up a database, specifically on cases of charges instituted under the provisions of Article 1241, became an important area in the work of the Coordination Council. Thus, the Commissioner gained the opportunity to have an objective picture on how this article was applied before official statistical reporting was introduced at the MIA in November 1999. Information on this problem is gleaned from the appeals addressed to the Commissioner as well as from other sources, such as the mass media. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister V.Yushchenko, the Commissioner proposed that Parliament promptly discuss the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (1990). In the opinion of the Commissioner it would serve to regulating the status of migrants and extend the government’s opportunities in protecting the rights of Ukrainian citizens abroad. The members of the Coordination Council, in particular the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the IMO mission in Ukraine, agreed on mechanisms of interaction to bring back home the victims of trafficking, thereby making it possible for Ukrainian diplomats to deal more efficiently with this problem; the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy drafted documents for the conclusion of a bilateral agreement on employment and social protection of Ukrainian citizens who signed contracts for work in Turkey. To raise the efficiency of the Coordination Council, working groups have been set up for various area of activity, such as information policy, legal cooperation, and assistance to women victimized by slave traders. One of the tasks of the Coordination Council is to assist in the preparation of a Special Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on Issues of Prevention of Trafficking in People that is being drawn up at the present time. In matters of investigating cases related to trafficking in people and bringing the victims back home, the Commissioner maintains fruitful cooperation with the National Central Bureau of Interpol under the MIA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are quite a few examples of such cooperation. For example, two elderly women from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea addressed the Commissioner with a request to help them locate and bring back home Natalia K. and Olena P. The latter, mothers of two children each, left for Bulgaria in order to earn some money for their families, leaving the children with their grandmothers. The last time they communicated with their families was from Macedonia where they were kept in local bars by force and threatened to be sold the third time. The Commissioner promptly responded to the request and forwarded corresponding inquiries to Ukrainian law enforcement bodies and the consular service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both the law enforcement bodies and the ministry responded with equal promptness. Some weeks later the Commissioner received a telegram reading: “Thank you very much for the assistance in bringing Natalia and Olena back to the country and their families. I wish you and your employees health and success in your difficult work. A great maternal thank you.” The Commissioner for Human Rights put a lot of effort into the protection of the rights of the Ukrainian citizen Olena Kh. In December 1998 she went to Italy for two weeks as a tourist – and disappeared. Her mother appealed to the Commissioner for help. After almost one year, Olena Kh. was located in Milan through the joint efforts of the Commissioner, the National Central Bureau of Interpol under the MIA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At that time law enforcement bodies of Milan had her under their protection as a victim and witness in a criminal case initiated by the local police against a group of pimps. The mother was informed that her daughter was under reliable protection. According to a monitoring conducted by the Commissioner for Human Rights, only 20% of the potential victims of trafficking in people, who are intended to be drawn into the sex industry, know for sure that they will go in for prostitution. The rest are entangled in the sex business by force, through violence, threats and degradation of human dignity. From the first steps of the Commissioner’s activity in checking the trafficking in people a lot of attention was centered on holding information campaigns among Ukrainian citizens, especially girls and young women who make up the risk group. This is one the key areas of the Commissioner’s activity. The representative office of the International Migration Organization in Ukraine took an active part in preparing and holding such campaigns. Information campaigns on issues of trafficking in people were initiated in 1996-1998 by the parliamentary committee on human rights and have gained momentum since then. Today there is not a single periodical publication in the country that would not be commenting on trafficking in people in one way or another. The Commissioner for Human Rights has been constantly informing the mass media about the work of the National Coordination Council for Prevention of Trafficking in People, about definite appeals filed by women who became victims of the sex business, and the outcome of the investigations of such appeals. Time and again the Commissioner is giving interviews for such leading publications as Uriadovy kurier (Government Courier), Kiyevskiye vedomosti (Kiev Herald), Liudyna i vlada (Man and Authority) Biznes i bezpeka (Business and Security), Women Legislators in Action (US). The Commissioner also gave interviews for representatives of French, Swiss and Belgian state TV channels. The Commissioner is also taking part in special TV programs devoted to these issues, such as The File. The Coordination Council is carrying on awareness campaigns among women of the “risk group” and operates a permanent telephone service for anyone wishing to receive information on all the above-mentioned issues. In 1998 and 1998 the Commissioner for Human Rights took part in many national (in Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Simferopol) and international forums on trafficking in people. Of particular importance was the Commissioner’s report at the June 30, 1998 meeting of the Council of Europe Committee on Equality of Men and Women. For the first time at such an international level the Commissioner spoke on a law enacted by the Ukrainian Parliament that established criminal liability for trafficking in people. Its concept found support with the Council of Europe Committee and it was pointed out that the law could serve as a certain underlying basis for the European Convention on the Suppression of Trafficking in Women currently drafted by the Council of Europe. Yet another important event was the transatlantic US-EU seminar held on July 9-10 in Lviv with the support of the US State Department and the International Migration Organization. As a function aimed at drawing public attention to the issues of trafficking in people, it became a turning point in a serious information campaign under the auspices of the IMO. Representatives of 15 EU countries, the US, Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria attended the seminar. The Commissioner made a report to the forum on Ukraine’s legislative experience in checking trafficking in people and then gave a press conference jointly with the foreign guests for the mass media. Throughout 1998 and 1999 the Commissioner also spoke on this subject at the following forums: international UN conference “Human Rights for Human Development” devoted to the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights held in Yalta on September 2-4, 1998; international seminar on issues of preventing trafficking in people at Warsaw in September 1998 with the participation of representatives of the OSCE/BDIHR, IMO and the US State Department; international symposium on World Human Rights Towards the 21st Century at Beijing in October 1998; and at the Congress on Issues of Suppressing Traffic in Women in Copenhagen in December 1999 and devoted to the 50th anniversary of adoption of the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. During the Congress, a direct link was organized for the Commissioner’s appearance in the evening news program on Ukraine’s Inter TV channel. Notably, there have appeared certain positive changes in the attitudes to trafficking in people both among average citizens and representatives of bodies of state authority who are aware of the need to effect decisive measures to check slavery and the slave trade. Ukraine has set up a legal framework and a corresponding legal environment to deal with this problem: a law stipulating criminal liability for this type of offense, a government program on prevention of trafficking in women and children, and a pro-action mind set of law enforcement bodies. For all that, the dimensions of the slave trade in the country remain to be dangerous. One of the reasons is the extremely critical socioeconomic situation. In view of what has been said above, the Commissioner for Human Rights deems it necessary to point out the following:
Translated by Anatole Bilenko |
|
|
<< Back |
Home ^^ |