The author presents its assessment of the governmental activities in Ukraine with regards combatting trafficking in human beings. Also actions taken by Ukraine for the approximation of Ukrainian legislation to that of the EU are described. The publication contains analysis of the Law of Ukraine “On Combating Trafficking in Human Beings”, which is included into the National Plan to implement the Action Plan on EU visa liberalisation for Ukraine and based on VLAP.
Combating Trafficking in Human Beings in Ukraine
by Kateryna Levchenko,
Professor, the International Women’s Rights Centre
“La Strada-Ukraine”
Human trafficking, combat against this crime and adequate assistance to human trafficking victims are persistent problems in Ukraine. The most problematic areas are the following: effective investigation and judicial punishment of criminals; providing necessary assistance to the victims of human trafficking according to the requirements and standards defined in relevant international documents, for example, Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings defining basic principles of governmental activities in this area, OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings [33] and other documents.
VLAP implementation may provide significant help to the government to consolidate the policy in this area. At the same time, the risk of formalistic approach still exists: when some symbolic steps can be made only for the sake of the visa-free travel with the EU. It is unlikely to provide unambiguous assessment of the governmental activities in Ukraine with regards combating human trafficking. For example, in the second half of 2011 (in September) Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Combating Trafficking in Human Beings”. On the other hand, throughout 2011 no comprehensive systematic actions were taken for real combating human trafficking. By-laws implementing the Law have not been developed. Competent executive body responsible for relevant tasks has not been defined. Based on 2010 data Ukraine stayed in the second tier of countries (the efforts made are not sufficient) [34] in the Report on Trafficking in Persons (June 2011) prepared by the U.S. Department of State experts. Over the years of monitoring the Russian Federation has remained the most popular destination point, Poland has moved to the second position recently (at the beginning of 2000 Turkey occupied this place), Ukraine is the third [35]. The figures indicate the increase in registered cases of internal human trafficking (according to IOM statistics 46 persons were registered over the first 6 months of 2011; 114 in 2010), as well as human trafficking incidents relating to labour exploitation. The number of male victims of human trafficking is growing annually both in absolute and relevant numbers: 36% in 2010 and 43% – in 2011 [36]. Recently there have appeared cases of registering citizens of other countries as victims of human trafficking inside Ukraine. It confirms that Ukraine is both the country of origin and destination for victims of human trafficking (8 people in 2010, 9 — over the 6 months of 2011). Statistics on criminal cases launched by law enforcement agencies of
Ukraine on the basis of Article 149 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is stable tending to decrease. For example, over the 6 months of 2011 126 cases were opened (in 2010 — 337).
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33 http://www.osce.org/press_rel/2003/pdf_documents/07-3447-pc1.pdf (English)
34 http://photos.state.gov/libraries/ukraine/164171/pdf/tip-2011-ukr.pdf. During monitoring period Ukraine was placed in the second tier of countries (it means that the statesis making efforts in combating trafficking in human beings, however, they are not sufficient) in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010 (based on the results of state activities conducted in previous year). Ukraine was included into the so-called “watch list” in 2005, 2007 and 2009. It means that the state is under supervision of International Observation Missions.
35 http://www.stoptrafficking.org/view.statistics/
36 http://www.stoptrafficking.org/view.statistics/
