WUNRN
Via Human Rights Without
Frontiers - http://www.hrwf.net/Joom/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=100055
La Strada - Ukraine: http://www.la-strada.org.ua/
In Ukraine, according to
La Strada, there is currently no state body assigned in the country to deal
with prevention of trafficking, provision of assistance to trafficked persons
and efforts coordination both at the national and regional level.
La Strada Ukraine Alerts the UN Special Rapporteur La Strada Int'l (Newsletter Nr 22, September 2011) / HRWF
(03.10.2011) - http://www.hrwf.net - On 7 September
2011 La Strada Ukraine contacted the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in
persons, especially in women and children, in an attempt to draw her
attention to the alarming situation in the country. As a result of the
administrative reform started in December 2010, there is currently no state
body assigned in the country to deal with prevention of trafficking,
provision of assistance to trafficked persons and efforts coordination both
at the national and regional level. Only the Ministry of Interior,
responsible for combating crimes, takes up the combat of human trafficking as
part of their job. Who to address regarding other issues related to human
trafficking, is unclear to La Strada Ukraine and other actors in the field.
It seems no Ministry is really eager to take up the issue. Moreover, the
results of a public monitoring by La Strada Ukraine, showed lack of political
will in general to follow up on national and international obligations to
counteract trafficking in persons. Ukraine ratified the Palermo Protocol, the CoE
Convention Against Trafficking and signed the Cooperation Plan between the
Government of the United States of America and the Government of Ukraine on
Combating Human Trafficking. In March 2010 the government received
recommendations from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women, which raised concerns about the low effectiveness of
anti-trafficking policies in Ukraine. However there is still no action plan
to implement the obligations the country committed itself to. Moreover, the
state anti-trafficking programme draft was developed about a year ago and is
still not adopted by the government. A positive new change however is a newly
adopted anti-trafficking law. The law was prepared during a period of three
years. According to La Strada Ukraine the law is comprehensive, including the
new 'social chapter' on prevention and providing assistance to trafficked
persons. Also positive is that the law contains a separate chapter devoted to
children issues and a chapter on control and supervision, including Article
26 where public control on implementation of the provision of the law is
mentioned. The National Referral Mechanism is also included. The adoption of
the law should accelerate to define the powers of the governmental
institutions in the field of combating trafficking in human beings and also
the adoption of the new State Programme. According to the law, the Cabinet of
Ministers must appoint a national coordinator on trafficking in human beings.
However with the current situation, that no
state body is responsible for implementation of anti-trafficking policies, La
Strada Ukraine is concerned about the implementation of the new law in
practice and about the fact that the proposed provisions on a National
Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, as well as the provision on the
Fund of providing assistance to victims of THB has been left out in the final
text. _________________________________________________________________ |