Working for Women Worldwide - Embassy of the United States

In Eastern Europe, the desire to join the
European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) also has been an incentive for
governments to develop national action plans and to
pass legislation against human trafficking. A number
of countries in the region have demonstrated the
importance they place on fighting this scourge by
including references to their efforts in their official
country statements at the 2003 and 2004 U.N.
Commission on Human Rights.
Educating people and raising awareness of the
human rights problem has led to helpful research and
programs to assist former
victims. Research
in Ukraine has shown
that 33 percent of the
women trafficked had
previously been victims
of domestic violence.
The lack of jobs, the
need to provide for
dependent family members,
and the lure of
nearby countries with
higher standards of living
made many women
perfect prey for traffickers
promising employment
and travel abroad.
One remedy: A
U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) project in Ukraine
with Winrock International, a nongovernmental
organization (NGO) working with the poor in many
countries, has established trafficking prevention centers
where victims can seek job training as well as crisis
counseling. Similar projects have started in Russia,
Belarus, and Moldova.
Another nongovernmental organization, La
Strada, developed a handbook for telephone hotline
workers. It provides information on various kinds of
work visas, international labor agreements, job contracts,
consular telephone numbers to call in Ukraine
and abroad, and what to do and where to go if an individual
or a family member becomes a victim. USAID
has supported hotlines in many countries of the
Europe and Eurasia region, including most recently in
the Kyrgyz Republic.
USAID-funded training institutes have begun to
focus on two other important groups: journalists and
law enforcement. After two days of training, reporters
have typically revised their approach to the subject,
treating it more seriously and less sensationally in spite
of the danger involved. (In 2003, several journalists
who had been reporting on trafficking and corruption
in Uzbekistan and Montenegro were killed under suspicious
circumstances.)
Law enforcement training, based on a manual
created by the United Nations Development Programme
and the International Center for Migration
Policy Development, has
educated police, prosecutors,
and judges on
how to handle human
trafficking cases and
how to identify and protect
victims. Training
also raised awareness of
the deep link between
trafficking and corruption.
Programs, notably
in Central Asia, have
emphasized the importance
of regional cooperation
between governments
and NGOs,
and on the training of
border guards and consular
officials.
And, most recently, the United States is assisting
Romania in developing a victim-witness coordinator
program based on U.S. experience, which hopefully
will lead to training modules that can be applied
throughout the region.
Z
Above, teenage girls at a Moldovan orphanage for abandoned
children. International organizations like UNICEF are working
to prevent these children, seen as the most vulnerable to traffickers,
from becoming victims of this scourge.
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