Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe - Iom

Trafficking in Human Beingsin Southeastern EuropeRegionalInitiatives 18Although trafficking is not a new problem in the Southeastern Europe (SEE)region, the development of comprehensive policies, regional initiatives andresponses have been relatively recent. Before the year 2000, some NGOs andinternational organisations were responding to the situation on the ground,but there was no institutional or co-ordinated approach to the problem. Sincethe adoption of the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime andits protocols, and the establishment of the Stability Pact Trafficking Task Forcein Human Beings (SPTTF) in September 2000, an institutional framework foranti-trafficking action has been created, and in 2001 a significant number ofregional initiatives were undertaken which influenced policy development andactivities in the countries of SEE.18RegionalInitiativesThe effectiveness of most of these initiatives cannot yet be fully evaluated,since most of them are recent or not yet fully developed, and many have yetto be translated into concrete actions. All the countries in the region agree onthe importance of an integrated approach to trafficking and are working ondeveloping operational structures which can effectively combat trafficking, butthey are all also struggling with a lack of financial resources to make the structureswork.1. Governments1.1. International ConventionsThe Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW) is binding and has been ratified by all SEE countries. Stateparties to CEDAW are obliged to “take all appropriate measures, including legislation,to suppress all forms of traffic in women”. 19 The Convention on theRights of the Child (CRC), ratified by all the Stability Pact countries, requiresstate parties to combat trafficking in children. 20 The recently adopted optionalprotocol to CRC requires state parties to combat the sale of children. 21 TheInternational Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 182 on the WorstForms of Child Labour requires the elimination of “all forms of slavery or practicessimilar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondageand serfdom and forced and compulsory labour, including forced andcompulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict”. 22All the countries of SEE - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria,Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), the Former Yugoslav Republicof Macedonia (FYR Macedonia), Greece, Hungary, the Republic of Moldova,Romania and Slovenia – and Turkey and Ukraine signed the UN Convention18.For a more comprehensive summary and contacts, see Table: Summary of regionalinitiatives, p. 161.19. CEDAW, UN GA Res 34/180, 18 December 1979 (Art. 6). The optional protocol toCEDAW has been ratified by Croatia and signed by BiH, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia andRomania.20.CRC, UN GA Res 44/25, 20 November 1989 (Art.34 and 35).21.2000 Optional Protocol to the CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution, and childpornography, UN GA Res 54/263, 25 May 2000 (not yet in force).22. ILO Convention No.182 (Art. 3a), ratified by Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. ILO ConventionNo. 29 concerning forced labour (Art 1 and 4) ratified by all Stability Pact countries. ILOConvention No. 105 concerning the abolition of forced labour (Art. 1 and 2) ratified by allSP countries except FYR Macedonia and FRY .13