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II. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS3
To the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina
· Provide services for trafficking victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including legal services, medical care, shelter, psychological counseling, and financial assistance.
· With regard to girls under age eighteen, provide for their protection and development, including child-appropriate treatment at the time of removal from the nightclub or bar and ongoing physical and mental health care, shelter, nutrition, and education in accordance with the best interests of the child and her rights as articulated in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
· Implement witness protection programs to allow women and girls to testify against their traffickers. At a minimum, witness protection measures should include full information about protection mechanisms available to victims in a language that the victim can understand, physical protection from harm, safe shelter, and short-term residence visas to allow victims to remain in the country temporarily in accordance with the Temporary Instruction of Treatment of Trafficking Victims, adopted by the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees in September 2002.
o In accordance with Article 7 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol), in cases where humanitarian or compassionate factors warrant, trafficking victims should be allowed to remain in the country permanently.
· Create and provide financing for sufficient regional safe shelters to house trafficked women and girls, with staff members trained in caring for trafficking victims as proposed in the National Plan of Action and the Memorandum of Understanding on Protection of Victims of Trafficking. Nongovernmental organizations should be included in the founding and administration of these centers and should have access to trafficked persons residing in the shelter.
o Separate centers for recovery and reintegration should be set up for girls, with staff specifically trained to care for and counsel children and adolescents. Staff should be equipped to work with NGOs and child welfare agencies in local communities to reunite children with their families when it is in the child's best interest and to provide follow-up support, training, and counseling. Children not reunited with their families should be placed in a caring environment with provisions for health care, counseling, and age-appropriate education and vocational training.
· Amend criminal anti-trafficking laws in both entities and Brcko4 to make the definition of trafficking consistent with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
· Prosecute traffickers to the maximum extent of the law.
· Investigate, and when appropriate, discipline and prosecute police officers and other officials engaged in trafficking to the maximum extent of the law.
· Cease prosecution of trafficked women and girls for crimes related to their status as trafficking victims in accordance with the Temporary Instruction on Treatment of Trafficking Victims, adopted by the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees in September 2002.
· Provide appropriate support and protection for children involved in the process of testifying against traffickers, taking into consideration the particular psychological and developmental needs of the child and with due attention to protecting the child from further physical or emotional harm.
· Provide training for judges, prosecutors, and police on trafficking as well as women's and children's human rights issues. Bosnian nongovernmental organizations with relevant experience and expertise should be involved in designing and implementing the training programs as well as child development experts equipped with appropriate methodologies for interacting with and intervening on behalf of girls.
To the United Nations
To the U.N. Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina
· Ensure that the appropriate international legal definition of trafficking, as articulated in the Trafficking Protocol, is used consistently in making determinations about trafficking status.
· Investigate thoroughly all allegations of trafficking or involvement by IPTF monitors in the purchasing of women and girls and patronage of brothels.
· Continue to include qualified policewomen in the Special Trafficking Operations Program (STOP) units.
· Publicly disclose the results of internal investigations into trafficking-related allegations with due regard to the safety and confidentiality of the victims.
· Provide adequate funding and support for NGO-managed, local shelters for trafficked women in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
· Monitor investigations of local police involvement in trafficking closely. De-authorize those police personnel found to be involved in trafficking-related corruption.
· Include information on trafficking in all training programs for IPTF monitors.
· Make all efforts to ensure that open trafficking cases are highlighted as a priority during the transfer to the European Union Police Mission (EUPM).
· Facilitate prosecution of international personnel by forwarding all relevant investigative reports to countries of origin of IPTF monitors implicated in trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
· Ensure that personnel implicated in trafficking do not serve in U.N. missions in the future.
· Lift immunity for IPTF officers in appropriate cases.
To the European Union
In January 2003, the European Union will take over the international policing operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The E.U. has announced that the mission will consist of 470 police officers, replacing the 1,800 strong U.N.-led IPTF. The E.U. should consider trafficking one of its priority issues as it takes on this mission. In addition, Human Rights Watch recommends that the European Union:
· Undertake an objective evaluation of the work of the STOP anti-trafficking units.
· Enforce high professional and ethical standards among E.U. police monitors.
· Ensure that any police monitor found to have engaged in trafficking or trafficking-related activities faces disciplinary, and when the evidence merits, criminal proceedings.
· Supervise local police to ensure the arrest, indictment, and prosecution of traffickers.
· Cooperate with the Bosnian government, NGOs, and other international agencies to ensure that human rights remain at the core of all anti-trafficking policies implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
· Supervise the provision of effective witness protection for victims of trafficking.
· Urge the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to permit trafficked persons not lawfully in the country a reasonable period of time prior to deportation to decide whether to cooperate in criminal proceedings against traffickers, as outlined in the Temporary Instruction on Treatment of Trafficking Victims.
· Create effective training programs for local police and prosecutors on women's and children's human rights and on organized crime issues, with a particular focus on trafficking in persons.
· Fund nongovernmental organizations engaged in anti-trafficking efforts in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding on the Protection of Victims of Trafficking.
· Press the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement fully its national plan of action under the auspices of the Stabilization and Association Process.
· Incorporate human rights protections for trafficking victims, including witness protection, as a priority area for attention for Bosnia and Herzegovina's Stabilization and Association Process agenda.
· Press the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to sign and implement the "Statement on Commitments: Legalization of the Status of Trafficked Persons" developed under the auspices of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings.
· Provide funding for Bosnia and Herzegovina to "align on European standards with regards to criminal legislation on trafficking/smuggling of human beings," as outlined in section 4.5 of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Stabilization and Association Report. Such funding should go beyond support for the State Border Service and should cover services for victims, including shelter and witness protection.
To the U.S. government
· Explore legislative changes to allow for the prosecution in the United States of U.S. citizens who commit criminal offenses while serving as international police monitors in U.N. missions. Such legislation should be tailored to end the jurisdictional gap that currently allows such persons to avoid domestic prosecution for trafficking-related crimes committed abroad.
To all governments providing staff to IPTF
· Prosecute personnel implicated in criminal activities, including trafficking of persons, when they return to their home countries. In appropriate cases, extradite personnel to Bosnia and Herzegovina for prosecution and encourage the United Nations to waive immunity for nationals facing charges in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
· Provide funding to local nongovernmental organizations working to combat trafficking and to protect the human rights of trafficking victims.
To SFOR
· Investigate thoroughly all allegations of SFOR soldiers', contractors', and expatriate civilian employees' involvement in trafficking or the purchase of women or girls and their passports.
· Investigate thoroughly allegations of physical or sexual abuse of women or girls by SFOR soldiers, expatriate civilian employees, or contractors in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
· Ensure that the records of all investigations are delivered to the country of origin of each SFOR soldier or contractor under investigation. Ensure that prosecutors and police in the countries of origin receive all records necessary to bring charges against soldiers and contractors found to have engaged in trafficking or other illegal activities related to trafficking in persons.
· Prosecute personnel accused of participation in trafficking to the fullest extent of the law.
3 Further recommendations are to be found on page 71.
4 See Chapter V, International and Domestic Legal Protections Against Trafficking, Brcko Criminal Code, page 27.
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