abstract
Since the collapse of the Berlin wall, women and girls have been trafficked from central and eastern Europe to work as prostitutes in the European Union. This paper looks at the response of the international community to the problem of sex trafficking as it impacts on the EU. The focus is on criminal justice intervention with respect to protection of and assistance to ‘victims’, and a specially witness protection, in the light of the following: the tensions and promises between treatment of trafficked women as ‘victims’ of crime and criminal justice informants; and the need to re-focus on a ‘woman-centred’ approach to criminal justice intervention for trafficked women. Given the diverse nature of law and criminal justice practice between EU Member States, the paper necessarily presents a generic critique of current EU and international ‘best practice’ recommendations, with some commentary on practice based on the author's research, with respect to what ‘gold standards’ of practice offer in theory and what is delivered in reality. The question of ‘victim-centred’ justice and/or ‘woman-centred’ justice is raised in an effort to promote effective policy recommendations.
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Article 3(a) of the Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children (hereafter referred to as the Trafficking Protocol) states: ‘Trafficking in persons’ shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
Article 3(a) of the Protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air, states: ‘Smuggling in migrants’ shall mean the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident.
Other publications by the author provide more detail about ‘who’ offenders and victims are; for example, See Goodey (2000), (2002).
Given the focus of this special issue, this article does not explore trafficking in women into the EU from parts of the world other than central and east European countries. In this regard, trafficking in women and girls from Africa, in particular Nigeria, poses significant problems in the EU. Here, the intersection of ‘race’ and sexuality emerges as an important factor in the relationship between client and prostitute. While women from central and east European countries are of different nationality and citizenship status to their EU clients, they are, by and large, with the exception of Roma women, the same ‘race’. Trafficking in girls for underage sex is also a problem in the EU; but, again, the paper does not address questions of male sexuality, power, and peodophilia, limiting itself to discussion of trafficking in adult women.
UNICEF (1999) Women in Transition, The MONEE Report, Regional Report No.6. See http://www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/index.html; and, International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights (2000), A Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Women in the OSCE Member States, report to the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Trafficking in Human Beings, Vienna, 19 June 2000.
Information supplied at OSCE-organized (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) training meeting for judges involved in sex trafficking cases in Sofia, Bulgaria, March 2003, to which the author was invited.
The research is funded by the European Commission's Marie Curie Research Programme, under its individual research fellowship programme (HPMF-CT-1999-00383). The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect the standpoint of the UN.
The final report is, at the time of writing, undergoing review by the European Commission; 200 page final report of European Commission funded Marie Curie Research Fellowship, HPMF-CT-1999-00383.
The STOP programme was followed by the STOP II programme. This has now been replaced by the Agis programme (2002–2007).
In 1996, the mandate for Europol was extended to include combating trafficking in human beings.
Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendation R (2000) 11 on ‘Action against trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation’; European Parliament (1996) Resolution on trafficking in human beings, OJ C 32 (5.2.1996) (IOM (1996)).
The ‘Brussels Declaration’ was formulated during an IOM-organised (International Organisation for Migration) conference on trafficking, held at the European Parliament, Brussels, 18–21 September 2002, and was attended by the author; see: http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/02/st14/14981en2.pdf
The ‘Three P's’ – prevention, prosecution and protection – originally emerged from the anti domestic violence campaign in Scotland, at the beginning of the 1990s, that was called the ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign; a name that has subsequently been adapted for use by numerous local authorities in their efforts to reduce public incivility and petty offending.
Some NGOs, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and La Strada, an NGO working on behalf of trafficked women in Central Europe, provide insights into women's experiences of trafficking (see IOM's website for potted biographies of trafficked women's experiences: http://www.iom.int). But interviews with trafficked women are notoriously difficult to obtain because NGOs and women's shelters, where women are usually housed having escaped their abusers, act as gatekeepers to women in an effort to shield them from danger and unconstructive interviews that raise a number of ethical dilemmas.
The UN's Tenth Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, that took place in Vienna in April 2000, was illustrative of the marginal status given over to discussion of violence against women in the political discussions surrounding the development of the Trafficking Protocol that took place against the Congress's main concerns to combat organised crime. Where discussion of violence against women took place this was in meetings held separately to the main business of the Congress (the author took part in the Congress, and was responsible with members of the UN Secretariat for the development of discussion items in relation to the topic of offenders and victims).
I would like to thank the following Italian respondents who assisted me with my research: Francesco Carchedi, Association Parsec, Rome; Anna Baldry, Association Differenza Donna, Rome; Professor Adolfo Ceretti, Professor of Criminology, Milano-Bicocca University; Alessandro Bernascani, Professor of Criminal Procedure, Pisa University.
Other Member States, such as the UK, provide for witness protection as and when it is needed, but have no formal or statutory witness protection programme in place.
I would like to thank the following Austrian respondents who assisted me with my research: Dr. Hans Valentin Schroll, Justizpalast, Wien; Dr Albin Dearing, Ministry of Interior, Wien; Mag. Bernadette Karner and Mag. Maroa Cristina Boidi, LEFÖ, Wien; Dr Christa Pelikan, Institut für Rechts and Kriminalsoziologie, Wien; Mag. Marianne Gammer, Weisser Ring, Wien.
LEFÖ stands for: Lateinamerikanische Emigrierte Frauen in Österreich. This NGO was established to assist Latin American women working in the sex industry and in arranged marriages in Austria. The organization's remit has changed since the early 1990s in response to the increasing numbers of women entering Austria as prostitutes from the former eastern bloc.
According to some police representatives at a Europol Expert Meeting on Trafficking in Human Being for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation, The Hague, 21–22 March 2001; attended by the author on behalf of the UN.
With thanks to Dr Elizabeth Joyce of the United Nations Global Programme Against Money Laundering, Vienna, for providing me with detailed information on the above in a personal communication: 25/9/03.
Information provided to author during course of interview with members of the anti-trafficking unit of the Bundeskriminalamt at their headquarters in Wiesbaden: March 2001.
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Goodey, J. Sex trafficking in women from Central and East European countries: promoting a ‘victim-centred’ and ‘woman-centred’ approach to criminal justice intervention. Fem Rev 76, 26–45 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400141
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400141