Victim Book 2
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UNITED NATIONS Office on Drugs and Crime VICTIM SUPPORT PROJECT INDIA MEXICO SOUTH AFRICA UGANDA UKRAINE PAKISTAN INDONESIA THAILAND GLO/R32–“BUILDING NON-GOVERNMENT SUPPORT STRUCTURES FOR VICTIMS OF VIOLENT CRIME, INCLUDING VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS” STATUS REPORT: SEPTEMBER 2006 CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 1 A. VICTIM SUPPORT II. VICTIM SUPPORT PROJECT 3 A. INDIA 3 B. INDONESIA 10 C. MEXICO 10 D. PAKISTAN 11 E. SOUTH AFRICA 12 F. THAILAND 13 G. UGANDA 14 H. UKRAINE & MOLDOVA 15 III. ABOUT UNODC, CJRU, ROSA 16 VICTIM SUPPORT PROJECT Countries of Victim Support Project FUNDERS B. Victim Support Project Victim Support Project aims to build non- governmental support structures to assist the victims of violent crimes including human trafficking. The project seeks to particularly help vulnerable groups such as children and women by carrying out anti- trafficking programmes and providing them with shelter, rehabilitation and training facilities as well as psychosocial and legal support during their recovery period. Funded by the United States of America, Italy and Netherlands, the Project is managed from the Regional Office for South Asia at New Delhi under the overall technical supervision of the CJRU. UNODC Executive Director Mr. Antonio Maria Costa and This work is done in cooperation with fifteen NGOs ROSA Representative Mr. Gary Lewis at a Home (Sanlaap) in nine developing countries and countries in supported by UNODC in Kolkota transition. The individual sub-projects are located in India, Indonesia, South Africa, Uganda, Pakistan, Mexico, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, and Thailand. About half of the sub-projects funded by the initiative are located in India. The NGOs were selected by a panel of external experts to receive UNODC grants based on their commitment to develop practical initiatives to assist victims of violent crime and to execute anti- trafficking programmes. These efforts complement UNODC's victim support and anti-human trafficking activities by directly addressing the needs of victims. The grants awarded for each project is US$ 35,000 on average. The sub-project durations vary from a minimum of one to a maximum three years. The nineteen selected sub-projects are piloted to promote “high quality” victim centred initiatives, from which important lessons can be learned. The individual sub-projects offer emotional and practical support, elementary legal aid, and short-term counselling and referrals with activities ranging from establishing shelters for victims to legal training for police and the judiciary staff. 2 VICTIM SUPPORT PROJECT I. VICTIM SUPPORT PROJECT: A REVIEW OF THE NGOs A. INDIA Care and Support for Adolescent Girls/Young Women Vulnerable to Sexual Abuse, Gender Discrimination and Trafficking Better Education Through Innovation (BETI) Foundation is executing a project to promote, establish and strengthen existing structures and systems for providing support to 'at risk' and affected adolescent girls and young women against varied sexual and other abuses, including trafficking, domestic and other social violence. The project seeks to evolve a convergent model for holistic/integrated care and support in households and in the larger community. BETI works in 8 backward districts prone to human trafficking located in the Indo-Nepal border of the Uttar Pradesh state of India. To aid vulnerable adolescents, BETI has, as part of the project, established a help line (9839302030 and 98392040), which constitutes the main referral points for project beneficiaries. The other achievements of the project are: 2,500 girls on the Indo-Nepal border are being assisted through direct interventions through informal education and provision of livelihood skills in the form of chikan work training, a specialised embroidery work. Project has assisted 11,206 adolescent girls through advocacy in the form of street plays, thematic films and discussions during important fairs and festivals. Project has produced a Migration Tool Kit to promote safe migration and reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking. Research on vulnerabilities in project districts relating to migration patterns and review of police records. Project has also researched the role of Women in Islam. Building Support for Victims of Trafficking Among Indo-Nepal Cross-Border Communities Due to the illegal nature of trafficking, it is impossible to be precise about the numbers, however, conservative figures point to thousands of women and children who have been or are at risk of being trafficked in South Asia. In South Asia the major source countries are Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka while India and Pakistan are both source and destination countries. The porous border between Nepal and India make it difficult for the law enforcement agencies to keep vigilance over thousands of individuals crossing the border everyday. To combat this problem Bhoruka Public Welfare Trust has designed an intervention project which is implemented from three centers: a) Panitanki b) Jogbani c) Raxaul on the Indo-Nepal border. The main purpose of this project is: To provide physical and psychological support for the rescued victims of trafficking at the cross-border sites of Raxaul and Panitanki; To provide counselling and advice on safe migration at the three cross-border points to persons migrating into or out of the country; To link these centres with the ongoing community based anti-trafficking program being implemented by this organization at the Indo-Nepal Cross Border Zone and provide support to the law enforcers in these areas. 3 VICTIM SUPPORT PROJECT A leader of one of the community vigilance groups on the Indo-Nepal border with her daughter The organisation has setup two shelter homes, one at Raxaul and another at Panitanki with each shelter home providing for at least 10 trafficked victims at a time. Three counselling units are functioning at the border, adjacent to the Immigration Office, manned by one counsellor, which provides information on safe migration to people crossing. Community Vigilance groups have been set up in a number of villages along the border to detect and prevent trafficking. Local leaders and women groups are active in these. A total of 149 meetings with 2,954 participants attending have so far been organised under the aegis of these vigilance groups to spread information about trafficking on the borders. Establish Anti-Trafficking Community Resource Cell to Pilot Anti-Trafficking Interventions Including Rehabilitation Catholic Relief Services proposed a project to be carried out through Prajwala, an NGO based in Hyderabad, which supports women and children who have been trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. The project is located in Andhra Pradesh, India. The main tasks were: Rescue of women and children from brothels in different states of India. Management of a transit home in Hyderabad where women are offered residence and psycho social support. Entrepreneurship development and economic empowerment program for rescued victims. Home for rescued children. Setting up and managing an Anti trafficking resource centre. Apart from support to at least 200 home-based victims at a time the project particularly supports new sustainable livelihood options for 50 survivors. The girls are trained in bookbinding, printing, photo lamination, carpentry, welding, fabrication and horticulture. Recently desk top printing, bookkeeping and inventory management training have also been added. This enterprise is managed entirely by the girls, 20 of whom are also the trainers. A media and documentation centre that documents various methodologies, strategies and interventions that have been adopted in the field in the form of best practices to combat 4 VICTIM SUPPORT PROJECT trafficking has also been established as part of the project. “Anamika The Nameless,” a film on the journey and life of a victim of trafficking has been produced under this project to create mass awareness. Legal Initiatives on Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking The Human Rights Law Network UNODC has supported HRLN take up the projects aim to use the legal system, the courts, following cases which have a bearing on anti- the Juvenile Justice Boards, the National trafficking. Commission for Women, the National Human Rights Commission to prevent trafficking, 1. Sapna vs State prosecute the offenders and defend the victims 2. Court on its own motion of commercial sexual exploitation and 3. Mehrool and Saima trafficking. It also seeks to improve rescue processes making them more humane, improve 4. Prajwala Public Interest Litigation in rehabilitation, reform the overall system of Supreme Court intelligence and prosecution, bring about 5. Prerana Public Interest Litigation in changes in law and policy and improve Supreme Court monitoring and response. The project has 6. Shimla Singh vs State of West Bengal provided legal aid to victims at two levels: 7. State vs Jalil Shekh & Ors 1) Through case representation 8. State of West Bengal vs Budhia Singh 2) Through public interest petition in 9. Sishodia vs State of West Bengal the Supreme Court The project has also fully funded the Rescue home “Keertika” in Kolkota. Eight training programmes were organised by the NGO in Delhi for 70 law enforcement officers posted in police stations close to red light areas. It is understood that the Indian Supreme Court is on the verge of coming out with a comprehensive directive on the three 'Rs' of anti-trafficking, rescue, relief and rehabilitation in one of the writ petitions