Child Rights Centre CHILD TRAFFICKING IN SERBIA Threats and Reality Child Rights Centre Belgrade, 2006 Child Trafficking in Serbia - Threats and Reality Published by CHILD RIGHTS CENTRE Belgrade, Dositejeva 4 http://www.cpd.org.yu [email protected] For the publisher Ljubomir Pejakovi}, Director Editor of all publications Vesna Dejanovi} Translated by Jelena Popovi} Design, Layout and Printing Colorgrafx Circulation 1000 ISBN 86-83109-33-X The printing of this publication was made possible by Save the Children UK, Serbia Programme. Contents PREFACE . 5 Dr Vesna Nikoli}-Ristanovi} DEFINITION AND DELINEATION OF MAIN TERMS . 7 Biljana Mihi} TRAFFICKING IN CHILDREN IN SERBIA . 11 Sla|ana Vorkapi} PROTECTION OF CHILD VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING AND SELECTED INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS . 33 Aleksandra Jovanovi} TRAFFICKING IN CHILDREN - EXPERIENCE FROM PRACTICE . 45 Sanja Kljaji} and Milka Ignjatovi} PLACE AND ROLE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM IN COUNTER TRAFFICKING RESPONSE, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON CHILD VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING . 52 Sergej Uljanov THE ROLE OF INTERPOL IN ANTI-CHILD TRAFFICKING EFFORTS . 59 Sne`ana Nikoli} Garoti} JUDICIARY - PLACE AND ROLE OF JUDICIAL AUTHORITIES IN PREVENTING AND COMBATING CHILD TRAFFICKING . 66 Vesna Stanojevi} ON THE SHELTER FOR VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHILD TRAFFICKING . 79 \or|e Alempijevi} and Slobodan Savi} CLINICAL FORENSIC MEDICINE AND ITS APPLICATION TO CASES OF TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS . 86 Mi{a Stojiljkovi} CHILD TRAFFICKING AND THE MEDIA . 93 Tanja Zogovi} INTERNET - DANGERS AND POTENTIAL ADVANTAGES . 97 PREFACE Prevention and suppression of human trafficking, especially women and children, calls for a comprehensive international effort in the countries of origin, countries of transit, and countries of destination. Such an approach should encompass prevention measures, sanctions for traffickers, and protection of victims based on their internationally recognised rights. As the rights of the child are universally accepted and recognized sphere of human rights, child trafficking needs to be addressed as a distinct area of human trafficking. The overall social response must take account of the specificities related to psychophysical characteristics and mental maturity of the child. Child trafficking represents a grave violation of child rights as trafficking networks expose children to all kinds of abuse, violence, ill-treatment and neglect, putting into danger or violating their physical or personal integrity. Any instance of dealing with violations of all or individual rights of the child presupposes thorough knowledge of the entire body of the rights of the child. Appreciating the intention of the legislator, and the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we must ensure that the steps taken with a view of protecting a child do not per se violate his or her child rights. In other words, protection of children from trafficking must rest on the respect for fundamental rights of the child. Protection of victims’ child rights is merely a segment in the overall anti-child trafficking effort. Therefore, to take exclusive interest in child victims is to deal with mere consequences, that is the omissions of the child care system as a whole. Only the joint effort and co-ordinated action of all systems, institutions and organisations will effectively prevent and suppress child trafficking, and ensure adequate assistance for the victims. In March 2005, Child Rights Centre, with the support of Save the Children UK in Belgrade, launched a series of child-trafficking seminars for the representatives of the social protection system, judiciary, police authorities, education system, health care system, NGOs and media. The composition of the attendants points to multi-disciplinary approach to child-trafficking as a necessity and the only correct way to proceed in the mounting of an adequate multifaceted and differentiated social response. Insufficient knowledge of the issue, lack of specific methodological models, and poor interaction and co-operation among the systems, institutions and organisations responsible for the realisation of child rights diminish the efficiency and affect the quality of interventions. The seminars were initially held in the Ra{ka and Jablanica districts, with the intention to expand and include other border districts as well. The objective of the seminars was to present child trafficking as a specific problem area of human trafficking and to examine it from a variety of aspects. The further development of the project, which is to include additional trainings targeted to the members of certain systems based on their needs and 5 Child Trafficking in Serbia - Threats and Reality activities, will ensure that the ultimate goal of having trained and functioning multi- disciplinary teams based in the local community is accomplished, and that activities of all practitioners are linked and harmonised. As child trafficking is an act of organised crime of utmost gravity and complexity, and a threat to society, the need for team work, and co-operation and joint effort of all protagonists in the society is pronounced and strongly manifested in the child rights protection system. This publication comes as a result of the seminars and includes the presentations as they were delivered by lecturers. The seminar agenda also reflects the inter- sectoral approach to child trafficking, without pretension to have encompassed all possible points of view. The lecturers were from the governmental sector and non- governmental sector in the broadest sense of the word. The papers in this publication are presented in the order in which presentations were made at the seminars, which makes it easy to use as a model or approach to organising the same or similar seminars. I would like to use this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the lecturers - Sanja Milivojevi} and Sanja ]opi} (Victimology Society of Serbia), Marija An|elkovi}, Tamara Vukasovi} and Aleksandra Jovanovi} (ASTRA), Sanja Kljaji} and Milka Ignjatovi} (Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Welfare Policy), Mitar \ura{kovi} (Department for Foreign Nationals, Suppression of Illegal Migrations, and Human Trafficking of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior), Sergej Uljanov (International Police Co-operation Department, Crime Police Directorate of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, member of Interpol Belgrade), Sne`ana Nikoli} Garoti} (District Court of Belgrade), Vesna Stanojevi} (Domestic Violence Counselling Centre), Dr \or|e Alempijevi} and Dr Slobodan Savi} (Institute of Forensic Medicine, Belgrade), Mi{a Stojiljkovi} (Radio B92) and Tanja Zogovi} (Child Rights Centre) - for adding the well deserved relevance and substance to the topic by their knowledge, experience and activities in this field, and for adopting and presenting the child rights-based approach as a necessity, setting thereby standards in this field. I hope that our future cooperation will continue to make an important contribution to the full realisation of child rights. I also want to thank the Belgrade office of Save the Children UK for making this project possible not only by its continued financial support but also by a true and long-standing partnership, thus working towards the fulfilment of our organisations’ mission – realisation, promotion, and protection of child rights. Belgrade, July 2005 Sla|ana Vorkapi} Child Rights Centre 6 Child Trafficking in Serbia - Threats and Reality Dr Vesna Nikoli}-Ristanovi} Victimology Society of Serbia DEFINITION AND DELINEATION OF MAIN TERMS1 Defining the main terms is an important prerequisite of any empirical research. However, this is extremely significant when we are faced with a type of crime such as people trafficking since here we have few empirical researches and theoretical generalizations, as opposed to the extensive space devoted to them in media, by different governmental and non-governmental organizations and other forms of public (unscientific) activities. Absence of systematic knowledge, and obscurity, complexity and variability of the phenomenon (in time and space), produced a series of ambiguities and confusions as regards the terms used in media, official and informal reports, and even in academic papers, both in the country and abroad. Often no difference is made between people trafficking and prostitution or illegal migration; this may lead to faulty or inadequate perception of the phenomenon itself. Also, sometimes people trafficking is not distinguished from people smuggling; this may lead to inadequate legal framework and other forms of inadequate response by the state, but also to incorrect research approach. Finally, people trafficking is often unjustifiably reduced to one form only – to trafficking in women, and the trafficking in women itself to trafficking for sexual exploitation purposes. That is exactly why, for the requirements of this research, we had to clearly define the main terms. We defined and delineated the terms in a manner described here below, relying on studying the available literature and taking into account the definitions of such phenomenon as provided by the International Organization for Migrations, and the definitions contained in the international documents, particularly in the Protocol on people trafficking from Palermo. We considered people trafficking to be recruitment, transportation, or other kind of transfer, reception or holding in, of other persons, and to that by employment of threat with violence or other forms of enforcement,