OSCE Special Representative, in Kosovo, highlights need to improve criminal justice response to human trafficking

PRISHTINË/PRIŠTINA, 19 April 2011 – The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, stressed today the need to improve the criminal justice response to human trafficking at a training session for judges and prosecutors in Prishtinë/Priština.

During the two-day training course, organized by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), Giammarinaro met and delivered a presentation to EULEX judges, prosecutors, legal officers, advisers and other international experts.

They discussed current institutional and legislative developments in the fight against trafficking in human beings. Additionally, an OSCE trial monitor provided a presentation to EULEX Justice Component actors on the findings from the monitoring of human trafficking cases in the Kosovo justice system.

Highlighting the importance of correct implementation of the UN Palermo Protocol on Trafficking, Giammarinaro said: “The UN Palermo Protocol is a valid and useful tool to combat trafficking, provided that it is interpreted and implemented correctly. It was intended to enlarge the definition of slavery and forced labour, and to provide practitioners with a new and flexible instrument, with a view to criminalizing new forms of slavery.”

During the event, Giammarinaro also met Ambassador Werner Almhofer, the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo and Maria Giuliana Civinini, the President of the Assembly of the EULEX Judges.

Giammarinaro also took part in a panel debate, following a screening of the documentary Vous êtes servis by Belgian film-maker Jorge León, which focuses on human trafficking for domestic servitude. She stressed that trafficking does not necessarily involve violence or total deprivation of freedom of movement, but rather implies abuse of the trafficked person’s vulnerability, which can stem from economic and social constraints, irregular migration status, debt bondage and social isolation.

“Nowadays a person can be considered a slave not necessarily because she or he is locked up in an apartment or workplace, but because she or he does not have any alternative,” Giammarinaro said.