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Speech by Kateryna Cherepakha, Social assistance programmes co-ordinator, The International Women’s Rights Center “La Strada-Ukraine” at the International Forum: What religious communities can do to combat human trafficking
3 October 2007

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Taking this opportunity I would like to thank UNODC and Archbishop for the opportunity to be here and to address to the respective delegates. It’s an honor for me.

In my presentation I will speak about European Perspectives. In some instances though, I will speak about the experience of my country, Ukraine. Among the categories of the countries Ukraine falls mainly into the countries of origin but also is a country of transit and destination.

Now that the issue of trafficking in human beings is recognised by the state, is known among the general public. It took us a long time and a lot of efforts to reach this stage. We still have to tackle the problem of trafficking in women and exploitation in prostitution. Our work herein continues.

Many countries in Europe adopted legal acts related to combating trafficking in human beings on the national level.  And Ukraine is also among those who moved forward in this area. Thus, Ukraine has ratified the Palermo Protocol, there is a specific  Article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Art. 124 – adopted in 1998, Art. 149 – in the new Criminal Code adopted in 2000 and with alteration done in 2006), the third State Programs on combating trafficking in human beings (adopted in 1999, 2002 and 2007), Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine №1961 of 25 December 2002 on “Establishing an Inter-Agency co-ordinating Council for the Prevention of Trafficking in Human Beings”, Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine №987 of 27 June 2003 on “Establishing Standard Rules for a Rehabilitation Center for Trafficked Persons” as well as other documents. There are different actors involved in the anti trafficking activity: Inter-Agency co-ordinating Council for the Prevention of Trafficking in Human Beings with Minister on Family, Youth and Sports Affairs in the Head, Ministry on Family, Youth and Sports Affairs and its structural divisions on all levels, Ministry of Internal Affairs (Department on Combating Crimes Related to Trafficking in Human Beings, Criminal Police on Minor Affairs), Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (State Employment Center), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, international and non governmental organisation. Similar to other important social issues NGOs and IOs are the first to start anti trafficking activity. And it’s difficult to underestimate their contribution to this field. Conducting informational and awareness raising campaigns, lobby and advocacy, preparing and distributing the publications, conducting lectures and trainings for different target groups (both at risk group and specialists), organising direct assistance to trafficked persons, consulting on the help lines, running the shelters, etc. – all this is taken place. I will give as an example some statistics of our organisation – “La Strada-Ukraine” -  more than 300 interviews were given to mass media (2001- September 2006), more than 140 articles were prepared by Center’s specialists (during 2001 - June 2007), 3 social video spots with the National Toll Free Hot Line were created  and broadcasted, more than 1300 lectures were conducted for more than 39 000 representatives of at risk group and group of specialists (during 2001 - June 2007), Methodic manual on trafficking in people and exploitation of children and video addition to the Manual were created, more than 1000 persons received social assistance, 34 189 consultations were given on the National Toll Free Hot Line (November 1997 – June 2007), more  than 1000 consultations were given through the Internet (2004 – June 2007). But there are also many other organisations and who are doing work in this field. 

But what we see is that the number of persons suffered from trafficking is not decreasing. Why? Sometimes (and in fact rather often) you can hear the opinion that now all people know about the trafficking, and that means that those who going abroad or ending at the exploitation situation in their home countries know/knew what they will get at the end. So that means that they are not “real” victims of trafficking and they initially accepted such conditions. I would argue such a statement.

First of all the causes of the problem remains, pull and push factors remains. Of course they might differ from region to region, but they are still here. Another thing is that traffickers are good professionals in their business; they know how to act and also follow those preventive measures taken by the organisations. They change their methods of recruiting; extend the spheres of exploitation, find new vulnerable groups, etc. In our organisations it can be seen on the analysis of the calls received to the hot line. For example, in 1997 – 1999 we could see that more people ended up in the situation of trafficking after accepting proposals to work abroad from various “job agencies”. The informational and awareness raising campaigns at that period contained many information about necessity to be careful with job agencies, necessity to check the licence, type of the visa, contract, etc. After some period of time we’ve seen that from the feedback received from the clients and again from the calls to the hot line that a lot of propositions to go and work abroad (that again ended in the situation of trafficking and exploitation) started to come from the persons that client know – friends, former class mates, neighbours, friend of the friends, sometimes relatives, etc. Well, you may not trust a firm and may be willing to check it, but you will definitely believe a person you know. 

This leads to the understanding we should not stop our work. We should work on developing non indifferent and tolerant society. We should continue and to work on the very early stages, such as human rights education for children, educating not only to know about existing of human rights, but creating the skills how to use them, protect them and respect them. This work together with the activities on organising assistance and support for those who suffered already should be complex and systematic.

Referring to the topic of this Forum: What religious communities can do to combat human trafficking? This is not a simple question and might have not a simple answer. But for sure the religious communities can be an active part in carrying out this work, be open for co-operation and co-ordination the efforts with other actors involved.

Thank you very much for attention.

e-mail: k.cherepakha@lastrada.org.ua
website: www.lastrada.org.ua
tel. + 38 044 205 36 95
La Strada-Ukraine
PO Box 26
Kyiv, Ukraine 03113

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Last modified: 07 December 2007 15:44:10.