Applying human rights standards to Russian law enforcement practice: The case of human trafficking
Oleg Kuzbit, Russia
The Russian Federation is a sending, receiving and transit country for thousands of women and children who every year fall prey to predatory sexual exploitation by international criminal trafficking networks. In late 2003, Russia joined the worldwide fight against human trafficking by passing an amendment to its National Criminal Code, making trafficking a crime. However, in their enthusiasm to ‘test-run’ the new amendment, law enforcement bodies have lost sight of the human rights of trafficking victims, often applying the same coercive tactics as the traffickers.
Inhumane treatment by the police not only exacerbates the suffering of the victims, but also hinders prosecutions because potential witnesses are too traumatized to cooperate. Recognizing that such treatment makes victims reluctant to serve as prosecution witnesses, the federal police have asked NGO members of the Angel Coalition I represent on ways of improving work with survivors of trafficking in order to increase their effectiveness as witnesses. This has created a unique opportunity for Russia’s anti-trafficking movement to establish best practices for humane police work, and to provide direct training to federal and regional law enforcement bodies on how to profile and identify trafficking crimes and victims. In this way, Russian counter-trafficking NGOs will increasingly be recognized as reliable partners of the authorities.
Specifically, this can be achieved through:
1. Establishing and implementing ‘victim protection protocols’ and victim profiling for police. This will set new standards for protecting the human rights of the survivors of trafficking.
2. Educating federal law enforcement authorities about international conventions such as the European Convention against Trafficking in Human Beings.
3. Enhancing the capacity of NGOs to monitor law enforcement agencies in their work with trafficking victims. Formal and informal channels of communication between NGOs and the police should be established.
4. Strengthening the role of NGOs as reliable resources for law enforcement through their provision of assistance to victims who are prosecution witnesses.
Human trafficking takes a devastating toll of its victims, most of whom are traumatized for months after they are freed. Upon returning to Russia, they face the dilemma of agreeing or refusing to act as witnesses against their former tormentors. Their families as well as NGO advocates expect the law enforcement system to honour the victims’ rights to a life of dignity and freedom of choice. However, the police ignores these rights, placing survivors in further jeopardy by threatening and coercing them. Tactics have included chaining trafficking victims to radiators after breaking into a brothel, ostensibly to give officers ‘time’ to arrest the perpetrators.
Russian police officers retain the old Soviet mindset that puts punitive action and crime detection first and human rights last. Some progressive law enforcement officials are calling for a revision of traditional approaches, but old habits die hard and bureaucratic inertia is strong. At all levels of Russian government there are still serious misconceptions about the roots of the trafficking phenomenon.
The focus of our activity is to effect a shift in the mentality of law enforcement agencies, convincing them that trafficking is a crime, the trafficking survivor a victim – not a criminal – and that treating victims humanely and supporting them during their recovery from trauma will make them much more reliable and cooperative as prosecution witnesses.
Sex trafficking is an international crime, which means that it is vital to build cases through cross-border cooperation between Russian, EU, and other international law enforcement agencies. This process can be facilitated in the Russian Federation by using the expertise and referral capabilities of police attaches and liaison officers serving with foreign embassies in Moscow. We have already conducted a number of coordinated rescues of trafficking victims abroad. Foreign officials are interested in reform of the Russian policing system and have offered to provide assistance and useful contacts – as have our police contacts overseas.
Until the age-old conflict between law enforcement (the embodiment of repressive federal authority) and citizens (who avoid and mistrust law enforcement at all costs) can be bridged we will be unable to put an end to trafficking. For without cooperative and reliable witnesses it is impossible to build a case. We encourage our partner NGOs not only to become trusted law enforcement allies in the war against trafficking but also to realize their wider objective of becoming the guardians of civil society and true democracy in Russia. As our consortium of NGOs moves painstakingly towards building strategic partnerships, we are helping to increase public support for government efforts to curb trafficking. The creation of such a broad-based front will, we believe, improve the overall situation of human rights in Russia.