FOR THE RECORD: UWC statement on trafficking of Ukrainian women (03/21/04)

FOR THE RECORD: UWC statement on trafficking of Ukrainian women

The statement below was submitted by the Ukrainian World Congress to the 48th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held at the U.N. Headquarters in New York on March 1-12. The statement is dated March 8.

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), established in 1967, is a global organization representing Ukrainian communities outside Ukraine with affiliates in some 30 countries, including Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan as well as associates in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Portugal.

In 2003 the UWC was registered as an NGO in consultative status with ECOSOC. Over the course of recent months the UWC has followed closely the activities of relevant United Nations bodies, regional and global governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations on issues of concern.

In this regard, the international slave trade is among the most acute global issues confronting Ukrainians. The profound impact of the slave trade on Ukrainians is confirmed by Oleksander Dolzhenkov, deputy rector for scholarly research at the Institute of Law of the Odesa University, who recently reported that "more than 400,000 Ukrainian women are currently being held abroad in sex slavery."

For its part, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) put the figure at 500,000 Ukrainian women being trafficked to the West. Other researchers have confirmed that the number of Ukrainian women and girls who are victims of the slave trade is staggering.

A report on "Trafficking in Women from Ukraine" prepared by Donna M. Hughes of the University of Rhode Island and Tatyana Denisova of Zaporizhia State University states: "From 1995 to 2000, approximately 400,000 women under the age of 30 left Ukraine. Trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is a serious problem in Ukraine affecting hundreds of thousands of victims and their families."

In his investigative study "The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade," published by Viking Canada, Canadian journalist Victor Malarek exposes the new international crime networks that run the slave trade industry in the countries of the former Soviet Union, selling and buying women and girls from Ukraine and other countries in the region.

Mr. Malarek underscores the need for additional attention by the international community to their plight: "Over the past three decades the world has witnessed four distinct waves of trafficking for sexual exploitation. This latest traffic from Eastern and Central Europe has been dubbed 'the Fourth Wave,' and the speed and proportion are truly staggering. Just a decade ago, these women didn't even register on the radar screen. Today, they represent more than 25 percent of the (slave) trade."

According to these studies, Ukraine is one of the largest sources for slave traders:

Ukrainian women are the largest group trafficked in Turkey;
Ukrainian women are the second largest group outside U.S. military bases in Korea;
Women from CIS countries comprise 70 percent of trafficking in Israel;
Ukrainian women constitute the largest foreign group trafficked in the Netherlands;
70 percent of Ukrainian women in Poland were trafficked;
women from Central, East Europe and CIS countries constitute 80 percent of trafficking in Germany.

Other large markets for the slave trade in Ukrainians include: Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, China, Canada and Japan.

This relatively new and huge dimension of the international slave trade should be accorded the requisite attention and resources by the international community. Clearly, existing relevant United Nations Conventions constitute formidable international instruments, including the 1949 United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others and the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, including the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish the Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and Children.

It is appropriate that the Protocol on Trafficking is within the context of the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime as the international slave trade is a highly organized criminal industry that generates over $20 billion (U.S.) and that recognizes neither national boundaries or norms. The UWC looks forward to and will work towards the early ratification of the Protocol on Trafficking by the governments that have as yet not done so. Equally important are international instruments on the protection of children, including the prevention of trafficking in children promulgated by the ILO and UNICEF. Indeed, an alarming proportion of the slave trade in Ukrainians is of girls under the age of 18 with a significant number as young as 12 and 13 years old.

In this regard as well, the UWC welcomes the recent statement by the NATO ambassadors of the United States and Norway who pledged to promote a NATO-wide policy to coordinate the efforts of the 46 countries in the alliance's Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council to, inter alia, pursue evidence of trafficking in persons and help host countries to investigate human trafficking, to prohibit military personnel and civilian service contract employee participation in activities that support or promote human trafficking and impose penalties on contractors who fail to monitor their employees' conduct. Similarly, the European Union and other regional governmental entities have professed their determination to fight the crime of human trafficking. However, for all of the legislation and professions of indignation and solemn commitments to fight trafficking, they have not stemmed the growth in size and scope of the slave trade industry.

The UWC recently established a task force on the trafficking of children, women and men. The task force will coordinate the activities of member-organizations of the UWC worldwide. In this, we look forward to close collaboration with relevant bodies of the United Nations and other international and regional organizations, NGOs and government agencies. The UWC shares the view of virtually all NGOs engaged in exposing and combating this scourge: trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery and a grave violation of human rights.

We further agree that the international community must do more, much more meaningful, tangible work. To this end, we call on the United Nations system and governments to:

marshal the political will to combat trafficking;
undertake prevention and awareness campaigns;
encourage and support the activities of non-governmental organizations;
promulgate national legislation to punish traffickers and their facilitators;
prioritize law enforcement efforts to arrest and convict traffickers;
provide humanitarian services to victims and assist in their reintegration into society;
ratify and implement the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, including the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish the Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and Children;
develop international, regional and bilateral cooperation with countries of origin, transit and destination; and
accord special focus on the new front for traffickers in Central and East Europe.

The Ukrainian World Congress stands ready to join in the struggle against trafficking, to defeat those who engage in the slave trade, and to rescue, save and rehabilitate the victims.

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