[headlines] Human rights-based perspective is urged in prosecuting crimes of trafficking in persons

OHCHR, 26 July 2012 -- “Human rights of trafficked persons are often not the primary consideration in the pursuit of effective criminal justice responses to trafficking,” Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children said, presenting her report to the Human Rights Council.

CUFARI/BWShe urged States to prosecute trafficking and related acts using a human rights-based perspective. In order to effectively combat and prevent trafficking in persons, it is essential to criminalize the conduct of trafficking and related acts through “clear, enforceable and comprehensive” legislation, while ensuring effective protection of the victim.

She noted that efforts to identify trafficked persons as victims who deserve protection are often complicated by the fact that victims may be “imperfect”; they may have committed crimes or have criminal records.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo urged that they should not be prosecuted for offences relating to their status as victims of trafficking victims, for it destroys trust and re-traumatizes the victims.

Victims who have criminal records may also face difficulties in recovery and reintegration.

Timely and efficient identification of victims is central to the criminalization of trafficking, as it strengthens the ability of law enforcement officials to prosecute traffickers effectively and is fundamental in terms of being able to provide victims with the necessary support.

She further acknowledged the work of victim support agencies working on the ground as they are the first to come into contact with trafficked persons and thereby serve a key function.

The Special Rapporteur stated that support services to trafficked persons must be designed and delivered in a manner that is compatible with a human rights-based approach. An approach that requires an analysis of the ways in which human rights violations arose throughout the trafficking cycle as well as States’ obligations under international human rights law.

The approach further seeks to both identify and redress the discriminatory practices and unjust distributions of power that underlie trafficking, maintain impunity for traffickers and deny justice to victims of trafficking. A human rights-based approach also identifies victims as rights holders and their entitlements.
Some States have linked the provision of assistance and protection to cooperation with national criminal justice agencies, the Special Rapporteur strongly believes that “support and protection should not be made conditional on the victim’s capacity or willingness to cooperate in legal proceedings”.

She is also concerned by practices where victims are mandatorily detained in shelters. In particular, she considers the routine detention of women and children in shelter facilities “discriminatory and unlawful”.

The Special Rapporteur offered a number of recommendations, including criminalization of trafficking and related acts in accordance with international law and standards; non-criminalization of trafficked persons for status-related offences; building the capacity of front-line officials to identify trafficking victims accurately; and encouraging greater coordinated collaboration between criminal justice and victim support agencies.

Finally, warning that “certain laws and policies may have unintended negative consequences for victims of trafficking”, the Special Rapporteur recommended that States should “include appropriate safeguards in the criminal justice responses that protect victims, witnesses and suspects, and integrate gender and age-based perspectives into investigations and prosecution”.

Human Rights Education

[headlines] Sierra Leone Special Court offers lessons for prosecuting highest-level suspects

international Justice: Taylor Trial Sets Positive Example, says Human Rights Watch
(Brussels) July 25, 2012 – The trial of the former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s armed conflict was a largely well-run proceeding, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The trial benefitted from a high-quality defense, sound handling of witnesses, and dynamic outreach to communities affected by the crimes. At the same time, Human Rights Watch’s analysis identified areas in which practice should be improved for future trials of the highest-level suspects before domestic, international, and hybrid war crimes tribunals.

The 55-page report, “Even a ‘Big Man’ Must Face Justice: Lessons from the Trial of Charles Taylor,” analyzes the practice and impact of Taylor’s trial by the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. The report examines the conduct of the trial, including issues related to efficiency, fairness, and witnesses and sources. It also examines the court’s efforts to make its proceedings accessible to communities most affected by the crimes, and perceptions and initial impact of the trial in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

“Taylor’s trial shows that credible prosecutions of the highest-level suspects for the gravest crimes are achievable,”said Annie Gell, international justice fellow at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report. “It was a long road and there was room for improvement, yet the proceedings were relatively well-managed, more than 100 witnesses testified, and expert defense counsel strengthened the proceedings.”

The report is based on research in Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Hague, London, and New York from September 2011 to June 2012.

The Taylor trial took place against a backdrop of criticism and concern over the feasibility of trying national leaders before international or hybrid war crimes courts following the 2002-2006 trial of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. That trial was notable for its sometimes-chaotic atmosphere and Milosevic’s death before a judgment was issued.

The Taylor trial largely avoided major disruptions that could have marred the proceedings, Human Rights Watch said. Taylor’s decision to be represented by counsel appears to have contributed to the generally respectful and organized tenor of the courtroom.

Human Rights Watch urged tribunals handling such trials in the future to take measures to enhance trial management. Notably, the judges in Taylor’s trial adopted practices that sought to improve efficiency but sometimes contributed to delays, such as the ambitious courtroom calendar and inflexibility on parties meeting some deadlines. Other practices – such as the Trial Chamber’s non-interventionist approach to witness testimony and the admission of evidence of the underlying crimes – lengthened the proceedings.

More active court efforts to address defense concerns prior to the trial’s start could have encouraged smoother proceedings and improved fairness, Human Rights Watch said. Increased transparency and stronger guidelines for the prosecution’s provision of funds to potential witnesses and sources during its investigation could also have been helpful.

Trials like Taylor’s are significant beyond the events in the courtroom, Human Rights Watch said. One crucial objective is to convey a sense of accountability to communities most affected by the crimes so that justice has local resonance and becomes meaningful.

“The court’s dynamic outreach activities brought the trial to local communities in Sierra Leone and Liberia and helped to explain the proceedings,” Gell said. “Trial impact is hard to judge but Sierra Leoneans and Liberians expressed greater expectations for justice and interest in promoting the rule of law in their countries.”

Increased expectations for justice have also resulted in some frustration, though, over the absence of wider accountability in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Human Rights Watch said. A domestic amnesty for crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s conflict remains in effect and Liberia has yet to investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed during its armed conflict.

“Domestic efforts to investigate serious crimes committed in Sierra Leone and Liberia beyond the Special Court’s mandate are essential for more complete justice,” Gell said. “The Sierra Leonean and Liberian governments should take concrete steps to pursue justice for serious crimes committed in their countries.”

Background
Taylor was sworn in as president of Liberia on August 2, 1997, after leading an eight-year insurgency against the Liberian government. Taylor’s presidency, which lasted until 2003, was characterized by widespread human rights abuses in Liberia. Taylor’s forces also participated in armed conflicts and cross-border raids in neighboring Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire, where they committed numerous abuses.

On March 7, 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone indicted Taylor under seal for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law during Sierra Leone’s armed conflict.

Taylor’s repression in Liberia fueled a rebellion to unseat him. Following rebel incursions into Monrovia, the Liberian capital, and the unsealing of Taylor’s indictment by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Taylor stepped down as president, in August 2003. He was offered safe haven in Nigeria, where he stayed until his surrender to the Special Court.

Taylor was transferred to the custody of the Special Court on March 29, 2006. Because of concerns over regional stability in West Africa, the trial was moved from Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital, to the Netherlands. The trial began on June 4, 2007, but was adjourned the same day when Taylor dismissed his legal team. New counsel was assigned the following month and proceedings resumed in January 2008. The trial phase officially closed on March 11, 2011.

On April 26, 2012, Taylor became the first former head of state since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II to face a verdict before an international or hybrid international-national court on charges of serious crimes committed in violation of international law.

Taylor was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on all 11 counts of the indictment on the theory that he aided and abetted the commission of the crimes and was therefore individually criminally responsible for them. He was also found guilty of planning attacks on the diamond-rich Kono district in eastern Sierra Leone and the town of Makeni, the economic center of northern Sierra Leone, in late 1998, and an attack on Freetown in early 1999, during which war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed.

On May 18, the court released its full written judgment, totaling over 2,500 pages. On May 30, Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Both prosecution and defense indicated they plan to appeal. Given the judgment’s length and the complexity of the case, the court estimates the appeals process will take at least 15 months, with an appeal judgment expected no earlier than September 2013.
Human Rights Watch Press release

Harmful Traditional Practices Against Women and Girls Law vs Practice: Rhetoric vs Reality

Harmful Traditional Practices Against Women and Girls

Law vs Practice: Rhetoric vs Reality

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda

General Secretary, World YWCA & President, NGO CSW-Geneva

20^th Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva 27 June, 2012

On behalf of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva (NGO CSW – Geneva), and of my a own organization the World YWCA,  I am honored to join this very important panel today during this 20th session of the Human Rights Council, as we continue to engage in advocacy actions and awareness. Last year the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva adopted five priority themes as strategic directions for the next three years. Grounding all our work is women's human rights, empowerment and dignity.

We are meeting in this Human Rights Council at a time when there is a significant focus on gender equality and women's rights. This ranged from the two days debates on gender equality, which carried the focus on the study undertaken on violence against women and disability, the debate on women human rights defenders, the report of the special rapportuer on violence against women on gender motivated killings, the panel on violence against women and remedies, the first report of the working group on discrimination against women in law and in practice, as well as the current negotiations underway for the Council's resolution on violence against women and remedies. The issues of harmful traditional practices are permeating the debates and the discourse. We are therefore not short of the discourse, but how to turn this into the reality of billions of women and girls across the world? We have the normative instruments, like CEDAW, we have the mechanisms, like the UPR, we have the rhetoric, and yet women continue to experience the violations.

Many women's organizations, including the World YWCA and the Inter Africa Committee have continued to work at the nexus of culture, faith and rights to advance the status and empowerment of women. We also know that the majority of the key issues relating to harmful traditional practices are intricately linked with women's reproductive health and rights, violence against women and personal empowerment. Yet, this is the most controversial issue that confronts us today in the women's human rights discourse, as we saw at the 56th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the recently concluded negotiations during the Rio + 20 conference.

These are some of the proposed recommendations that we have in order to turn this rhetoric into reality:

1. Use the two recent reports on violence and disability and the report of the SRVAW on gender-related killings to provide further awareness to the issue on harmful traditional practices, and the kind of options for interventions. However, many communities that could benefit from this information do not have equal access to technology.

2. Increased recognition of human rights defenders working on issues of culture, faith and human rights who often face discrimination and labelling within their communities as they dare to give new meaning and interpretation to culture and faith in ways that advance the human rights of women and girls.

3. Advocate for stronger language in the current draft resolutions on violence against women and remedies and on discrimination against women that are under consideration, so that the language considers the violence women experience associated with harmful traditional practices, which may require different forms of remedies.

4. Establish a strong working engagement with and advocacy of the women's organizations, human rights networks and communities with the working group on discrimination against women in law and in practice.

5. Continue to invest financial, technical and other resources for county level inter ministerial interventions, and community level programmes that address the issues.

6. Promote greater engagement with the custodians of culture and faith, to facilitate the change of norms and behaviors, and build on the positive practices towards protecting rights of women and girls; while working towards the transformation the harmful traditional practices.

In my every day work at the world YWCA, I continue valuing the strategic and diverse  partnerships with UN agencies organizations such as UNFPA, OHCHR, with private foundations such as the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Oak Foundation, HorYzon, and with ecumenical partners such as ICCO, EED, National German Committee of the  World Day of Prayer, as well as governments such as Australia, Norway and Canada in supporting our effort to build a critical mass of young women as advocates and champions of gender equality and human rights. This enables us to adopt an intergenerational approach which promotes women’s own voices, agency and leadership in seeking accountability to women and girls. The YWCAs also provide a safe space for women and girls to access services, information and support.

In conclusion, it is clear that we need to continue promoting a strategic, significant global social movement. This is essential  to continue pushing for an end to harmful traditional practices resulting in abandoning female genital mutilation and the commodification of women's bodies; ending child marriage; and achieving secure sexual, reproductive, social and economic rights for women. How will this shape up if we have the 5th women's world conference?