List of Law and Policy Documents
last updated  March 8, 2003

This section provides a collection of the materials cited in the Trafficking Law and Policy section.  This list includes legally-binding documents, such as treaties and the UN Trafficking Protocol, as well as politically influential documents, such as declarations and resolutions.

General legal resources and policy guides on trafficking are listed below.  Legal materials relevant to the international, regional and domestic legal frameworks are available through the navigation bar to the right.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe hosts a website with information about legislation on trafficking.  The Legislationonline site for trafficking includes links to United Nations law, Council of Europe Law and laws from 53 countries of the CEE/FSU region, Europe and North America.

The Protection Project, a legal human rights research institute based at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. hosts a site that includes a searchable Legal Library of national and international laws and case law.

The Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) of the American Bar Association published a Survey of Legislative Frameworks for Combating Trafficking in Persons in January 2003, written by Kristi Severance.  The survey presents an overview of the status of anti-trafficking legislation in 21 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro (FRY), Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan).  The survey includes an overview of the scope of the problem and a summary of the role of the UN Trafficking Protocol and the human rights standards that should be applied in domestic anti-trafficking legislation.

UNICEF, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and UNHCHR published a report Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe: Current situation and responses to trafficking in human beings in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova and Romania, in June 2002.  This report includes information about law reform, law enforcement and prosecution for the countries listed above.

The Reference Guide for Anti-Trafficking Legislative Review with a particular emphasis on South Eastern Europe, also published by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in September 2001, is a comprehensive guide to the types of legislation necessary for an effective anti-trafficking policy.  The Reference Guide is organized according to broad topics, prevention, prosecution and protection and assistance for victims, and provides examples of national legislation where possible.  The Reference Guide is less useful as a source for specific national law, but an excellent resource for advocates who are undertaking projects on legal reform related to trafficking in women.

The report Women 2000: An Investigation into the Status of Women's Rights in the former Soviet Union and Central and South-Eastern Europe, published by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights in November 2000, includes information about a range of women's rights issues for thirty countries in the CEE and FSU region, and information on legal provisions on trafficking, where available.
Sections of this report are available online by country. To retrieve the section that addresses women's rights in a particular country, highlight the name of that country in the "Countries" pull-down menu, highlight "Women's Rights" in the "Topics" pull-down menu, and enter "2000" in the field for date of publication.