last updated September 1, 2005
Below are some resources which advocates may find useful in researching various approaches that may be taken in domestic anti-trafficking law:
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. This site also include links to draft trafficking legislation in states within the United States, e.g., Texas and Arizona.
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 Center for Women Policy Studies, a research center based in Washington, D.C., has established a State Policy Program for Sexual Trafficking of Women and Girls which has assisted efforts in some states in the United States to make the trafficking of women and girls a crime under state law. Some states have succeeded in passing trafficking legislation. For example, effective July 27, 2003, trafficking in persons is a crime in Washington State. The Washington law is available here. On May 21, 2003, a bill prohibiting trafficking was passed in the state of Texas. This bill, which became effective September 1, 2003, is available here.
On July 19, 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice published a Model State Trafficking Law developed by the Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force. This Task Force coordinates U.S. federal agency action to prevent and prosecute trafficking in persons and worker exploitation in the United States. The Model State Trafficking Law is designed to be a model for U.S. state amendments to state criminal codes.
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.
The 2003 U.S. Department of State Model Law to Combat Trafficking in Persons was developed by the U.S. Department of State as guidance for the drafting of domestic legislation in light of the provisions of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, a protocol to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. Since 2001, the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons has released an annual Trafficking in Persons Report, as mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (see the Victim Protection and Immigration Law section of this website for details). The report provides an overview of trafficking situations in countries with significant numbers of victims of severe trafficking, and places each country into one of three tiers according to each governments compliance with the Acts minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The Act maintains the right to impose sanctions by withdrawing assistance to countries ranking in the third and lowest tier.
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 guide is also available in Russian (PDF, 151 pages)and Serbian (Prirucnik za Reviziju Zakonske Regulative protiv Trgovine Ljudima) (PDF, 138 pages)
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.
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