Courtesy: OHCHR
The UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, recently released the Draft Basic Principles on the Right to an Effective Remedy for Trafficked Persons. The Principles address both legal and procedural measures that States should take to support and assist survivors of trafficking, with attention to the particular vulnerability of trafficked children. Civil society organizations and individual activists are invited to submit their comments on the Principles through email by May 15, 2013 to [email protected]. The Special Rapporteur will present a summary of comments to the Human Rights Council in June 2014.
The Principles specify that a trafficked person’s right to reparations includes “both a substantive right to reparations and procedural rights necessary to access reparations.” The reparations could include financial compensation, restitution and “guarantees” that the individual won’t be trafficked again. Moreover, survivors of trafficking should be provided “[l]egal, medical, psychological, social, administrative and other assistance” even while pending the provision of reparations. Law enforcement and other relevant agencies should be appropriately trained to identify and assist trafficked persons, and particularly address the needs of child victims.
States should put in place “laws, mechanisms and procedures” for survivors to seek civil or criminal damages, regardless of their immigration status, which includes allowing survivors legal residence pending the outcome of these legal procedures. The Principles also provide that any assets a State recovers for traffickers should, as a priority, be used to compensate the trafficker’s victims. This right of first access for victim compensation should extend beyond international borders such that when the traffickers and survivors are in different countries, States shall establish “[e]ffective measures….for the enforcement of [foreign] reparation judgments.” In addition, States should support survivors’ legal claims with free legal aid, legal representation and interpreters.
The Principles further recommend that States should guarantee survivors a “reflection and recovery period” with the protection of temporary or permanent residence status in cases where returning to their home country is not feasible or is not safe. During this recovery period, States must also ensure survivors have access to “appropriate housing, counseling …psychological and material assistance; and employment, educational and training opportunities.” When working with trafficked children, the Principles emphasize that the child’s best interests must be the State’s primary consideration. Critically, States should not condition a survivor’s access to these services based on their cooperation with the State’s legal proceedings.