National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia / Activities / Activity details
Wednesday, 18 October 2017
Defence and Internal Affairs Committee Member Dubravka Filipovski on European Day against Trafficking in Human Beings
Dubravka Filipovski, member of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee, attended the celebrations of the European Day against Trafficking in Human Beings at Kraljevo City Hall, and addressed the assembly on the establishment of the local team for the prevention of human trafficking:
“Trafficking in human beings is the fastest growing branch of the so-called crime industry.
This modern slavery is the vilest violation of human rights that deprives people of freedom and dignity and there is not one country in the world that does not struggle with this problem.
140,000 people across Europe are victims of human trafficking.
The anti-human trafficking laws have been greatly improved in the last years. They include stricter punishments for human trafficking and a wider spectrum of what is considered exploitation which makes using the position of the human trafficking victim to exploit them a criminal act.
The new national strategy and action plan for the prevention and suppression of trafficking in human beings passed on 4 August 2017 should utilize the improved system of prevention, assistance and victim protection to enable a timely identification of cases of human trafficking in practice and an efficient prosecution of the perpetrators. We expect the new strategy to provide a more active, multidisciplinary approach to the coordination of anti-human trafficking activities at the national level.
I would like to mention a number of aspects important for the implementation of the strategy:
- Specialist human trafficking training for criminal investigators and prosecutors (important for the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence), as well as cooperation with social institutions and civil society organizations providing victim support.
- Teach everybody how to face this problem and not become a victim. That is why it is important to implement the law at the local level and it should be your task to, as the centre of the Raska District, encourage other municipalities and cities to set up an anti-trafficking council and strengthen the role of schools in teaching our children how to protect themselves against becoming victims, how to avoid labour and sexual exploitation, coercion and how to approach people working on the prevention and repressive measures employed to suppress this horrible crime.
- Victim support system, especially the economic empowerment of women and girls who had suffered this type of violence, to help them become independent, wherein education plays a crucial role.
- Trials need to be improved – we need to make them more efficient, shorter, and the judiciary has to find a way to make sure the victim does not have to face the trafficker during the trial on multiple occasions.
- We need a comprehensive data collection and analysis system on human trafficking, and to establish coordination of all the institutions.
Finally, the state must send a clear message that in the fight against trafficking in human beings no one would be protected and that human resources are paramount for the implementation of any strategy.”
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