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IHF Publications IHF Yearly Campaign Priority Regions and Countries 2006 - 2007 IHF Activities
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APPENDICES
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appendix v
Trafficking in Human Beings in Hungary
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Prof. Dr. Lenke Fehér (?)
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Introduction
Trafficking in human beings, especially in women and children for sexual exploitation, is becoming a more and more grave problem in Europe, exceeding national borders. Besides women and children trafficked to Europe from South- East Asia, Latin America and Africa, there has been an increase in trafficking inside Europe since 1990. There is a great flow of women from Central and Eastern European countries to EU countries (“East to West trafficking”). There is, however, trafficking activity directed to the Balkan region, as well as to other continents, too.
Trafficking activities are taking place within Central and Eastern European countries (“East to East trafficking”) too. Central European countries with more prosperous economies have become countries of destination of trafficking originated from other Central and Eastern European countries with less favourable conditions. The previously mentioned countries are also transit countries, serving as “entrance halls” to Western Europe. To a certain degree, trafficking activity is directed also to Hungary. Then, from Hungary, some trafficking activity to Western Europe (Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria) and outside Europe can be noticed. Hungary is regarded primarily as a transit country, but to a lesser extent as a country of origin, and of destination, too. According to the available data, however, Hungary is among the countries, which—concerning the numbers—are less affected by trafficking as source or destination country.
I. Hungarian Law
I.1. Counter-trafficking legislation
The counter-trafficking legislation is appropriate and the punishments are severe enough. At the beginning, the Act. LXXXVII./1998, (entered into force on the 1 of March, 1999) has regulated the trafficking in human beings as a serious crime, directed against personal freedom and human dignity. From April 1, 2002, several modifications to the Criminal Code entered into force—by the Act No. CXXI/2001, among others including regulation on trafficking in human beings and pornography. The new Act Nr. LXXXVII/1998, entered into force on March 1st, 1999.
According to the amendment, the definition of trafficking has been changed and harmonized to international standards. The definition is following the wording of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children .
According to the new definition, which is somewhat wider than that of the Protocol, “any person
- who sells, purchases, conveys or receives another person,
- or exchanges a person for another person,
- also the person, who recruits, transports, houses, hides or appropriates people for such purposes for another party,
is guilty of felony, punishable by imprisonment not to exceed three years.”
The sanctions are appropriately high (regularly, up to 3 years imprisonment), even higher in qualified cases (?), where punishment may be imprisonment from 1 to 5, from 2 to 8, from 5 to 10, and from 5 to 15 years, or for even a sentence for life. The law sanctions also the person who makes preparations for trafficking in human beings, by imprisonment not to exceed two years.
The severe penalisation of committing the crime as part of a criminal organization is also related to trafficking in human beings. The new provisions on the liability of legal persons and the sanctions on them also should be regarded as a very important ones, as different organizations, agencies frequently play a key role in trafficking in human beings.
According to the modification of the Criminal Procedural Law, NGOs, namely, public benefit associations can represent the interests of the victims in the criminal procedure (§ 58).
I.2. Law on victim/witness protection
The issue of expanding and enforcing victims’ rights has featured on the criminal policy being on the agenda since the political changes. From the 1990s, with expanding organized crime, relevant notions appeared in the Penal Code. Moreover, the issue of witness protection as a guarantee of the safety of victim witnesses has also emerged into the spotlight.
Article 95 of the new Criminal Procedure Code (with the new modifications entered into force on the 1st of July, 2003.) provides that the witness shall be provided with protection in the interest of protecting his life, bodily integrity or personal liberty, and in the interest of ensuring that the witness fulfils the obligation to give testimony and to give testimony without fear.
Confidential processing of the witness’s personal data (apart from his name) by isolating it among the documents may be ordered at the request of the witness or the attorney acting on his behalf, or ex officio. In exceptional cases, even the witness’s name may be processed in a confidential manner. In these cases, only the proceeding court, the prosecutor and the investigating authority may have access to the witness’s confidentially treated data (Article 96).
According to § 97, the witness may be deemed to be a specially protected witness if:
a) his testimony pertains to a significant circumstance of a particularly serious case;
b) the evidence supplied by the testimony may not be substituted by something else;
c) his identity, place of stay as well as the fact that the prosecutor or the investigating authority wishes to use him as a witness is unknown to the defendant and the defence counsel;
d) if his identity were disclosed, the life, bodily integrity or personal liberty of the witness or his family member would be severely threatened.
Article 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code regulates personal protection for participants of criminal proceedings. In exceptional cases the presiding judge of the proceeding panel, the prosecutor or the investigating authority may initiate that the defendant, the defence counsel, the victim and the representative of other interested parties, as well as the witness, the expert, the expert consultant, the interpreter, the official witness or another person in connection with the aforementioned persons should be provided protection specified in another regulation. (?) Article 98/A of the Criminal Procedure Code contains provisions relating to persons participating in witness protection programmes.
Act LXXXV of 2001 contains provisions related to “The Protection Programme for those taking part in criminal procedures and assisting the administration of justice”. The aim of the Protection Programme is “to provide protection to person who take part in criminal proceedings, actively assist the administration of justice or to persons in direct connection with the former, who as a result may find themselves threatened and their personal safety calls for increased protection from the state. The Programme’s further aim is to facilitate the fight against crime (in particular, severe criminal acts committed primarily in an organized manner) and the effective enforcement of the interests of law enforcement and the administration of justice through the application of special measures relative to the degree of danger that threatens the person concerned.”
The Protection Programme may be implemented during or after the criminal procedure. An agreement may be concluded with the witness, victim or defendant who cooperates with the authorities and takes part in a criminal procedure related to a very serious crime, given that criteria set forth by law are fulfilled. Very serious crimes are particularly crimes where the characteristics of organized crime are apparent, or the object of which is related to terrorism, blackmail, money laundering, drug or weapon trade, prostitution, paedophilia, or crimes against life or bodily integrity committed in connection to the aforementioned acts.
The Service may apply the following special protection measures in the interest of preventing unlawful acts against the person’s life, bodily integrity, and personal liberty:
a) placing (moving) the person concerned to a safe place by changing his place of residence or stay, or transferring the detainee involved in the Programme to a penitentiary institution different than his present place of detention;
b) use of personal protection;
c) ordering confidential treatment of his data in registries, or requiring notification in case of requests for data registered;
d) change of name;
e) change of personal identity;
f) participation in international cooperation.
Point c), Paragraph (1), Section 15 of Act XXXIX of 2001 on foreign individuals’ entry to and residence in Hungary provides the Alien Police Authority with the opportunity to grant, on humanitarian grounds, a residence permit to those foreign citizens who are cooperating with the authorities of criminal justice in order to discover offenders of trafficking in human beings. The issuing of the residence permit is based on the proposal of the crime prosecution authorities.
II. Hungarian Law in practice
As it was mentioned, the Hungarian legislation is responding to the requirement of the international standards. The number of trafficking cases under prosecution, however, is not very high. In 1999, there were only two cases registered, in 2000 11, in 2001 34, and in 2002 again 34 (the number of violations of personal freedom in connection with trafficking in human beings (Section 175 (2-3)) was 7 in 200, and 4 in 2001). The procedures are relatively long, their average length used to be 2-3 years. As on the level of prevention and combating of criminality, trafficking was not regarded as a real priority, and the hidden criminality is probably quite high, it is difficult to describe the reality of the present situation.
The Directorate against Organized Crime of the Police investigates trafficking cases connected with organized crime. There is an improving cooperation with foreign countries, to facilitate better police cooperation to combat organized crime and trafficking in human beings. The National Crime Prevention Centre has established a Coordination Committee against Trafficking in Human Beings, and this committee just has started to elaborate a more comprehensive strategy on combat against this phenomenon.
III. Crime prevention in Hungary
In 2003, the National Strategy of Social Prevention of Crime was adopted with four priorities: prevention of criminality of children and young offenders, developing urban security, prevention of domestic violence, prevention of victimisation, assistance to victims, compensation, prevention of repeated crimes. The Plan of Action based on it is under preparation. Trafficking in human beings is mentioned in the introduction, as a priority on international level, but it is not mentioned among the priorities of the national strategy. It will have priority, however, in sectoral crime prevention strategy.
Hungary is giving high priority to crime prevention, especially—in line with EU priorities—to the prevention of organized crime with focus on cross-border crimes involving Central and Eastern European countries on known smuggling routes in the region.
In accordance with this aim, a comprehensive review of the state of affairs in crime prevention started in 2000. Based on the conclusions drawn from this process, the Hungarian Ministry of Interior drafted a proposal on a new Crime Prevention Strategy including local community and law enforcement related crime prevention issues. At the same time a Bill on the international cooperation of law enforcement agencies has been elaborated, which was adopted by the Parliament in 2002. The act shall come into force upon the date of accession.
A National Crime Prevention Centre (NCPC) has been established within the Ministry of Interior for the coordination of crime prevention activities of all law enforcement agencies and governments on national and international level. The centre is supervising the local and regional law enforcement crime prevention units and acts as one of the national liaisons with the EU.
The NCPC is currently working, in cooperation with Coordination Centre against Organized Crime, on a comprehensive national law enforcement crime prevention action plan to prevent organized crime. Also, it is the task of NCPC to form an autonomous Crime Prevention Academy out of the existing network of law enforcement training institutions by the end of 2003. (?) This has developed into the establishment of a Regional Crime Prevention Academy in Budapest. Its activity is collecting and providing international methodological collections, expertise in research, educational materials, publications and international training. It is aiming a central role in providing training to professionals in Central-East Europe, in particular on combating trafficking in human beings, smuggling of human beings, trafficking in drugs, etc.
IV. Civic initiatives in Hungary
In Hungary, a great number of NGOs exist. Among them, there are several organizations providing support to victims of crimes.
The “White Ring Public Benefit Association”, founded in 1989 as a general victim support organization, offers financial, legal, emotional, psychological, and other kinds of assistance to victims of crimes and their families, as well as an effectively lobby towards authorities to improve the legal status of victims.
The “White Ring” (“Fehér Gyűrű”) is a nationwide organization providing general support to victims, in its offices operating all over Hungary. In addition to legal counselling, this association provides a wide range of various services to the victims of such crimes, including the support for foreign citizens who became victims in Hungary. The organization has provided many-sided support for victims of trafficking, too. At present the number of these cases (14) is very low, compared to other types of crime. This kind of support is very important, as it includes accommodation in safe places. It is clear, however, that in spite of all the commitment and support, it is not equivalent to a specialised service, which could be provided in a shelter for the trafficked victims.
From May 1st, 2002, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with several tourist agencies and other organizations, has launched a two-year program for crime prevention and victim support, aimed at preventing and eliminating crimes committed against foreign nationals visiting Hungary. As part of this program, “Fehér Gyűrű” operates a customer service office to provide services to the foreigners who became victims (?). These services are in harmony with the requirement of the EU framework decision on the standing of victims of crime in the criminal procedure.
“NANE” (Women for Women together Against Violence) works with women and children affected by violence. It is running a hotline, providing information and support for victims of violence. This hotline was extended to assisting trafficked women, too, as a consequence of participating in the campaign against trafficking in women, set up by the EU, the IOM and the Hungarian government (1999/2000).
The “Escape Association” ("Kiút Veled Egyesület"), established in 1996, aims at prevention of prostitution, forced prostitution and trafficking in women, assisting the victims and supporting their reintegration and rehabilitation. The Association is working with volunteers; it has an outreach activity, a drop-in centre and a hotline (“Sylvia line”). The Escape Association provides help to the victims of trafficking and to prostitutes requesting such help. In the course of providing its services, the Association closely cooperates with two other charitable organizations. Unfortunately, from August 2003, the association has suspended its operations for the reason of lacking the minimum financial means.
The “Periphery Association”, “Sunshine for Life”, the “Association of Street Social Workers” are working together with the “Sex-Educational Foundation” as umbrella organization, on special assistance, health protection, social rehabilitation and reintegration programs for prostitutes as well as victims of trafficking.
It is extremely important for the future to establish intervention centres, shelters for the victims, survivors of trafficking in human beings. These shelters were missing in Hungary. Recently, however, their establishment was successfully initiated by an NGO. A long-term prevention-rehabilitation-reintegration project should be elaborated and the necessary funds should be provided.
Governmental organizations and NGOs do not cooperate as much as they should, but cooperation is developing step by step. Joint trainings on trafficking issues have been organized, on broader issues including trafficking, there have been quite lively debates in a good atmosphere, which has created better understanding between the police and civil society. However, authorities should make more use of NGO experience.
The IOM launched several initiatives for developing cooperation programs. In 2003, under the framework of Prevention of Trafficking in Human Beings, the IOM in Budapest has implemented two, twelve-month projects, titled “Non-Governmental Organization Capacity Building to Prevent and Respond to Trafficking in Persons” and “Government and NGO Training to Prevent and Respond to Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in Hungary”, respectively. The first project aims at strengthening “the organizational, technical and TIP-related capabilities of key Hungarian NGOs and service agencies, as well as enhancing intra-and inter-sectoral cooperation among them, in order to enable their effective recognition and response to human trafficking. This will be accomplished through the development of training workshops, capacity building exercises, and expert mentoring to assist NGOs and service agencies from across the country in developing a coordinated TIP network.” (IOM Terms of Reference) The aim of the second project is to “strengthen the institutional capacity of government ministries and agencies, NGOs, and the media, in order to understand, and respond to, human trafficking issues in the Hungarian context. This will be accomplished through the development of a training curriculum, developing a counter-trafficking handbook, and the implementation of training workshops throughout the country.” (IOM Terms of Reference)
V. Conclusions
In the process of harmonisation of Hungarian criminal law with European standards, special attention is directed towards organized crime, including trafficking in human beings. However, proper attention should be given to unorganized forms of trafficking in persons. In the long term, the human rights approach offers possibilities for a more effective and comprehensive anti-trafficking policy in Europe.
As Hungary is primarily a transit country, Hungarian anti-trafficking policy should focus on more comprehensive collection of information and on improving cooperation with other countries. It is also important to provide more training to specialists who investigate trafficking cases, and to intensify their cooperation with NGOs.
Hungary is working hard on the implementation of the Brussels Declaration on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (download pdf), which was adopted by the Council of the European Union in May, 2003, as a major agenda addressing trafficking in human beings.
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