Plenary Session 9: Humanitarian Issues and Other Commitments (Combating Trafficking in Human Beings; Refugee and Displaced Persons)
Distinguished participants of the Conference, dear colleagues,
Human trafficking is a global problem that deprives people of their fundamental rights and freedoms. Unfortunately, this issue also affects the OSCE region.
Despite significant efforts to combat human trafficking, according to the United Nations Global Report, millions of people continue to fall victim to traffickers every year. Those in vulnerable situations suffer the most. Women and girls make up around 71 percent of all identified victims.
Addressing human trafficking requires a comprehensive approach, which in turn calls for the adoption of a comprehensive legal framework. The existing articles of the Criminal Code, while criminalizing human trafficking, have certain limitations. They cannot fully address prevention, prosecution, victim protection, and coordination among state and international actors.
For a long time, Kazakhstan did not have a separate law on combating human trafficking, as required by international human rights treaties. The development of such a law became necessary to improve our national legislation and bring it in line with international law.
This issue received special attention from the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who previously served in senior positions at the United Nations and has made the protection of human rights a top priority of his state policy.
The law, which has now been adopted, defines the organizational and legal foundations of state policy in this area.
Among them are:
the establishment of authorized bodies responsible for combating human trafficking, their rights and obligations, and the harmonization of definitions with international standards;
the introduction of new terms, new actors involved in anti-trafficking efforts, and clear definitions of their competencies;
and the creation of new mechanisms, such as risk assessment and data collection to identify key problems, as well as a referral procedure allowing victims to be identified not only by the police but also by other state institutions.
For effective prevention, the law introduces the international concept of a “potential victim of human trafficking.” This includes all those in vulnerable situations who may become targets of violence or exploitation due to material, psychological, or other dependency, young or advanced age, orphanhood, pregnancy, disability, illness, substance abuse, unemployment, homelessness, lack of documentation, or irregular migration status.
A separate chapter of the law is devoted to the protection of minors - the most vulnerable category—and to strengthening preventive measures in this regard.
The definition of “exploitation of a person” has been brought in line with international conventions and expanded to include additional forms of exploitation beyond a closed list.
Members of Parliament also introduced a number of important amendments, including:
granting foreign victims of human trafficking a 30-day reflection period to decide whether to cooperate with law enforcement authorities;
and providing assistance for safe return to their countries of origin as part of special social services, taking into account potential risks and measures to prevent re-victimization.
An important innovation is the introduction of administrative liability for those who fail to conclude labor contracts with potential victims of trafficking - including minors and foreign nationals. Such practices, which unfortunately remain widespread, often lead to serious forms of labor exploitation.
With regard to sexual exploitation:
We are witnessing new forms of human trafficking today - traffickers actively use social networks and online advertisements for recruitment. To prevent such crimes, amendments have also been introduced into other legal acts. Importantly, the law now establishes criminal liability for organizing sexual services via the Internet.
The comprehensive law adopted by the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan is timely and relevant. Its structure and content are aimed at preventing human trafficking and send a clear message:
the State will not tolerate this crime, which violates human rights and human dignity, and will firmly protect the rights of victims.
We express our sincere appreciation to our international partners - particularly the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) - for their valuable support in developing and adopting this law.
We believe that this law will serve as a strong legal foundation for the further improvement of legislation in this area, fully in line with international human rights standards, the principles of the Palermo Protocol, and the commitments of the OSCE.