Trafficking in human beings focus of OSCE-supported training course in Bosnia and Herzegovina
More than 30 prosecutors and judges from across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) attended a training course on trafficking in human beings (THB), which concluded on 1 February 2018 in Sarajevo. The course was organized by the OSCE Mission to BiH, in co-operation with the Judicial and Prosecutorial Training Center of the Federation of BiH.
The aim of the course was to increase participants’ practical and theoretical knowledge of the elements of crimes related to trafficking in human beings involving forced begging, and to build their capacity on the issues of victim and witness support within the system.
In recent years, trafficking in human beings in BiH increasingly includes new forms of trafficking affecting children, particularly forced labour, forced marriage and begging. Accordingly, special emphasis was placed during the training on trafficking for the purpose of forced begging and on differentiating between the criminal offences of THB and the criminal offence of neglect and maltreatment of children.
In her opening remarks, Jasna Dobricik, Deputy Head of the Human Dimension Department at the OSCE Mission to BiH, emphasized the OSCE’s commitment to helping its participating States develop instruments to prosecute and prevent the crime of human trafficking: “Since 2003 the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina has been working with local partners and institutions to combat human trafficking, to ensure greater protection and support to victims of this serious crime, and to ensure that the appropriate institutional and legislative tools are in place. Today’s event is yet another example of this constructive partnership at work.”
“Today’s training is of particular relevance as it focuses on children as victims of trafficking,” said Hajrija Hadziomerovic Muftic, Prosecutor at the Office of the Prosecutor of the Federation of BiH and member of the Task Force for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. “Cases of trafficking, especially those involving child begging, are often qualified as criminal offence of neglect and maltreatment of a child. Rectifying this requires increasing the awareness of specificities of such cases among all actors involved in their processing, and the utilization of specific child protection mechanisms to ensure that cases of trafficking, including forced begging, are processed efficiently.”
The training course was implemented as part of the OSCE Mission to BiH’s wider efforts to support the fight against trafficking in human beings in BiH by strengthening the capacity of the relevant institutions to detect, investigate and process this crime.