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The climate crisis does not respect borders and our laws and policies must reflect this

Ashfaq Khalfan, Amnesty International's Law and Policy Director.

The Court will decide on whether it agrees to proceed with the case filed not only against Portugal, where the applicants live, but also 32 other countries – which comprise of EU members as well as Norway, Russia, Turkey, Switzerland, UK and Ukraine.

“The climate crisis does not respect borders and our laws and policies must reflect this. To ensure justice for people most affected by heatwaves, drought and forest fires – particularly children – states must be required to tackle climate change and its impacts at home and abroad,” said Ashfaq Khalfan, Amnesty’s Law and Policy Director.

“Governments can no longer act as if people outside their borders do not matter when they design their climate policies.”

The crowdfunded case, Duarte Agostinho and others v. Portugal and others, in which the group is intervening, has been brought by six youth from Portugal who are accusing 33 European countries of violating their human rights, including their right to life, by not taking adequate steps to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

To ensure justice for people most affected by heatwaves, drought and forest fires states must be required to tackle climate change and its impacts at home and abroad

Amnesty International

“Those affected by climate change should be allowed to make claims against governments other than their own. If governments are only required to act on the rights of people living within their borders, it is easier for them to ignore the impacts on people in the most affected countries and be more lethargic in their work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” said Professor Mark Gibney, of the University of North Carolina Asheville.

If allowed to proceed, the case could set an important precedent, clearing the way for other climate lawsuits based on human rights arguments.

“This case is also important to ensure governments are required to design climate policy in a way that recognises the particular climate risks to children and take the ambitious climate protection measures needed to protect their rights,” said Gamze Erdem Türkelli, of the University of Antwerp. 

For more information contact Ashfaq Khalfan, Twitter: @ashfaqkhalfan

Gamze Erdem Türkelli, Twitter: @GamzeErdmTrklli

Amnesty International press office: Twitter @StefSimanowitz

For more details about the intervention, see:https://www.etoconsortium.org/en/news/news/first-climate-change-case-at-the-european-court-of-human-rights-justice-must-not-stop-at-borders-182/ . The submission is available here.

For more information on the case, see http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-206535 and https://youth4climatejustice.org/the-case/.

BACKGROUND

The six applicants in this case, Cláudia Agostinho (21), Catarina Mota (20), Martim Agostinho (17), Sofia Oliveira (15), André Oliveira (12) and Mariana Agostinho (8), are suing the 27 European Union member states, as well as the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine for failing to make deep and urgent emissions cuts to safeguard their future.

The group intervening today as a third party in the case is made up of members of the Extraterritorial Obligations Consortium which advocates for rights beyond borders.

It includes: Amnesty International; the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS); the Center for Transnational Environmental Accountability (CTEA); the Economic and Social Rights Centre (Hakijamii); FIAN International; the Great Lakes Initiative for Human Rights and Development (GLIHD); the University of Antwerp Law and Development Research Group; Prof. Dr. Mark Gibney; Dr. Gamze Erdem Turkelli; Dr. Sara Seck; Prof. Dr. Sigrun Skogly; Dr. Nicolas Carrillo-Santarelli; Prof. Dr. Jernej Letnar Cernic; Tom Mulisa; Dr. Nicholas Orago; Prof. Dr. Wouter Vandenhole; and Jingjing Zhang

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Around the world, there has been a spike in reports of violence against women and girls during lockdowns and other restrictions, which left many women and girls trapped at home with their abusers or unable to easily access safety and support services. 

The surge in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought into sharp relief the need for governments across the world to strengthen their protections for women and girls’ rights

Nils Muižnieks is Europe Director for Amnesty International

In Poland, the situation for women and girls may become even more dangerous after the country’s Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, announced last weekend a proposal to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, a landmark European treaty to prevent violence against women, including domestic violence. The treaty was, he claimed, “harmful” because it “contains elements of an ideological nature” requiring schools to teach children about gender. Critics say this language masks the government’s wider desire to reinforce the patriarchy while demonizing women’s rights and gender equality.

The Prime Minister said today that the Convention should be checked by Constitutional Tribunal to see if it is in line with Polish Constitution. This may delay the decision, but it nonetheless a worrying development, particularly because the independence of the court is highly compromised.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and its coalition partners are closely aligned to the Catholic Church and are actively pushing forward a neoconservative social agenda. For a number of years, their misrepresentation of women’s rights and gender equality as what they call “gender ideology” has fuelled attacks on the rights of LGBTI people. The Istanbul Convention has long been a target for populists who endorse the Minister’s spurious claim it poses a threat to “traditional family values.”

In Poland, the situation for women and girls may become even more dangerous after the country’s Minister of Justice, announced last weekend a proposal to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention

Nils Muižnieks is Europe Director for Amnesty International

Behind his words lies a profound contemptfor the rights of women, girls and LGBTI people. Withdrawing from the convention would be a dangerous measure with disastrous consequences to millions of women and girls and to organizations providing vital support to survivors of sexual and domestic violence. It sends a signal that their personal wellbeing and safety are not worth protecting. It would also be a retrogressive step, prohibited in international human rights law.

Official statistics, while incomplete, show a harrowing picture. Figures from 2019: more than 65,000 women and 12,000 children in Poland reported incidents of, or were found to have been, subjected to domestic violence. Only, 2,527 rape investigations were opened that year and NGOs estimate that percent of reported rapes is dramatically low. 

A recent Europe wide survey found that Polish women report fewer cases of domestic violence than other EU countries. This low level of reporting to the police, as Amnesty International’s research in Europe has shown, is associated with a lack of faith in the criminal justice system and a fear of victims not being believed. 

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, helplines and women’s shelters across Europe have reported an alarming spike of calls from women at risk of violence due to lockdowns and other restrictive measures. Poland is not an exception. While restrictions may be needed to control the spread of the virus, States should also respond with adequate measures to ensure women and girls’ safety. Withdrawing from the Convention does exactly the opposite.

The Istanbul Convention provides some vital safeguards for women and girls. It is the first European treaty specifically targeting violence against women and domestic violence. It covers all forms of gender-based violence. States that ratified the Convention including Poland have an obligation to protect and support survivors of such violence. They must also establish services such as hotlines, shelters, medical services, counselling and legal aid.

Were Poland push ahead and leave the Istanbul Convention, it would send a deeply disturbing signal that ensuring that women and girls live free from violence, is no longer a priority

Nils Muiznieks is Europe Director for Amnesty International

To date, the Convention has been signed by the vast majority of European states and the EU as a whole and ratified by 34 of them. In 2018 alone the convention entered into force in nine countries (Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, North Macedonia and Switzerland) and in 2019 Ireland also ratified the treaty, following the historic landmark vote that put an end to the almost total ban on abortion in the country.  

But among some countries the desire to withdraw from the Convention has been high on the agenda. In Turkey, for example, women’s groups are expressing concerns at the intensification of the calls to withdraw from the Convention due to be discussed at the ruling party’s central executive committee on 5 August, this in the context of several brutal murders of women in the hands of men being widely reported in the media.

In other countries, such as Bulgaria and Slovakia and most recently, in Hungary, the parliaments have failed to ratify the Convention based on misconceptions of the notion of ‘gender’, and deliberately ignoring the harmful impact of gender stereotypes in the societies that put women and girls at risk of violence.

Similar misconceptions are stalling the ratification of the Convention in Ukraine where the existing laws on combatting domestic violence remain poorly implemented. Although ratification of the Convention is not on the Ukrainian parliament’s agenda, the country is looking into the issue after more than 25,000 people signed a petition calling on the President to initiate the ratification.

In 2018 in Bulgaria, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Convention was not compatible with its Constitution, further perpetuating harmful misconceptions about the treaty’s scope and nature.

The surge in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought into sharp relief the need for governments across the world to strengthen their protections for women and girls’ rights.

Were Poland to do the exact opposite, it would send a deeply disturbing signal that ensuring that women and girls live free from violence, is no longer a priority.

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED HERE BY EURONEWS

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People’s rights are being violated by governments in Europe and Central Asia, who are cracking down on protests and seeking to erode the independence of the judiciary to avoid accountability, Amnesty International said today as it published its annual review of human rights in the region.

The organization praised those brave people who took to the streets to defend their own and others’ rights but warned that governments continue to perpetrate human rights violations with impunity across the region.

In 2019, people in Europe and Central Asia were threatened, intimidated, prosecuted, subjected to excessive use of force by police, and suffered discrimination. However, the grassroots mobilization of courageous people who dared to stand up and hold states accountable provides a ray of hope for the future,

Marie Struthers, Europe Director at Amnesty International

Independence of the judiciary under threat

In Poland, the independence of the judiciary – essential for ensuring fair trials and upholding human rights – was threatened as the ruling party took bolder steps to control judges and courts.

Judges and prosecutors found themselves at risk of disciplinary proceedings for speaking out in defence of the judiciary and risked becoming victims of human rights violations themselves. Many were subjected to smear campaigns on state and social media.

Concerns also mounted about the independence of the judiciary in Hungary, Romania and Turkey. Judges in Hungary came under attack from multiple directions as the government continued its attempts to undermine the independence of the judiciary. In May, the European Commission warned Romania that it should address issues including interference with judicial independence by the executive, or potentially face having some of the member state’s rights suspended for persistent breach of the EU’s founding values. In Turkey, a judicial reform package was passed by Parliament. The reforms failed to address the extreme political pressure on the judiciary or to end unfair and politically motivated prosecutions and convictions.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Independent courts were vitally needed in 2019 to safeguard individual freedoms as state overreach came to the fore, with restrictions on protests in France, Poland and Turkey as well as prosecution of protesters in many more.

Major protests took place in numerous countries across Europe including France, Austria, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Hungary, with people protesting against austerity measures and corruption, and in defence of social justice and the independence of the judiciary. Protests and strikes urging governments to take measures against climate change became a regular occurrence in major European cities. 

Many states repressed the demonstrations through measures that breached the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression. In France, Austria and Spain, hundreds of people were injured by the police during protests. Police resorted to excessive force in France, and violently disrupted peaceful gatherings in Turkey where blanket bans on gatherings were often used to deny the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. States frequently failed to hold their security forces accountable for violence perpetrated during the protests.

Some judges adjudicating in cases relating to protests were harassed or demoted by the Polish authorities.

In Moscow, and other Russian cities, the largest numbers of peaceful protesters seen in many years stood up against the authorities’ refusal to allow opposition candidates to take part in the city elections. The resultant crackdown led to criminal convictions for two dozen participants, simply for exercising their right to protest.

“The reprisals against participants of mass protests in Moscow kick-started an unprecedented solidarity campaign that signals the further awakening of human rights awareness and people power in Russia,” said Marie Struthers.

Migration

European states continued to avoid accountability for human rights violations resulting from their migration policies by “outsourcing” border control to countries with questionable human rights records. In 2019, migration policies continued to prioritise the protection of borders over the protection of human lives. Despite the deteriorating security situation there, European countries continued cooperating with Libya to contain migrants and asylum-seekers in the country.

In November, the Italian government extended its agreement with Libya on migration for a further three years, despite continuing evidence pointing to systematic human rights violations including torture in Libya’s detention centres.

Reports of grave human rights violations against asylum-seekers and refugees, and their continued denial of access to protection, failed to deter the EU from partnering with Turkey to curb migration via the 2016 EU-Turkey Deal. Ahead of Turkey’s incursion into north-eastern Syria in October, Amnesty International conducted dozens of interviews which suggested hundreds of Syrians were likely forcibly deported from Turkey between May and September, under the guise of “voluntary returns”. The deal is also causing unprecedented overcrowding of the camps in the Aegean islands, where tens of thousands of people live in destitute conditions.

Human rights defenders under attack

Civil society, journalists and others responsible for holding governments to account faced pressure in 2019.

“Human rights defenders, journalists, NGOs and other people campaigning for a fairer and more just society were all at the sharp end of government crackdowns in 2019,” said Marie Struthers.

Their work to hold authorities to account, will only be more vital during the COVID-19 crisis and in its aftermath. The humanity and solidarity they show towards the most marginalized members of our societies are needed now more than ever, and will continue to be essential during the post-COVID-19 recovery.

Marie Struthers

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Amnesty International press office on press@amnesty.org +32 2 548 27 73 or +32 483 680 812

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Following reports that Turkey is allowing asylum-seekers to depart its territory and attempt to enter the European Union particularly Greece and Bulgaria, Amnesty International’s Deputy Research Director, Massimo Moratti, said:

“What we are seeing now at Turkey’s land and sea borders with the EU is that people seeking asylum are once again being used as bargaining chips in a deadly political game, a predictable consequence of the EU-Turkey deal.

People seeking asylum are once again being used as bargaining chips in a deadly political game, a predictable consequence of the EU-Turkey deal

Massimo Moratti, Amnesty International

“EU member states need to do far more to share responsibility for asylum seekers arriving in Turkey, both through financial support and ensuring safe pathways to Europe.

“Greece and Bulgaria must ensure access to their territory for people seeking protection and border guards should refrain from excessive use of force against those gathered at the border. They must be allowed to enter through official border crossings, regardless of whether they have valid travel documents. Countries with external EU borders should keep sufficient, appropriately located, and secure border crossing points open for refugees.

“The European Commission must also urgently coordinate any support that might be required to Greece and Bulgaria to ensure asylum seekers have access to adequate reception and asylum procedures. European member states shoulder their fair share of responsibility.”

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• Spokespeople available       

Responding to reports that the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC), the biggest human rights organization in Bulgaria, has been threatened with dissolution after a party in the Bulgarian ruling coalition accused it of “openly anti-Bulgarian activities”, Amnesty International’s Europe Deputy Director Massimo Moratti said:

“This is an unprecedented attempt to silence independent and critical voices by the authorities in Bulgaria. As a member of the European Union, Bulgaria has a responsibility to uphold the rule of law, and we expect the Prosecutor General to firmly reject the request for dissolution.

“The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee is the most respected human rights organisation in Bulgaria. Their work providing capacity-building for judges and prosecutors and legal services to people in need is crucial. Attempts to deregister them for their work are a direct assault on freedom of expression.”

Background

On 30 September, the political party VMRO-BND wrote to Bulgaria’s Prosecutor General to terminate the registration of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.

It argued that BHC activities, including organizing seminars with prosecutors and judges and representing clients before the European Court of Human Rights and domestic courts, were interfering with judicial independence.  

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In the wake of a series of appalling attacks, from Paris to Berlin, governments have rushed through a raft of disproportionate and discriminatory laws

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International

Dangerously disproportionate: The ever-expanding national security state in Europe reveals how a deluge of laws and amendments passed with break-neck speed, is undermining fundamental freedoms and dismantling hard-won human rights protections.

“In the wake of a series of appalling attacks, from Paris to Berlin, governments have rushed through a raft of disproportionate and discriminatory laws,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for Europe.

“Taken alone these individual counter-terrorism measures are worrying enough, but when seen together, a disturbing picture emerges in which unchecked powers are trampling freedoms that have long been taken for granted.”

The report, based on more than two years’ research across 14 EU member states, as well as analysis of initiatives at international and European levels, reveals the extent to which new legislation and policies intended to address the threat of terrorism have steamrolled rights protections.

In several countries, counter-terrorism measures have been proposed or enacted that have eroded the rule of law, enhanced executive powers, peeled away judicial controls, restricted freedom of expression and exposed everyone to unchecked government surveillance. The impact on foreigners and ethnic and religious minorities has been particularly profound.

Taken alone these individual counter-terrorism measures are worrying enough, but when seen together, a disturbing picture emerges

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International

The new normal: Emergency laws and emergency-like measures

In several countries, constitutional amendments or legislation will make it easier to declare a formal state of emergency or grant special powers to security and intelligence services often with little or no judicial oversight.

For example, new legislation in Hungary provides for sweeping executive powers in the event of a declared emergency including the banning of public assemblies, severe restrictions on freedom of movement and the freezing of assets. Vaguely defined provisions grant powers to suspend laws and fast-track new ones and deploy the army with live firearms to quell disturbances.

In France a state of emergency has been renewed five times standardizing a range of intrusive measures, including powers to ban demonstrations and conduct searches without judicial warrants.

Temporary emergency measures, such as administrative orders controlling movement in the UK and France, have increasingly become embedded in ordinary law.

Poland’s new counter-terrorism law permanently cements draconian powers – which include discriminatory targeting of foreign nationals.

Some states have misused counter-terror laws to target human rights defenders and political activists. The use of emergency laws by French police to put environmental activists under house arrest ahead of the UN Climate Conference in Paris in 2015 is a stark example.

Surveillance states

Many EU countries have joined the ranks of “surveillance states” as new laws allowing indiscriminate mass surveillance have been passed giving intrusive powers to security and intelligence services.

Mass surveillance powers have been granted or otherwise expanded in the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands, among others, allowing the mass interception of and possible access to the data of millions of people.

Unsupervised targeted surveillance has also been massively expanded. Poland’s 2016 Counter-terrorism Law permits covert surveillance measures targeting foreign nationals, including wire-tapping, monitoring of electronic communications, and surveillance of telecommunications networks and devices without any judicial oversight for three months.

David Miranda, a Brazilian national who was assisting with the journalistic investigation into Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations, was stopped under terrorism powers while transiting through the UK in 2013. He was detained, searched and interrogated for nine hours on suspicion of involvement in “espionage” and “terrorism.” His mobile phone, laptop, external hard drive and other materials were confiscated.

Thought crimes

In a modern twist of the Orwellian “thought crime”, people can now be prosecuted for actions that have extremely tenuous links to actual criminal behaviour. With counter-terror measures focusing ever more on prevention, governments have invested in “pre-crime” initiatives and become increasingly reliant on administrative control orders to restrict people’s freedom of movement and other rights. This has led to many people being placed under curfew, given travel bans or electronically tagged without ever being charged with or convicted of any crime. In these cases evidence is often kept secret, meaning that those accused of “pre-crimes” are not able to adequately defend themselves.

Targeting of refugees and minority groups

Migrants and refugees, human rights defenders, activists and minority groups have been particularly targeted by new powers, with profiling, often based on stereotyping, leading to the outright misuse of laws that define terrorism very loosely.

Many EU member states are attempting to draw links between the refugee crisis and the threat of terrorism. In November, a Hungarian court sentenced Ahmed H – a Syrian national residing in Cyprus – to ten years in prison for committing an “act of terror”. This “acts of terror” consisted of throwing stones and speaking to a crowd through a megaphone during clashes with border police. In reality he had travelled to help his elderly parents on their journey fleeing Syria to Europe. Whilst he admitted stone throwing, footage shows that he had also been trying to calm the crowd.

Ahmed’s wife, Nadia, told Amnesty International: “Our lives have been turned upside down. I try to be both mother and father to my daughters but it is very hard. We miss Ahmed and we are scared for him.”

the role of governments should be to provide security for people to enjoy their rights rather than restricting people’s rights in the name security

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International

A chilling effect

Fear of being labelled a security threat or an “extremist” has had a chilling effect, shrinking space for free expression. In Spain, two puppeteers were arrested and charged with “glorification of terrorism” after a satirical performance during which a puppet held a banner with a slogan which was deemed to support an armed group.In France a similar offence – “apology of terrorism” – has been used to charge hundreds of people, including children, for “offences” such as posting comments on Facebook that do not incite violence.

In 2015 French courts handed down 385 sentences for “apology of terrorism”, a third of which were against minors. Definitions of what constitutes “apology” are extremely broad.

In Spain a popular musician was arrested and detained for a series of tweets including a joke about offering former King Juan Carlos a cake bomb as a birthday gift.

We are in danger of creating societies in which liberty becomes the exception and fear the rule

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International

Discriminatory measures have had a disproportionate and profoundly negative impact on Muslims, foreign nationals or people perceived to be Muslim or foreign. Discriminatory action by the state and its agents is increasingly seen as “acceptable” in the national security context.

“Whilst the threat posed by terrorism is very real and must always be responded to resolutely, the role of governments should be to provide security for people to enjoy their rights rather than restricting people’s rights in the name security,” said John Dalhuisen.

“EU governments are using counter-terrorism measures to consolidate draconian powers, target groups in discriminatory ways and strip away human rights under the guise of defending them. We are in danger of creating societies in which liberty becomes the exception and fear the rule.”

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On 1 April, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is due to announce its position on the issue after it called for a suspension of all transfers of asylum seekers to Bulgaria in January. It cited poor conditions in reception facilities and problems with the overall treatment of refugees.

“Bulgaria is still widely ‘missing the mark’ when it comes to its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. EU member states must halt all transfers and take responsibility for the thousands of men, women and children in desperate need of help,” said Jezerca Tigani, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International.

Under EU regulation, asylum seekers can be returned to Bulgaria if it is the first country through which they have entered the EU.

During a visit to Bulgaria this month, Amnesty International found that, despite some progress, living conditions in some of the reception centres continue to be inadequate.

“Bulgarian authorities have started fixing the reception facilities but they are still failing to tackle systemic deficiencies. These include detention of asylum seekers and overcrowding, poor sanitation and inadequate provision of food,” said Jezerca Tigani.

In a reception centre in Harmanli, 45 kilometres away from the Bulgarian-Turkish border, all refugees had been moved from tents to partially renovated buildings with toilets and showers and in Voenna Rampa, construction works were being carried out.

However, in Harmanli overcrowding persists with as many as seven people living in small containers measuring seven square metres. In Voenna Rampa, around 600 residents share six showers and 12 toilets. The authorities said that after the reconstruction there will be a toilet for every 17 people and a shower for every 62.

Thousands of men, women and children, particularly from Syria, entered Bulgaria through the Turkish border in the last three months of 2013. However, since then, numbers have dropped significantly as Bulgaria has virtually shut down its borders and deployed approximately 1500 additional police officers to the area.

Any person who crosses the border to Bulgaria irregularly is automatically detained and transferred to a closed “distribution centre” for screening interviews. Asylum seekers should be transferred to an open reception facility run by the State Agency for Refugees (SAR).

Bulgarian authorities claim that over the past few months, the State Agency for Refugees has increased its capacity and is tackling asylum requests and processing registrations faster.

While welcoming this improvement, Amnesty International believes it is partly due to the fact that numbers of applicants have dropped significantly since borders have been shut.

“The improvements Bulgaria has made so far are little more than a band aid on a gaping wound. Much more needs to be done,” said Jezerca Tigani.

“The UNHCR must continue to call for the suspension of transfers of asylum seekers to Bulgaria from EU countries. Until there are further improvements in both the reception conditions and asylum procedures, the situation of people in these detention centres will continue largely unchecked.”

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Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International and La Strada International welcomed this major step for people trapped in a modern form of slavery, for which Amnesty International has been campaigning for years. The organizations called on the other 33 member states of the Council of Europe, as well as the European Union, to follow the others’ lead.

Trafficked persons, when they come to the attention of the authorities, are rarely treated as victims of heinous crimes. Typically, they are treated as criminals, unlawful aliens or, in cases in which the authorities seek to pursue their trafficker, useful tools of the criminal justice system. The psychological, medical and social consequences of their ordeal and the underlying root causes are rarely addressed.

Assistance, when offered to trafficked people to recover from their ordeal, is frequently made conditional on their agreement to cooperate in prosecutions against their traffickers. Such cooperation often places trafficked persons and members of their families in further danger at the hands of the traffickers.

The parties to the Convention – Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Georgia, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Romania and Slovakia – have committed themselves to taking a different approach. They have agreed to take individual and collective action to criminalise trafficking as well as a range of other minimum steps necessary to respect and protect the rights of trafficked persons.

These steps include ensuring that:

a mechanism is in place for the accurate identification of trafficked persons;   
persons reasonably believed to have been trafficked are granted time to recover and are offered assistance and protection—regardless of whether they agree to participate in any proceedings the authorities may decide to pursue against those responsible for their ordeal;
trafficked persons have access to redress, including compensation.

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