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Law of Ukraine on Trafficking
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PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE SIGNS LAW ON CRIMINAL CHARGES
FOR TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS
On April 13, 1998
the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, signed a law on criminal charges
for the trafficking in human beings, which was adopted by the Ukrainian
parliament on March 24.
As stipulated
by the law, persons who are involved in direct or indirect, open or hidden
trafficking in human beings aimed at their sale for sexual exploitation or
pornobusiness, or their use in military conflicts, as well as persons who
adopt children for commercial purposes, will face criminal charges and
will be punished by imprisonment for a period of three to eight years,
with confiscation of their property. The persons
who are involved in the sale of children and those officials who abuse
their positions to this end, will be punished by imprisonment for a period
of five to ten years. In situations where the trafficking in human beings
led to serious consequences or was organized by a criminal grouping, and
in cases when the trafficking was intended for the transplantation of
human organs, the punishment is increased to 8-15 years.
As
stated by Nina Karpacheva, deputy head of the Ukrainian Parliament's
Commission on Human Rights, up to 85% of Ukrainian women involved in
prostitution abroad are forced into this business against their will. She
said that dozens of thousands of Ukrainian women have been turned into "white
slaves" in many countries, in particular in Greece, Turkey, Israel,
Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands ...
According
to Karpacheva, until now the Ukrainian authorities have had no information
regarding the trafficking in human beings because there have been no
criminal charges associated with these crimes.
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