09.07.2007
From February to August 2007, ABA ROLI operated a project, funded by the International Organization for Migration, the European Commission, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, to consider the creation of a Confiscation Fund for Human Trafficking in Ukraine. The project successfully addressed an underdeveloped issue within the framework for countering human-trafficking in Ukraine: assistance to the victims of trafficking and the financing of counter-trafficking activities.
Project members researched international standards and Ukrainian legislation on the assistance and compensation to the victims of human-trafficking-related crimes, the application of asset confiscation as additional punishment in human trafficking criminal cases, and international experience in the establishment of crime-specific confiscation funds and their use for financing compensation and counter–human-trafficking activities. The research concluded with the development of recommendations on the improvement of Ukrainian legislation, as well as the creation of the concept of the “Fund for the Assistance to the Victims of Human Trafficking Related Crimes.”
To bring the findings of the project closer to practice, a set of follow-up activities were implemented, including the presentation of a White Paper to the Interagency Coordination Council on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, as well as the preparation of a book on all the findings of the project that will be published in Ukrainian and English in September 2007.