CSTO PA model legislation is a barrier against all forms of human trafficking

Recommendations on the Improvement of the National Legislation of the CSTO Member States Concerning the Definition of Various Types of Human Trafficking, developed by the Research Institute of the Academy of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, were adopted at the CSTO PA plenary session on November 24, 2016.
The first stage of the development of the recommendations was a thorough analysis of the CSTO States’ criminal legislation in terms of the definition of acts for different types of human trafficking.
According to employees of the Research Institute of the Academy of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation who studied the legislation and developed the recommendations, the first thing that drew their attention was the inconsistency of the concept of human trafficking and its dubious definition in the criminal codes of the CSTO States. With some variations, it is generally defined as “exploitation,” a narrower concept that is difficult to agree with.
At the same time, it is telling that, for example, criminal legislation of the Republic of Armenia lacks the term “human trafficking” entirely. Instead, it introduces the term “trafficking,” de facto equating it with exploitation. The term “exploitation of a person” meant the involvement of another person in prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or forced services, subjecting a person to slavery or a condition similar to slavery, buying or selling a person, or removing parts or tissues of the human body.
The issue of illegal extraction and commercial trafficking of human organs, tissues or cells, trafficking in minors was studied separately.
The research concluded that significant differences in experts’ and legislators’ approaches and definitions of actions in the area of human trafficking dictate the necessity of developing Recommendations on the Improvement of the National Legislation of the CSTO Member States Concerning the Definition of Various Types of Human Trafficking.