Current protection efforts
International and regional legal instruments
Because of the international nature of human trafficking, more and more binding and non-binding legal instruments are developed that deal with the fight against human trafficking and protecting its victims. Two of the most important legal instruments of this moment that are of relevance to Turkey are the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (The Trafficking Protocol, 2000) and the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (Warsaw Convention, 2005). These instruments are relevant to Turkey, as Turkey is a member
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This makes Turkey an exceptional case, because the country is the only one that didn’t follow with a ratification after signing. The Convention is much more elaborate than the UN Trafficking Protocol, and uses slightly more binding language (shall instead of shall consider, for example). It includes, inter alia, articles on identification of victims, protection of private life, assistance to victims, recovery and reflection period, return of victims and gender equality. It also includes a chapter that gives life to a monitoring mechanism: the Group of experts on action against trafficking in human beings (GRETA). Because the Turkish Government is not bound to these agreements, they do not strictly follow these …show more content…
In the Turkish Constitution REFRENCE! can be found that forced labor is prohibited by law (Article 18). Victims of forced labor can then be protected at least in a way that they can be classified as an actual victim of a crime and that the responsible perpetrators are prosecuted and therefore can't form a threat anymore. The Turkish Constitution also includes articles on the privacy and protection of private life (Article 20) and protection of fundamental rights and freedoms (Article 40). These rights of individuals are especially relevant for victims of human trafficking, because these two rights are violated during the period of exploitation. A specific article on human trafficking was added to the Criminal Code of Turkey REFERENCE (Article 80). This brings to the national legislation of Turkey a criminalization of human trafficking in specific, which is very positive for human trafficking victims: the crime is being acknowledged in