The RA Police Deputy Head, Lieutenant General Hunan Poghosyan’s report during the RA National Assembly session concerning the bill “On identification of and support to persons subjected to trafficking in human beings and exploitation”

The RA Police Deputy Head, Lieutenant General Hunan Poghosyan’s report during the RA National Assembly session concerning the bill “On identification of and support to persons subjected to trafficking in human beings and exploitation”

On November 20th, the regular session of the RA National Assembly took place, during which according to the agenda, the amendment with regard the inclusion of “administrative offences” in the bill of “On identification of and support to persons subjected to trafficking in human beings and exploitation” and the amendment of the Law on the Status of Foreign Citizens has been discussed with the view of adopting both bills with the first reading.
The main reporter was the RA Police Deputy Head, Lieutenant General Hunan Poghosyan.

“Dear National Assembly President,
Dear MP-s,

With the first reading, the amendment of RA legislation on “administrative offences” with regard the bill of “On identification of and support to persons subjected to trafficking in human beings and exploitation” and amendment in the RA Law on the Status of Foreign Citizens, is presented to the scrutiny of the National assembly.
The preparation of the bill on “On identification of and support to persons subjected to trafficking in human beings and exploitation” is due to the necessity of complying with the Council of Europe N197 Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, and has the objective to improve the process of identification of trafficked persons, guarantee support to the victims regardless of nationality, citizenship, decide upon the reflection period in legal terms, provide compensation and legal accessibility to the victims, create flexible and productive protection system for the victims.
The issues with the finding, identification and support to exploited or trafficked persons are due to the current RA Government Decision 1385A of November 29th, 2008, titled “The National Referral Mechanism for the Exploited Individuals”, which does not fully reflect the essence of the fight against trafficking in accordance with international norms.
With the existing order, it is intended to implement a three-phase identification with a corresponding support to each of the phases, as an addition, the second and the third phases of the identification and the support stemming from it, will be possible only in the case when these individuals have been recognized as victims due to criminal proceedings, or in case of a verdict.
Actually, the support in the second and the third phase is dependent on the law enforcement bodies’ relations and the cooperation with the victim, which stands as the main conflicting issue with the Convention.
The adoption of the bill is for the inclusion of more complete and productive provisions complying with international standards in the sphere of victim protection and support.
In particular, for the first time, the issues with regard the status of the trafficked or exploited persons will be normalized through separate RA legislation. The legislation will be equally applicable both for RA citizens and for the foreign citizens of any country, for stateless persons or refugees residing in the Republic of Armenia.
This committee will be formed of non-governmental organizations having expertise in the identification of the victims of trafficking or exploitation, of RA Prosecutor’s office, RA Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, RA Police representatives, who will be presented in the committee proportionally and will be granted equal rights.
The head of the identification committee will be appointed the representative from RA Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The work agenda of the identification committee will be set by the RA Government Decision.
According to the bill, in the pre-identification stage the individual is provided with the support and protection based on humanitarian principles. The victims with special category will be provided with support as well. The order and amount of the support will be defined in accordance with the adoption of the legislation by the RA Government.
In the RA legislation on administrative offences, there is no provision which will allow freeing the trafficking victims from the accountability set for such offences, which the victims committed as a result of force by the traffickers in the course of trafficking.
The RA legislation on the legal status of foreign citizens does not provide for residence and employment permit for the trafficked or exploited persons. With the amendments in the legislation, the provisions will normalize the temporary residence permit and employment permit giving issues, also issues like obtaining permanent residence for living in the RA territory while having a temporary residence permit.
As a result of the adoption of the bills, the procedures with regard the identification, support and protection of the trafficked persons will be in accordance with the Council of Europe 197th Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings provisions.
Highlighting the fight against trafficking, the presented bills are one more step in the legislative reforms sphere for the enhancement of the support process to the victims.

Dear MP-s, I suggest to adopt the bill with the first reading.

Thank you”

The video of the report is accessible in the RA National Assembly webpage, starting from the 3rd hour of the NA session  http://parliament.am/live.php?lang=arm