|
Family
Violence Forum
Volume
4, Number 2
Summer 2005
Table of Contents
About the Family Violence
Forum
A Personal Note from the Editor
NCSC's International Programs Division
One Woman's Fight for Justice in Nigeria:
A Personal Journey with Hauwa Ibrahim
The Plight of Human Trafficking
Resource Corner: Family Violence Around
the World: A Snapshot of Resources
In the News: Recommendations for State
Courts Handling Domestic Violence
NCSC Happenings: NCSC Launches the
Elder Abuse and the Courts Working Group
We Want Your Feedback!
About
the Family Violence Forum
This newsletter is the product of the Family
Violence Community of Practice-a collaborative team of
researchers, educators, and information specialists with
the mission of improving the justice system's response
to violence within the family. We are pleased to
introduce the latest issue of the Family Violence Forum.
For previous newsletters and a full array of
court-related information on family violence, visit us
at the Center
for Family Violence and the Courts.
A
Personal Note from the Editor
By Brenda K. Uekert
This issue of the Family
Violence Forum addresses international aspects of
violence against women. While the latest reports suggest
a decline in domestic violence in the United States, the
World Bank estimates that violence against women was as
serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of
reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill
health than traffic accidents and malaria combined.
Indeed, many nation's laws are used to preserve the
subservient status of women. In the words of Abigail
Adams, "If particular care and attention is not
paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a
rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws
in which we have no voice or representation."
We
Want Your Feedback!
The Family Violence
Forum would like to hear from you. If you would
like to request technical assistance, or have
comments/suggestions for the Forum staff,
please e-mail Madelynn
Herman or Dr. Brenda
Uekert or call 800-616-6164.
Subscribe
to NCSC e-newsletters.
|
|
|
NCSC's
International Programs Division
By Peggy Ochandarena
The National Center for
State Courts created the International Programs Division
(IPD) in 1992 to respond to the many requests NCSC
received for assistance from international justice
systems. The IPD has established offices in Azerbaijan,
Croatia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Kosovo, Mexico,
Mongolia, Nigeria, and Serbia. Through the IPD, NCSC is
a subcontractor on projects in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and
Egypt. The projects range from a narrow focus-building a
publicly accessible database of laws and legal decisions
in Azerbaijan-to providing broad-based, systemic
development, such as in Mongolia, where staff assisted
first in creating a strategic plan for the justice
sector, then worked to implement that plan. NCSC has
developed a specialty in post-conflict rule-of-law
programming, not only through its projects in countries
recovering from violent conflict, but also in the
creation of a manual to guide programmatic decisions and
directions in these fragile countries. Through the
International Visitors Program, NCSC hosts over 300
justice system officials annually, with educational
activities tailored to the specific interests and needs
of each group.
In various projects, the
IPD has worked directly and indirectly to enhance the
rights of women and families. Some of the assistance
that is tailored to increase access to justice for the
poor and vulnerable groups necessarily results in
improved legal services for women and children. Other
projects have had particular activities geared
specifically to women's issues. In Mongolia, prosecutors
are being trained in handling domestic violence cases.
In Nigeria, activities included assessing impediments
and designing interventions to increase women's access
to justice, training women on legal rights and access
issues, and assessing the gender implications of
traditional tribal dispute resolution. In Guatemala and
Paraguay, NCSC established women-operated mediation
programs that are now sustained with local municipal
funding. This year in Haiti, the plan is to fulfill the
Ministry of Women's Affairs' request to fund a study of
Haitian laws regarding women and children compared with
international human-rights treaties and norms. In Egypt,
the current project is working on enhancing
opportunities for women to become judges (currently
there is only one) and prosecutors.
The IPD maintains a
database of consultants who are available for long- and
short-term assignments as the need arises. The database
can be accessed through the NCSC Web site or by mailing
a CV to the International Programs Division, National
Center for State Courts, 2425 Wilson Boulevard Suite
350, Arlington, VA 22201. The IPD is always on the
lookout for those willing to share their expertise both
here and abroad. The goal is not to remake the system of
any other country into a mirror of the American justice
system, but rather to offer the lessons we have learned
in a way that allows for selection of those elements
that can be applied or tailored to fit another culture.
These interactions often enrich us as much as the
recipients.
Snapshot:
Egypt
The Middle East is not an
area known for widespread acceptance of rights for
women. And among these countries, Egypt, often a leader
in the region, lags behind in this area. And yet there
are signs of openings. Until 2004, a woman seeking
divorce, child custody, and alimony would likely have
had three cases in three different courts that took an
average of eight years to be decided. Last year, Egypt
enacted a family-courts law that calls for mandatory
mediation in cases involving personal status, such as
marriage, divorce, alimony, and child custody and
support. If mediation fails to resolve all of the
issues, the outstanding contentions are heard by a judge
who receives input from a social worker and
psychologist. Cases are consolidated and heard in one
jurisdiction by one court. Another law created at the
same time provides that child-support payments can be
received from a bank that will then seek recovery from
the individual responsible for the payment-a system that
guarantees that children will not bear the brunt of a
parent's failure to pay.
But these innovations
have stretched resources thin and introduced concepts
that the government is struggling to implement. The
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
is bolstering this initiative by requesting proposals
for a project that will support the functioning of the
family courts through training mediators, increasing
public awareness of the new laws, and creating a
database that will capture information useful for
program measurement and evaluation. One of the five
agencies eligible to bid on this project is NCSC's
International Programs Division.
|
|
|
One
Woman's Fight for Justice in Nigeria: A Personal Journey
with Hauwa Ibrahim
By Peggy Ochandarena
The day was already warm
when we left the house at dawn, a precursor of the
scorching temperatures that would soon arrive. With the
sun coming up, we were leaving the house early to
journey into the Nigerian countryside in search of two
women who were under a sentence of death by stoning for
adultery. They had been recently released into the
custody of their families in the state of Bauchi.
I was traveling with
Hauwa Ibrahim, a Nigerian lawyer who became known to
international human-rights groups after she successfully
appealed that same sentence for two Nigerian women in
2002. Bauchi is Hauwa's home state, and she had
practiced here for a number of years before moving to
the capital of Nigeria, Abuja. But she could not forget
the plight of defendants sentenced to harsh punishments
under the Islamic Sharia law in Bauchi, knowing the
system had not provided any of the procedural
protections afforded by the Sharia. And so we were
returning to interview the women sentenced and those
both prosecuting and defending them.
We traveled six hours
from Abuja north over a two-lane road that contained an
assortment of sedans, overloaded trucks, and bulging
buses, but additional hazards were immediately to the
side of each lane, where bicyclists, pedestrians, and a
variety of animals moved alongside the speeding
vehicles. That road, however, proved superior to what we
traveled in search of the defendants. Once out of the
capital city of Bauchi, the road became gravel, then
dirt, then a rutted creek bed. We bounced over large
rocks I thought would tear out the floor of the car and
scrape our feet, and sat still when herds of cows,
goats, and sheep claimed the right of way. This
territory is home to the Fulani, a nomadic tribe that
one of the defendants belonged to, and finding her did
not involve looking up a street address. This area had
little access to technological advances for
communication, but asking passing herders if they knew
of the woman and where her group might be found proved
effective, albeit slow.
The other defendant lived
in a local village along a dirt road nearly two hours
outside of Bauchi's capital. Again, there was no map, no
street signs-just a vague knowledge of where her village
might be, supplemented by numerous passersby. When the
car could go no further, we walked the rest of the
distance to where she lived with her mother and
siblings. The defendant could not have been more than
16, and her advanced pregnancy was barely discernible.
The family lived in a mud hut, with their crops and
animals surrounding the house. There was no electricity,
no running water; the year could have been 204 A.D. as
easily as 2004.
We sat under a tree on
simple reed mats that usually served as bedding. There,
Hauwa learned that the conviction had been obtained by a
village elder; that the father of the unborn child had
not been charged even though he was married to another
woman; and that the defendant had no counsel, no advice
on her rights, and no experience with a court or legal
system. In fact, she had never attended a day of school
and could not read or write. She told us that the
village elders had asked her who the father of her child
was and told her there would be no trouble if she named
him, and she responded "yes" to all questions
to acknowledge her subservience to and respect for the
elders, as her culture demanded.
Hauwa's quest began after
she worked in the Ministry of Justice as a prosecutor.
There she observed the lack of legal resources for the
poor, and in a country where 60 percent of the
population lives below the poverty line, that included
most people. Women had even less opportunity for legal
assistance, as men zealously sought jobs that might go
to women in countries with less than Nigeria's high
unemployment rate. Hauwa eventually came to the
conclusion that she could not continue to work for the
prosecution and quit to set up a private practice with a
goal to provide services for the poor.
When Bauchi enacted
legislation in 2002 that gave jurisdiction of criminal
matters to the Sharia courts, harsh punishments began
surfacing. Hauwa's objection was not to the imposition
of the Islamic law but, rather, to the court's failure
to observe the due-process protections built into the
Sharia that are required before such drastic punishments
can be instituted. For example, before a sentence of
death by stoning for adultery can be imposed, either a
defendant must confess or there must be four
eyewitnesses to the offense; in any case, fairness to
the defendants is a central component of the Sharia.
These defendants' failure to receive any legal guidance
violated the law. Hauwa's quest is simple, but critical:
to see that those standing before the law receive fair
treatment under that law and to see that the
international human-rights treaties to which Nigeria is
signatory are observed.
Returning from the
village, we visited the defense attorney appointed by an
international human-rights group to review his strategy.
As a practicing real-estate lawyer, criminal defense was
not his specialty, and Hauwa shared numerous points on
which the appeal could be based. We also visited the
prosecutor's office, and received a surprise: the
Attorney General had previously worked for a
human-rights organization, and because he was appalled
at the sentences being meted out, was organizing the
local bar to take pro bono cases for these defendants.
We discussed ways to support the bar in this endeavor.
Our last visit was to the Grand Kadi, the chief judge of
the Sharia appeals court, who agreed that it is
important that the Sharia be applied wholly and that its
principle of fairness is paramount.
Within the two months
following our visit, both of these sentences were
overturned on appeal. Hauwa continues to follow her
heart despite the lack of financial incentives in these
cases, because she believes in her work: representing
defendants, providing assistance to other attorneys
handling these cases, and organizing both local and
international groups to address these issues.
|
|
|
|
The
Plight of Human Trafficking
By Brenda K. Uekert
Human trafficking,
sometimes referred to as "modern-day slavery,"
is a global problem. The U.S. Department of State
estimates that approximately 800,000 to 900,000 victims
annually are trafficked across international borders
worldwide. When including the number of domestically
trafficked victims, the number reaches into the
millions. The State Department estimates that between
18,000 and 20,000 of those victims are trafficked into
the United States. This figure contrasts to an estimate
provided by the Central Intelligence Agency-in 1999 the
agency estimated that 45,000 to 50,000 women and
children are trafficked annually to the United States,
primarily by small crime rings and loosely connected
criminal networks. Wide variations in estimates
highlight the difficulty of collecting even basic
information on a problem that is often hidden from the
public, as well as the lack of attention given to
domestic trafficking.
|
|
|
|
Human trafficking is most
often regarded as an international problem, in which
less-developed nations are the origin or source
countries, and more-developed nations are the
destination countries.¹ Nations
with lax laws and enforcement often serve as transit
countries in the trafficking network. Hughes and
Denisova (2002) note that demand for women is created by
countries with large sex industries and countries where
traffickers are able to easily recruit women.
Traffickers use the lack of laws, or lack of
enforcement, in many parts of the world to gather and
transport victims with relative immunity. This is fueled
by a dearth of publicized information for potential
victims about the dangers of trafficking. While the
factors that fuel the trafficking market are multiple
and complex, poverty frequently plays a role. Citizens
of impoverished nations with few opportunities for
economic stability are at greatest risk of being
conscripted into trafficking; generally, the victims are
transported to countries of wealth-to citizens with
disposable incomes to spend purchasing human
commodities. As a large portion of trafficking that
occurs in wealthy countries, such as the United States,
uses victims imported from foreign countries, the
problem of domestic trafficking, where the victim
originates within the country, is frequently
overshadowed. Yet one U.S. national study estimates that
approximately 10 to 15 percent of all homeless and
street children nationally are trafficked (Estes and
Weiner, 2001).
The sex industry drives
much of human trafficking; according to the U.S.
Department of Justice, approximately two-thirds of
internationally trafficked victims are women and
children forced or coerced into commercial sex.
Commercial sex includes a wide range of activities,
ranging from stripping to forced prostitution. Other
common forms of exploitation that trafficked victims
face include sweatshop labor, agricultural and
construction work, and domestic service. Victims of
trafficking tend to be young; the Department of Justice
estimates that roughly half of all internationally
trafficked victims are under the age of 18, and the
Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division places the
average age of a trafficked victim in the United States
at 20 years (Richard, 2000).
The exploitation of
trafficked victims falls on a wide continuum of
mistreatment; some of the cases can be quite severe,
with victims being forced into slavery. The victims may
receive no pay for their work, and their captors may
increase the "debt" owed by the victims for
basic necessities such as food, water, and shelter,
wiping out any "earnings" the victim may have
accrued. The victims may also endure beatings, torture,
repeated rape, and constant surveillance by their
captors. Not all trafficking situations involve such
extreme conditions. Some involve smuggled migrants
coerced or tricked into unsafe working conditions or
paid below the legal minimum wage. Some cases may not
involve physical force, but include fraud or
manipulation. The diversity in situations provides a
challenge to law enforcement and the courts in
determining which cases meet the criteria of
trafficking, and some cases have been overlooked for
years under the misperception that the cases do not meet
the criteria of trafficking.
Traffickers obtain
victims through several means, also contributing to the
difficulty in identifying trafficking situations.
Victims may be tricked into going willingly with a
trafficker under the pretenses of legitimate job
opportunities in a different location, either within or
beyond the borders of their country. In some cases the
victim may have been sold outright by a parent or by a
husband. Of the women that are brought into the United
States, they may enter the country through the illegal
use of "legitimate" or forged travel
documents, or they may be brought over the border
without going through a legal checkpoint. Once in the
United States, victims are carefully guarded or
restricted, making detection of their situation
difficult. If the victim had legal identity papers, such
as a passport, these may be confiscated, leaving the
victim vulnerable to threats that they will be arrested
if discovered in the country illegally. Language or
cultural barriers may further isolate victims from
potential sources of assistance. Captors, particularly
within the sex industry, maintain the isolation of the
victims by regularly moving them from one locale to
another. Not only does this assist traffickers in
avoiding detection from law enforcement, it also keeps
the victims from developing relationships with citizens
or clients who could help them. It also benefits the sex
traffickers, as they are able to provide a variety of
new women to their clients.
Law enforcement and the
courts face multiple hurdles in addressing trafficking.
Among the challenges are information-sharing
difficulties, investigative challenges, low penalties
for the traffickers, lack of trafficking laws, and
overlooking of smaller trafficking cases (Richard,
2000:31). As trafficking operations span international
and jurisdictional borders, coordination and sharing of
information can be quite challenging. Even U.S. federal
departments may have different goals; as a Department of
Labor worker reported, "If INS is looking at [a
forced labor case] they would be looking to deport
people. If we are looking at it, we are looking to pay
people. If Justice is looking at it, they are looking to
put people in jail" ("Hidden Slaves, 2004:27).
In addition, it can be very difficult for investigators
to penetrate trafficking groups, particularly when
groups are ethnically based and have language
differences.
The emphasis on large,
organized trafficking operations may also cause federal
law enforcement to overlook smaller trafficking rings,
allowing these organizations to evade detection. Local
law enforcement may not have training in the
identification of trafficking and, thus, when they
uncover the operation may view victims of trafficking as
co-conspirators or willing participants. In addition,
local law enforcement may be reluctant to investigate
common hotbeds of trafficking, such as brothels, as they
may not have the training to be aware of the potential
of trafficking operations in their community. They may
instead view these locations as areas of harmless
deviance of lower priority than their other enforcement
concerns.
On October 29, 2000,
Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Protection Act of 2000 (VTVPA) to assist in dealing with
the problem of human trafficking. The VTVPA increased
existing penalties under Title 18 from 10 years to 20
years and added specific provisions for forced labor;
trafficking with respect to peonage, slavery,
involuntary servitude, or forced labor; sex trafficking
of children; and unlawful conduct with respect to
documents in furtherance of trafficking, peonage,
slavery, involuntary servitude, or forced labor. The
VTVPA established an interagency task force to monitor
and combat trafficking; authorized programs to prevent
trafficking; and offered protection and assistance for
victims of severe forms of trafficking. Services
available to victims under the VTVPA include medical
care, food stamps, housing and cash assistance, and
immigration relief. From 2000 to 2003, over 400 adult
victims received certification for benefits eligibility;
child victims, however, do not need to be certified to
receive benefits ("Report to Congress,"
2004:9). The act also established regular country
reports to monitor trafficking and authorized assistance
to foreign governments to meet minimum standards, as
well as actions against governments failing to meet
minimum standards.
However, some feel that
the VTVPA does not go far enough to fully address the
problem of trafficking and to support victims.
Immigration and social services are only provided to
victims of a "severe form of trafficking,"²
and some victims have been unable
to receive certificates when they were unable to
demonstrate that their situations were severe enough
("Hidden Slaves," 2004:23). Some feel that
training of law enforcement officials is still not
sufficient to address the problem of trafficking and
that states are not doing enough to educate their
populations as to the growing problem of trafficking.
Lack of coordination of the federal system with local
and state law-enforcement officers has also hampered
efforts to combat trafficking. However, the DOJ is now
awarding more than $7.6 million in grants to enable
state and local law enforcement to fight human
trafficking by creating local task forces similar to the
federal task force and enabling law enforcement to work
with victim and social-services organizations and
federal agencies. Currently, the Department of Justice
has twenty anti-trafficking task forces, primarily
located in the Southwest or East Coast, with ten more to
start in 2005.³
State
involvement has become increasingly valued in the fight
against human trafficking. Although many of the early
anti-trafficking efforts came through federal
legislation and courts, it is apparent that the fight
must expand to include state support if it is to succeed
in reducing trafficking. Of particular concern were
cases in which state officials, considering these crimes
to be of federal concern, did not act in pursuing
suspected trafficking operations ("Hidden
Slaves," 2004). In addition to the DOJ-sponsored
task forces, states are also initiating their own task
forces. For example, Washington and Connecticut have
both established task forces by legislative statute, and
Idaho has created a fact-finding and education
committee.
As of June 2004, state
anti-trafficking criminal statutes carrying harsh
sentences have been adopted in four states: Texas,
Florida, Washington, and Missouri. In July 2004, the
Department of Justice built on these efforts by
providing a model template of an effective state
anti-trafficking statute ("Model Statute,"
2004). The Senate supported the model template by
passing a resolution to encourage states to adopt the
model statute. As of January 2005, legislation was
pending in Minnesota and New Jersey, and California,
Nebraska, Idaho, Massachusetts, and the Commonwealth of
the Northern Marianas Islands have legislative efforts
underway ("State Anti-Trafficking
Legislation," 2004).
References
Central Intelligence Agency Briefing (1999). Global
Trafficking in Women and Children: Assessing the
Magnitude (April).
Estes, Richard J., and
Neil Alan Weiner (2001). "The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children in the US, Canada and
Mexico." University of Pennsylvania.
Hughes, Donna M., and
Tatyana Denisova (2002). "Trafficking in Women from
Ukraine."
"Hidden Slaves:
Forced Labor in the United States" (2004).
Washington, DC: Human Rights Center.
"Model State
Anti-Trafficking Criminal Statute" (2004). Anti-Trafficking
News Bulletin 1, nos. 8 and 9 (August/September).
"Report to Congress
from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government
Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year
2003" (2004). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Justice.
Richard, Amy O'Neill
(2000). "International Trafficking in Women to the
United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery
and Organized Crime." Center for the Study of
Intelligence.
"State
Anti-Trafficking Legislation Effort Intensifies"
(2004). Anti-Trafficking News Bulletin 1, nos.
11 and 12 (November/December).
U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, Administration for Children and
Families, The
Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human
Trafficking.
Endnotes
¹According to a recent
study of trafficking in women, the primary source
countries for trafficking to the United States are
currently Thailand, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Russia,
Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. (Return.)
²Section
103(8) of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Protection Act of 2000 defines a "severe form of
trafficking" as "(a) sex trafficking in which
a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or
coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such
act has not attained 18 years of age; or (b) the
recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or
obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the
use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of
subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt
bondage, or slavery." (Return.)
³Current
task forces are active in Houston, El Paso, and San
Antonio, Texas; San Francisco, Los Angeles, andSan
Diego, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Las Vegas,
Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; Miami, Orlando, and Tampa,
Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; northern Virginia;
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; New
York; Connecticut; Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis,
Missouri. (Return.)
|
|
|
Resource
Corner
Family Violence Around the World: A Snapshot of
Resources
By Madelynn Herman
Family violence is found
in all countries around the globe and has no ethnic,
cultural, or economic boundaries. However, the response
to violence can and does vary greatly depending on local
laws and customs. Just as in the United States, laws
change, new court procedures are developed, and
responses to violence against women evolve over time to
meet societal needs. The resources highlighted below
provide a snapshot of materials relating to violence
against women on a global scale, including international
reports and responses, as well as resources on as human
trafficking.
International
Reports and Responses to Violence Against Women
- The World
Report on Violence and Health (World Health
Organization, 2002) is a comprehensive review of
violence on a global scale. This report defines
violence, measures its impact, and discusses how it
can be prevented. See especially:
Fact Sheet on Intimate Partner Violence
Fact Sheet on Sexual Violence
- As a result of the
2002 World Report, the WHO issued Preventing
Violence: A Guide to Implementing the
Recommendations of the World Report on Violence and
Health, which provides practical suggestions for
implementing the WHO recommendations.
- Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM). Amnesty International
provides a comprehensive explanation of female
genital mutilation around the world. According to
these Web pages, an estimated 135 million of the
world's girls and women have undergone genital
mutilation. FGM is practiced in 28 countries
worldwide. It is practiced extensively in Africa and
is common in some countries in the Middle East. It
also occurs in parts of Asia and the Pacific, North
and Latin America, and Europe. The WHO also provides
information and fact sheets on FGM.
- On July 1, 2005,
Georgia made FGM illegal. See the language of this
new act (House
Bill 10) on the Georgia General Assembly Web
pages. To read the language of this model
legislation on FGM, see Georgia
House Bill 1477.
- In "One
Woman's Crusade Against Rape in South Africa"
(Christian Science Monitor, April 12,
2000), Corinna Schuler describes how a journalist
put sex crimes in South Africa on the agenda.
Through writing about her own rape, journalist
Charlene Smith heightened political awareness of the
rape problem in South Africa, which resulted in
justice-system changes, such as the development of
29 rape courts. The author also points out that only
7 percent of reported rape cases ever make it to a
court.
- In "South Africa
Finds 'Rape Courts' Work," (Christian
Science Monitor, January 29, 2003), Nicole
Itano states that South Africa's legal system is
providing a "road map" for countries
combating sexual assault through the use of this
specialized court that utilizes specially trained
prosecutors and judges and provides more
victim-friendly services.
Human
Trafficking
- The Trafficking
in Persons Report from the U.S. State
Department (2004) provides a an explanation of the
extent of the problem, explains the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act, and identifies several best
practices for combating human trafficking.
- In Hiding
in Plight: A Practical Guide to Identifying Victims
of Trafficking in the U.S. (U.S. Dept. of
Health and Human Services, Administration for
Children and Families, October 2003), Donna M.
Hughes has developed a comprehensive guidebook that
provides practical information on identifying
victims, where and how to find victims of
trafficking, who should report suspected cases of
trafficking, and services for victims of
trafficking.
- A Trafficking
in Persons guidebook was developed by the
Texas Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs
(August 2004). This guidebook provides information
on what you need to know, how to identify a
trafficked person, steps to take if you suspect
trafficking, and benefits eligibility for
trafficking victims.
- The Polaris
Project is a multicultural grassroots
organization based in both the United States and
Japan that was set up to combat human trafficking
and modern-day slavery. They provide victim
services, conduct advocacy, and have helped to build
the anti-trafficking movement. The Polaris Project
also provides a toll-free hotline in four different
languages to report human-trafficking cases.
- In "Human
Trafficking: A Growing Crime to Hit State Courts"
(Future Trends in State Courts 2005, NCSC),
Virginia Suveiu points out that the major countries
of origin for trafficked victims in the United
States are Thailand, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Russia,
Ukraine, and the Czech Republic, and there is also a
growth of victims from sub-Saharan African and
Central American nations. Her article discusses
state anti-trafficking legislation in the United
States and the challenges that affect the state
courts.
Upcoming
Events
The World
Conference for the Prevention on Prevention of Family
Violence 2005 will take place in Alberta Canada,
October 23-26, 2005.
Further
Information
The NCSC Family
Violence Resource Guide provides various additional
resources on human trafficking and domestic violence
around the world. To request information from the NCSC,
call 800-616-6164. To inquire about technical
assistance, please contact Dr. Brenda
K. Uekert at 757-259-1861.
|
|
|
In
the News: Recommendations for State Courts Handling
Domestic Violence
By Hon. Jonathan
Lippman
Chief Administrative Judge
New York Office of Court Administration
"It's just a
domestic." How many advocates have heard that
dismissive phrase from prosecutors, police, and judges
over the years? But more recently, thanks in large part
to the domestic violence advocacy community, state
courts have begun testing improved responses to domestic
violence cases. Efforts are underway across the county
to increase victim safety and defendant accountability
and reduce the recidivism endemic to this area. But it
is not easy-the problems are very complex and the
potential solutions are difficult to implement and
measure. The Conference
of State Court Administrators (COSCA) recently
issued a helpful policy paper, "Safety
and Accountability: State Courts and Domestic Violence,"
which has been endorsed by the Conference
of Chief Justices (CCJ). The policy paper fleshes
out the issues involved in improving the judicial
response to domestic violence, offers examples of good
ideas from around the country, and provides a road map
for future action.
Judges, attorneys, court
administrators, criminal and civil justice
professionals, and advocates all face tough questions
when a domestic violence victim drops a civil case or
refuses to cooperate with the prosecution of a criminal
matter. Was it because the system response was
inadequate? Did he threaten her and force her to stop
the proceeding? Were there cultural or economic
pressures that overwhelmed her? Did the children simply
want to see their father? Or, as some may still suspect,
is it her fault that she can't stay away? And, given
that we often don't know the answer to these questions,
should we respect the decision not to go forward or
should we try to continue without her? These are
difficult questions to answer, but it is only by
wrestling with these issues that the justice system can
hope to improve victim safety.
While there is still much
to learn about good practice in domestic violence cases,
it is possible to highlight a number of basic principles
that all jurisdictions should attempt to implement.
- Orders of protection
should be more effectively crafted and more
consistently enforced, especially across state
borders
- Judges need to be
provided with more up-to-date information concerning
each defendant/respondent's history
- Courts must follow up
to ensure defendant/respondent compliance with court
orders
- Judges and other court
personnel should receive specialized training on
domestic violence and cultural differences
- Courts need to do a
better job of providing meaningful access to justice
by streamlining the court process and more
effectively managing their cases
The policy paper
highlights several court system programs, developed in
conjunction with local advocates and service providers,
which have implemented these principles. Vermont, for
example, has sought to enhance victim safety by allowing
litigants access to the courts 24 hours per day. New
York State has undertaken a major readjustment of its
case processing by creating
"one-family/one-judge" courts that bring
civil, criminal, and matrimonial cases together before a
single judge. Utah has ensured that its state government
agencies work collaboratively by convening a Cabinet
Council that develops and implements two-year master
plans for the prevention of domestic violence and the
provision of services to survivors. And Washington,
D.C., has increased the accessibility of its courts by
setting up satellite intake centers based in
neighborhoods.
Based on these and other
projects, the policy paper recommends that each state
court system take seven steps toward improving its
response to domestic violence cases.
- Each state should
undertake a complete survey of its current response
to domestic violence cases, whether criminal or
civil, and elicit both quantitative and qualitative
data. It is important to outline the scope of the
problem before designing solutions.
- Each state should
designate a single point of contact within its court
administration to coordinate domestic violence
programs and responses.
- States should identify
a statewide model that emphasizes victim safety and
defendant accountability and strives to provide
consistency in handling domestic violence cases and delivering
services to victims.
- States should work to
address the multi-jurisdictional needs of litigants
by eliminating gaps between civil and criminal
proceedings while continuing to ensure due process.
- Court systems must
dedicate sufficient resources to handling domestic
violence cases, including providing technology to
judges on the bench so that they have the up-to-date
information necessary to making good decisions.
- Both judicial and
nonjudicial personnel should be regularly trained on
domestic violence and cultural competency issues by
partnering with local criminal justice and domestic
violence professionals.
- State court leadership
should provide the support that judges need to
participate in and even spearhead multiagency
partnerships to combat domestic violence.
For its part, COSCA and
CCJ adopted a National Action Plan in 2004 to support
the implementation of these recommendations. It calls
for forging a closer partnership with the Department of
Justice's Office on Violence Against Women; conducting a
national survey of current court responses to domestic
violence; hosting a national conference to identify the
essential elements and standards for effective court
response to domestic violence; undertaking an annual
follow-up review to monitor and evaluate the progress of
reform efforts; and promulgating a national research
agenda to evaluate and identify the most effective
practices.
Making the justice system
more responsive to the real needs of battered women and
children will be an ongoing struggle. The
recommendations developed by COSCA and endorsed by CCJ
help ensure that the state court community will be a
major partner in efforts to achieve broad systemic
reform.
NCSC
Happenings: NCSC Launches the Elder Abuse and the Courts
Working Group
By Brenda K. Uekert
In May 2005, the Family
Violence Forum launched the Elder Abuse and the Courts
Working Group. The Working Group is a multidisciplinary
group of experts and practitioners and includes
representatives from the judiciary, criminal justice
agencies, adult protective services, advocacy and legal
organizations, and government officials. Currently,
membership in the group is by invitation only. The
Working Group was created to help courts identify cases
of elder abuse and neglect and to develope tools that
will improve court responses. Updates from the Working
Group can be found at the Center
for Family Violence and the Courts as they become
available. For more information, contact Brenda
Uekert at 757-259-1861.
|
|
|
National
Center for State Courts
300 Newport Avenue
Williamsburg, VA 23185-4147
701 17th St., Ste. 2900 Denver, CO 80202-3429
2425 Wilson Blvd., Ste. 350 Arlington, VA 22201
Association
Services (800) 616-6165
Consulting (800) 466-3063
Education (800) 616-6206
Government Relations (800) 532-0204
International Programs (800) 797-2545
Publications (888) 228-6272
Research (800) 616-6109
Technology (888) 846-6746
Information
(800) 616-6164
Subscribe to NCSC E-newsletters
webmaster@ncsc.dni.us
Copyright 2005 The National Center for State Courts. All
Rights Reserved.
Some online research provided by
LexisNexis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
