Obertová Zuzana, Cattaneo Cristina
Department of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Section of Legal Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Department of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Section of Legal Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Forensic Sci Int. 2018 Jan;282:46-59. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.10.036. Epub 2017 Nov 4.
Trafficking in children is one of the worst forms of human rights violation and is categorised as a serious crime. Children at high risk of becoming victims of trafficking are runaways, children with a history of abuse, and migrant children. Internationally, cases of child trafficking are increasing the most in Europe, which is likely the result of the current migration crisis. In crises, preventing and combating human trafficking needs to be prioritized, considering that the aims of humanitarian action include saving lives, easing suffering and preserving human dignity. The involvement of forensic practitioners in investigations of cases of child trafficking mainly concerning the identification of victims may save lives and certainly alleviate suffering of the child victims and their families searching for them. Moreover, by aiding the prosecution process through thorough documentation and expert reporting forensic practitioners may contribute to the protection, rehabilitation and possibly compensation of the child victims, and thus to the restoration of their rights and dignity. So far, forensic practitioners were rarely specifically mentioned as actors in the counter-trafficking efforts in the multitude of policies, regulations, guidelines and recommendations concerning different aspects of child trafficking. This seems surprising considering that the expertise and experience of practitioners from forensic sciences including cyber forensics, document analysis, forensic biology, anthropology, and medicine can be utilised for gathering intelligence in cases of suspected human trafficking, for identifying the victims as well as perpetrators, and for securing evidence for legal proceedings as this paper shows. While this article mainly discusses the role of forensic pathologists and anthropologists, with a specific focus on the identification of child victims of trafficking in the context of the European migration crisis, the notions regarding the contribution of forensic sciences to the counter-trafficking efforts can be adapted to other geographical and sociopolitical contexts.
贩卖儿童是最严重的侵犯人权形式之一，被归类为严重犯罪。极有可能成为贩卖受害者的儿童包括离家出走者、有受虐史的儿童以及移民儿童。在国际上，欧洲的儿童贩卖案件增长最为显著，这可能是当前移民危机导致的结果。在危机中，预防和打击人口贩卖需要被列为优先事项，因为人道主义行动的目标包括拯救生命、减轻痛苦和维护人的尊严。法医从业者参与儿童贩卖案件调查，主要涉及受害者身份识别，这不仅可以挽救生命，还能切实减轻儿童受害者及其家人寻找他们时所遭受的痛苦。此外，通过全面记录和专家报告协助起诉程序，法医从业者可以为儿童受害者的保护、康复以及可能的赔偿做出贡献，从而恢复他们的权利和尊严。迄今为止，在众多涉及儿童贩卖不同方面的政策、法规、指南和建议中，法医从业者很少被特别提及为打击人口贩卖行动的参与者。考虑到包括网络取证、文件分析、法医生物学、人类学和医学在内的法医科学从业者的专业知识和经验可用于疑似人口贩卖案件的情报收集、受害者及犯罪者身份识别以及为法律诉讼获取证据，这似乎令人惊讶，正如本文所展示的那样。虽然本文主要讨论法医病理学家和人类学家的作用，特别关注欧洲移民危机背景下贩卖儿童受害者的身份识别，但法医科学对打击人口贩卖行动贡献的相关理念可适用于其他地理和社会政治背景。
