LEGAL ANALYSTS yesterday hailed as a landmark ruling, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision against Cyprus for failing to protect 20-year-old Russian dancer Oxana Rantseva who fell to her death from the balcony of a locked apartment trying to escape from her life working in a Limassol cabaret.
The decision on Thursday unveiled painful truths about human trafficking on the island, criticising Cyprus for its failure to develop a comprehensive immigration policy and uphold immigrant rights.
“It is very significant that the ECHR has reached this decision because the Republic of Cyprus must finally get the message that we are no longer an isolated village where whatever we do stays between us,” said Doros Polycarpou, President of the migrant support group KISA.
KISA Legal Advisor Nicoleta Charalambidou commented: “This is a landmark decision, particularly for Cyprus, but also for trafficking in Europe in general. It details clearly that member states that have signed the European Convention on Human rights are under obligation to abide by its provisions.”
“In relation to Cyprus, the court expresses the need for an urgent reexamination of the trafficking policy, but also of the national immigration policy and practices in general. In its decision the Court criticises Cyprus for not having a comprehensive immigration policy or the legal framework to enforce laws,” Charalambidou added.
“The court found that many of the procedural requirements in force in Cyprus, set the immigrant worker under the control of the employer, thus creating a breeding ground for trafficking and slavery,” she added.
President of the Cyprus Bar Association, Doros Ioannou said it was significant that the Republic of Cyprus had made an admission of its guilt in this case by calling for the adoption of an ECHR procedure whereby if a defendant admits guilt then the case is not heard at the Court. The Court, however, refused to rule out Rantseva’s case, on the basis of its significance in setting a standard for utilising the European Convention on Human Rights in sex trafficking cases.
“The decision fully condemns the Republic of Cyprus, which means that a series of omissions had taken place,” Ioannou said.
Although the Court decision clearly assigns particular responsibility to the Cypriot police for failing to adequately investigate the case, a police spokesman yesterday said that the law-enforcement authority will take measures only if deemed necessary.
“We respect the court’s decision, and the police are in the process of studying the decision. If we see that there is a necessity for corrective measures on the part of the police, then we will certainly be taking action. However, we have not yet read the decision in detail.” Michalis Katsounotos, Police spokesman
The Attorney-General Petros Clerides did not respond to calls for commenting on the court decision.
The case, brought before the ECHR by Rantseva’s father, Nikolai Rantsev examined and found valid, his claims of insufficient investigation of the woman’s death, both by authorities in Russia and in Cyprus. The court found that Cyprus had violated articles 2, 4 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and said the Cyprus police had failed on multiple accounts.
The Russian dancer fell five floors to her death in March 2001 while trying to escape from an apartment block where she had been locked in after police handed her back to her boss from whom she had run away only days before. Police had failed to interview Rantseva to establish whether she might have been a trafficking victim even though the circumstances were such that questioning along those lines was warranted, the ECHR said.
The Court awarded €40,000 in damages and €3, 150 for his legal fees. Russia was found to have violated the European anti-slavery conventions and was ordered to pay Rantsev €2,000.
Cyprus was found to be in breach of Article 2 of the European Convention (right to life), Article 4 (prohibition of slavery and forced labour), and Article 5 (right to freedom and security).
“Cyprus was in breach of Article 2 for procedural reasons, because it failed to adequately investigate under what conditions Rantseva lost her life. The police merely took statements from a group of people who had vested interests in the case and said that the woman’s death was an accident,” said Charalambidou.
“Article 5 was also breached because the woman had been illegally detained in a police station, although it was found that she was legally on the island. Then police called her employer to pick her up as if she was his possession and failed to protect her when her employer locked her into a flat illegally.”
According to KISA the Cypriot legal system has in general failed to address the problem in the cases that have come before it, and the NGO plans to take more cases to the ECHR.
“One of KISA’s strategic decisions is to take such cases to courts outside Cyprus because we have doubts about the independence and integrity of Cypriot courts. Our courts should assign more attention to cases that involve third country nationals and not act according to political interests,” Polycarpou said.
“We are preparing a number of other cases to be taken to the European Court, and have already filed a case regarding the long detention of an asylum seeker at the ECHR,” he added.
Sidebar
ACCORDING to the Wall Street Journal, the decision marks the first time the ECHR ruled that sex trafficking falls under antislavery conventions. The US publication also assigns the case’s significance to its specific directions regarding the responsibilities of national authorities in such cases.
Specifically, the decision states that civil authorities from the victim’s country of origin (in this case Russia), country of transit, as well as the country where the sexual exploitation takes place (in this case Cyprus) are under the obligation to investigate the case and enforce relevant laws.
“When the police have a credible suspicion of someone being trafficked, at that stage they have to make investigations in order to protect the unsuspecting victims,” commented Andrea Coomber, Legal Director at Intersights, a UK charity that supported Rantsev’s case at court.
The decision is also reported as the first of its kind in that it concerns sex-trafficking specifically and not labour-trafficking in general. “The court has ruled previously in labour-trafficking cases. But it has never ruled on a sex-trafficking case because victims, often under constant threat of violence, have little access to the justice system in any country,” Coomber explained.
