To Örebro University

The crime of human trafficking is intended to encompass activities such as recruitment by abusing a position of vulnerability for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Recruiting a young person into prostitution by ‘lover boy’ tactics can thus fall within the definition of human trafficking, a conviction that carries with it severe penalties. Several countries have seen a number of such convictions, including domestic cases not involv ing cross-border trafficking. Though there are Swedish convictions for recruitment into prostitution through abuse of emotional bonds in cross-border cases, a review of Swedish judgments shows that recruitment through such abuse in national cases is generally prosecuted as procuring (prostitution) – not as human trafficking.Since 2004, there have been only three Swedish prosecutions, and no convictions, for domestic human trafficking. The article argues that recruitment into prostitution by abuse of emotional bonds qualifies as abuse of a position of vulnerability – one of the elements of the crime of human trafficking. Thus, it is possible – even an international obligation – to prosecute national cases where there is recruitment into prostitution by abuse of emotional bonds as domestic trafficking. Prosecuting as human traffickingwould be in line with what the  drafters of the 2000 global human trafficking treaty intended: to encompass all the subtle means by which persons are recruited for the purpose of exploitation. This should also apply to nationals.

Despite the relatively high number of police complaints filed in Sweden for human trafficking, few offenders are prosecuted and convicted. While a third of human trafficking complaints are made for other forms of exploitation, e.g., forced labour, convictions primarily concern trafficking for sexual exploitation plus a few cases of forced begging. The current article examines the absence of prosecutions and convictions in light of the discussion about the character of the crime and its regulation in the Swedish Criminal Code as a crime against peace and freedom. The author concludes that the limited number of convictions, and their restriction to only two forms of trafficking, are not primarily due to resource constraints. Instead they are due to the perceptions of trafficking held by the Swedish criminal courts and to the courts’ notions of what it means to ‘master’ a victim and the types of evidence required to prove such ‘mastery’.

Människohandelsbrottet anses svårtillämpat. Brottsbeskrivningen ändrades senast år 2010 för att underlätta lagföringen av människohandel, men samma problem fortgår. Vilseledande av tilltänkta människohandelsoffer leder inte till det ansvar som BrB 4:1a anger, domstolarna kräver att exploatering av brottsoffret visas för att brottet ska anses fullbordat, och grovt koppleri eller koppleri av normalgraden tillämpas istället för människohandelsbrottet. Rättstillämpningen har stora effekter på lagföringen av människohandel och för brottsoffren: åtal för människohandel väcks inte i alla fall där detta bör ske, fokus placeras på brottsoffrens situation och relationer med de misstänkta snarare än de misstänktas handlingar, och brottsoffrens möjligheter att beviljas skadestånd är begränsade. Orsakerna till den sammanblandning mellan människohandelsprocessen och den efterföljande utnyttjandeprocessen som rättstillämpningen visar på står att finna i förarbetena till 2002, 2004 och 2010 års reglering av människohandelsbrottet. Artikeln beskriver hur förarbetena använts av domstolarna när de tillämpat människohandelsbrottet mellan 2002–2012, och identifierar problematiska effekter av rättstillämpningen. Artikeln visar att motivens krav på ett maktförhållande mellan människohandlaren och brottsoffret strider både mot Sveriges internationella åtaganden att bekämpa människohandel och mot den uttryckliga regleringen av människohandelsbrottet i BrB 4:1a. I praktiken har ett ytterligare brottsrekvisit som saknar lagstöd inlemmats. Detta rekvisit omintetgör ett av de otillbörliga medel som anges i BrB 4:1a med effekten att en betydande grupp personer inte anses vara offer för människohandel. För domstolarna betyder slutsatserna att deras ansvar aktualiseras att vid tillämpningen av BrB 4:1a använda rättskällor av högre rang än förarbetena och därmed åsidosätta motiven i de delar där dessa underminerar BrB 4:1a. Artikeln identifierar även lagstiftarens ansvar att kriminalisera alla former av utnyttjande som Sverige accepterat att bekämpa: detta omfattar inte enbart sexuellt utnyttjande genom koppleribrotten, utan exempelvis även alla former av tvångsarbete. Den nuvarande kriminaliseringen på området är bristfällig.

This article discusses the implementation of duties to reduce the market for sexual services of trafficked persons, both adults and children. The article begins by describing the duties that stem from international and European obligations. It then presents the legislation and practice of five European states (Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) regarding human trafficking and the purchase of sexual acts from trafficking victims. The states in the study have introduced measures to combat human trafficking by effective prosecutions and sentencing of traffickers. They have, however, taken few measures to combat demand for the sexual services of trafficked persons; in some countries, no measures at all. As all the countries criminalise the purchase of sexual acts from children below the age of 18, the article examines whether this has afforded trafficked children effective protection against sexual exploitation. One key element in the crime of purchasing sex from a minor is knowledge of the child's age. The subjective elements that states require range from strict liability (below certain ages) to negligence, and their practice also varies. The article ends by discussing the lacunae that remain before states can be said to secure trafficked persons' right to effective protection against sexual exploitation.

A common position adopted by international lawyers on State borders is that they should be changed as little as possible, as allowing too much scope for changes to borders risks opening up a Pandora’s box of unending claims. The liberal position on international boundaries posits that the location of a State’s external boundaries matters little anyway, as the liberal State can function within any borders. The article attempts to provide a critique of these positions, and argues that another approach to borders, and particularly to boundaries at the dissolution of States, is needed. The liberal assumption does not adequately respond to boundary changes in non-liberal States. Differences between borders, and the importance attached to these differences in different contexts, have attracted little attention by international lawyers. Because the same solution often tends to lead to different results in different contexts, attempting to apply Public International Law rules, such as a modern version of uti possidetis, to boundaries in all cases of State dissolutions and new State formations, forms not only an insufficient response, but might in fact risk contravening obligations under the UN Charter to maintain international peace and security. The conflicts over the republican boundaries of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in the early 1990s exemplify that an automatic conversion of federal boundaries into international ones risks undermining long-term peaceful solutions. The final status of Kosovo, and the issue of its borders, remains a challenge for the international community. In light of the recent tensions in Kosovo existing territorial and political assumptions need to be reexamined, in order that the solution adopted for the territory accord with international obligations set out under the UN Charter.