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Doc. 9050
20 April 2001
Trafficking in organs in eastern Europe
Written Question No. 391
Reply from the Committee of Ministers
adopted at the 750th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies (18 April 2001)
I. Written Question No. 391 by Mrs Pozza Tasca (Doc. 8965)
Mrs Pozza Tasca,
Considering that, in addition to the odious trafficking in women and children, another form of trafficking in “human flesh” is gaining ground in eastern Europe, namely organ trafficking;
Having established that the route taken by the organ sellers starts in Moldova and continues though Romania and Bulgaria using coaches made available to the mafia-type organisation, and arrives in the Asian part of Istanbul, where the organs are surgically removed, and that the cost of the journey is USD 50 for the ticket and USD 180 for the entry visas for Romania and Bulgaria;
Considering that Europe cannot allow its citizens to be forced by poverty to risk their lives by selling parts of their body;
To ask the Committee of Ministers,
1. What steps it intends to take to investigate the causes behind this phenomenon in the countries of origin, particularly poverty, socio-economic conditions, the profiles and motives of the individuals concerned, especially the victims; to develop a global alert system to monitor the routes taken by this traffic in order to take appropriate preventive and repressive action; to train police forces, the judicial authorities and the staff of embassies, consulates and immigration offices to identify the potential victims; to bring about more effective co-ordination between the intelligence services of the countries of origin, destination and transit of the victims of the trafficking in organs during investigations and judicial procedures so as to identify and dismantle the networks of this traffic, with particular attention paid to the laundering of the profits of illegal activities.
2. What it intends to do to take action on the causes behind this phenomenon through programmes to combat poverty, financed by the banks of the European Social Fund, and through the sustainable development co-operation instruments with nations, such as Moldova, where per capita income is 6 dollars and where poverty pushes people towards death.
II. Reply from the Committee of Ministers
The Committee of Ministers has taken note of written question No. 391 by Mrs Pozza Tasca on trafficking in organs in eastern Europe and has studied it carefully.
The Committee of Ministers points out that the prohibition of organ trafficking is clearly legally established in Council of Europe member states. In practice the Council as long ago as 19781, opted for the principle of organ donation, preferably through the removal of organs from deceased persons, the mutilation required for an organ to be removed from a living person being considered legitimate only in the event of donations (which usually occur between close relatives). This principle of the prohibition of commercialisation of substances of human origin was confirmed, inter alia, in the final declaration of the 3rd Conference of Ministers of Health held in Paris in 1987 and reiterated in the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine2 and in the draft Additional Protocol to that Convention3. The said Convention has been signed by 29 member states and ratified by seven of these. It provides for the possibility for the Secretary General to ask the States party to provide information as to how all the provisions of this Convention are applied.
The Committee of Ministers expressed an interest in the launching of an initiative by the Secretary General aimed at collecting information on measures taken by the member states to prevent efficiently and, if need be, combat trafficking in organs. The Secretary General will therefore be asking for reports from all the member states on whether they have legal instruments in place which make organ trafficking illegal and whether steps have been taken to investigate these reports and, if necessary, take action to prevent such illegal trade.
The Council of Europe has structures in place to examine the adequacy of any legal instruments and will on request provide experts in organ transplant systems to visit and advise member states on any organisational measures which can be taken to minimise the risk of organ trafficking.
Two other instruments adopted last year by the United Nations will be of particular relevance in the fight against trafficking in organs once they enter into force for member states of the Council of Europe. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish the Trafficking of Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, which was adopted by the General Assembly on 15 November 2000, will require Contracting Parties to establish trafficking in persons for the purposes of exploitation, including the removal of organs, as a criminal offence.
Similarly, under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Contracting Parties will be required to ensure that the sale of children, inter alia, for the purpose of transfer of organs of the child for profit, is fully covered under their criminal law.
The trafficking of organs is partly the result of the inadequate quantities of organs stemming from donations, especially those removed from deceased donors, and partly that of very difficult economic situations, in which the sale of an organ seems to be a possible way out for persons in difficulty.
The insufficient quantities of available organs is chronic. While thousands of people each year have their lives saved thanks to organ donation, thousands more die for lack of available organs. Various mechanisms exist to promote organ donation and intergovernmental co-operation activities have given rise in particular in the framework of work accomplished in the health field to a number of recommendations on the subject. The Committee of Ministers just recently, on 7 March 2001, adopted Recommendation Rec(2001)5 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the management of organ transplant waiting lists and waiting times.
The Committee of Ministers places the emphasis on the need for international co-operation to promote organ donation and for equality between states where access to transplantation is concerned. In support of this objective, the Council of Europe has published a European consensus document which addresses the technical and organisational aspects of transplantation medicine 4. This document was prepared by a standing committee of experts bringing together 29 member states on the basis of a rotation system, which studies organisational and co-operation aspects of organ transplantation. This Committee, created following the 3rd Conference of Ministers of Health on organ transplantation, promotes the non-commercialisation of organs, proposes measures with a view to increasing their availability and to ensuring their quality.
A guide on safety and quality assurance to ensure European wide safety and ethical standards by which organs are retrieved and transplanted is also under preparation.
The draft Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine on transplantation of organs and tissues of human origin is also intended to promote organ donation, while respecting donors’ dignity and fundamental rights. The Committee of Ministers has closely followed the drafting of this protocol and thanks the Assembly for its contribution to this work. Its adoption as soon as possible will make it possible for the situation to be improved.
The Council of Europe is also active in the field of social cohesion in its member states. The Development Bank of the Council of Europe (CEB), in particular, finances social development projects in its member states, of which presently 14 countries are in economic transition. A loan of ten million US dollars, for instance, has been approved in favour of the Romanian Social Development Fund for the combating of poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of Romania. For the CEB’s financing, priority is given to refugees, migrants and natural or ecological disaster victims. The Bank is also able to finance the development of social infrastructure, especially in the educational and health fields in order to combat poverty where it seems likely to be the main cause of problems such as organ trafficking. In this respect, it is for the member states to make use of the financing possibilities offered by the CEB.
A number of measures have also been taken to prevent this kind of trafficking, and are currently continuing, as part of the fight against organised crime, one of the manifestations of which is organ trafficking, as well as against the associated “laundering” of the proceeds of crime and corruption (one of organised crime’s main tools). The modus operandi of the networks which traffic organs and human beings is nevertheless known, either a relatively light or a more structured organisation involving large numbers of people grouped in networks or criminal organisations, from local “recruiters” of “candidates” to operators in the destination countries, and also encompassing travel agencies, immigration department and customs staff, etc. However, the scale of the problem and the exact number of victims are unknown to the law-enforcement agencies, as victims frequently fail to report the facts because of the desperate situation they are in.
The 1990 Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime (ETS No. 141) and the two 1999 conventions against corruption5 are vital instruments for harmonising offences and for strengthening the relevant international co-operation machinery, thus helping to erect legal barriers to organised crime. It should be noted that the Convention on laundering applies in principle to all proceeds of criminal activities, including organ trafficking, and the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption covers a large number of possible corrupt arrangements, including the bribery of public officials and of private individuals6.
Annual conferences of prosecution and police representatives are held with a view to strengthening national machinery to combat large-scale crime. Legislation experts’ assessments of criminal law matters are also carried out. And the Octopus project to combat corruption and organised crime in the states in transition is continuing in 2001. The PACO programme - one of the Council of Europe’s contributions to the Stability Pact for South-East Europe - is the final part of the arrangements. It should be noted that the Stability Pact supervisory machinery in which the Council of Europe is required to play an active role7 is also intended to bring constant pressure to bear for results to be achieved by the countries of the region.
1 Resolution (78) 29 on harmonisation of legislations of member states relating to removal, grafting and transplantation of human substances.
Article 21: The human body and its parts shall not, as such, give rise to financial gain.
The draft Additional Protocol to the Convention, currently referred for an opinion to the Parliamentary Assembly, reiterates the same principle and adds a specific provision relating to Article 21: the trafficking of organs and tissues is prohibited.
4 Document published in 1999 under the title: “Meeting the organ shortage: current status and strategies for improvement of organ donation”.
5 Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS No. 173) and Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ETS No. 174).
Supervisory machinery has also been set up (PC-R-EV in respect of laundering, and, more recently, GRECO on corruption). A Protocol to the 1990 Convention is planned, especially with a view to facilitating the sharing out of the confiscated proceeds of crime. A recommendation on organised crime is also being prepared. This will contain a number of fundamental principles intended to guide countries’ crime policy (this should among other things alleviate the effects of certain states’ failure to ratify relevant instruments).
Anti-Corruption Initiative, or SPAI, and Initiative against Organised Crime, or SPOC.