• 1 All the reports are available http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/TreatyBodyExternal/SessionsList. (...)

1In the period September 2017 - March 2018 the Committee adopted the concluding observations and recommendations in respect of Korea, Moldova, Russia and Columbia.1 The Committee pointed again to the lack of direct implementation of the ICESCR on the national level and payed attention to the problems of informal labour, discrimination, minimum wage, and social security coverage.

• 4 Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017) Freedom of Association and P (...)

5The recommendation in respect of the right to strike is also relevant. The Committee was concerned about the wide legal restrictions on the right to strike by workers of municipal services, civil servants who do not exercise authority in the name of the State and railway workers and urged Russia to amend the relevant legislation, abolishing undue restrictions. This conclusion is in line with the conclusions of other international bodies: ILO and the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR).4

• 5 ECSR. Conclusions 2016. Republic of Moldova.

7In the observation of the CESCR in respect of Moldova there is no mentioning of difficulties in the implementation of the right to strike while the CEACR in 2016 found that the situation in Moldova is not in conformity with the European Social Charter, taken account of the restrictions to the right to strike of the employees of the customs authorities.5

• 6 ECSR. Conclusions 2017. Russian Federation.

8The estimation of the right to social security in Russia by the CESCR is particularly curious. The Committee was concerned only with the coverage of social security schemes which excludes, among others, workers in the informal economy and sex workers. It did not evaluate the substantial part of the social security system, i.e. its ability to guarantee decent standards of living for covered groups of the population. The ECSR the same year concluded that the minimum level of sickness benefits, of industrial accidents and occupational diseases benefits as well as unemployment benefits, is inadequate.6

• 7 HRC. Concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of Colombia. 17 November 2016.
• 8 CEACR. Observation - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015) Forced Labour Convention, 193 (...)
• 9 Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Con (...)

10The lack of CESCR’s attention to certain issues raised by other international bodies can be most vividly illustrated on the example of Columbia. The problem of human trafficking is not mentioned in the concluding observations while concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee urges the State to step up its efforts to prevent and combat trafficking in persons7 as well as CEACR8 and the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families9.

• 10 http://ombudsman.md, http://ombudsmanrf.org (accessed 10.03.2018).

12To conclude the part on CESCR I will refer to the common recommendation of the Committee addressed to all the counties in each concluding observation: the states are urged to disseminate the observations widely at all levels of society, including at the federal, regional and territory levels, particularly among parliamentarians, public officials and judicial authorities. As almost 6 months have passed since the adoption of the observations considered in this paper, I have checked the implementation of the recommendation to disseminate by Moldova and Russia. The search on the Russian language Internet did not disclose any publications on the conclusions of the CESCR regarding Russia and Moldova, and both sites of national ombudsmen are silent on this account.10

• 11 All the reports are available at: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/TreatyBodyExternal/SessionsL (...)
• 12 United States Department of State, 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report, 27 June 2017, available at: (...)
• 13 For example, Congo Direct Request (CEACR) adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018) C105; Co (...)

13During its 121st session the Human Rights Committee (HRC) reviewed the implementation of the ICCPR in Romania, Mauritius, Jordan, Dominican Republic, Congo, Cameroon, Australia and prepared a follow-up report in respect of certain countries.11 The need to combat human trafficking (further HT) and forced labour was one of the main issues considered in almost all of the observations. However, it was surprisingly not mentioned in respect of Cameroon and Kongo, although according to the US research these countries are a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking and a source country for men in forced labour.12 The ILO Committee has recently addressed a number of direct Requests in relation to the violation of the prohibition of forced labour in Congo.13

• 14 Anthony DeStefano, The War on Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed. Rutgers University Press, 20 (...)
• 15 https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-106hr3244enr/pdf/BILLS-106hr3244enr.pdf

14It is noteworthy that Romania, according to the HRC, increased its efforts to prosecute perpetrators of HT. Even though the Committee remained concerned that the State party remains a source, transit and destination country for HT, the progress achieved is evident. It is important to note that Romania rose from tier 3 to tier 2 in the US HT report.14 According to the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)15, governments of countries on tier 3 may be subject to certain sanctions, whereby the U.S. government may withhold or withdraw non humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance and may not receive funding for government employees’ participation in educational and cultural exchange programs. The US approach to the worldwide struggle with the HT is remarkable as it provides an additional incentive to countries, where this problem is particularly spread.

• 16 https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271268.htm

15It is curious to compare the number of cases on HT considered in Romania, which is interested in not being in tier 3, and Russia, whose referral to tier 3 does not change already existent “landscape” of sanctions, imposed since 2014. Thus, 864 new trafficking cases were opened in 2016 in Romania, while Russia’s federal-level investigative committee reported 14 investigations opened under article 127.1 of the Criminal code prohibiting HT. 16It might seem too simplified, but in my opinion, however, such discrepancy in the statistics demonstrates the lack of the will to take measures to combat HT on the part of the Russian Government and evidence that official condemnation of the state by international bodies is much more efficient when supported by additional measures, as proposed by the US experience.