Kazakhstan Girl

Trafficking in girls was a problem. (see Section 5, Trafficking). ...

Education is mandatory through age 16, or the 9th grade. Primary and secondary education was both free and universal. The law provides for equal access to education by both boys and girls. ...

It was reported that in July 2003, a district deputy procurator and two other men brutally beat a 14-year-old girl at a cafe in the southern part of the country. The case was ongoing at the year's end; however, according to the victim's parents, the district deputy procurator exerted pressure on witnesses in the case, discouraging them from testifying. ... [Read More]

Kazakhstan

On October 29, Duvanov was arrested and charged several days later with the rape of an underage girl. His supporters argued that the charge was fabricated, while others demanded justice for the young alleged victim. International organizations and human rights groups were critical of the charge, noting a pattern of harassment of Duvanov during the year, and pressed the Government to conduct an impartial and transparent investigation. Court proceedings began on December 24, but were postponed until the 2003 to give Duvanov's lawyers opportunity to review the investigative materials. ... [Read More]

Kazakhstan

There are no official statistics on trafficking, but women's rights groups and the IOM report additional indications that the problem is serious and growing. However, experts estimate that from 5,000 to 70,000 women have been victimized in the past 10 years. The higher figure was the result of a survey of Almaty women completed in April, the Crisis Center for Women and Children. In 1999, 25 women were repatriated from greece, 21 from the United Arab Emirates, 16 from Turkey and 3 from Israel, according to the MVD. In December the press reported that 2,000 women were sent to South Korea for prostitution; 2 had been repatriated. All of the trafficking cases known to the IOM involve women between the ages of 18 and 25 who had been trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation. According to the Kazakhstan Crisis Center for Women and Children, most women are recruited with promises of good jobs or marriage abroad. The organization blames the rising number of women being trafficked from the ... [Read More]

US Department Of State Post Report

Most social activities for children are school-centered and include informal parties, after-school activities, and organized field trips. There are active Boy and Girl Scout Programs covering all scout age groups.  There are also two informal play groups for younger children organized by the Almaty Women's Club and the Diplomat's Club. ...

National Games. In 2001, the Discovery Channel filmed a special segment on central Asian sports that are both exotic and different from popular Western sports.  Of the many games played on horseback, Kyz Kuu, "overtake the girl," is a courting game in which young men chase a young woman for the pleasure of a kiss. Audaryspak, "wrestling on horseback," involves hand-to-hand combat in which the first man dislodged from his mount loses.  Kokpar, "headless goat tearing," involves two teams fighting over the carcass of a decapitated goat. ... [Read More]

Remarks at the Rollout of the 2004 Trafficking in Persons Annual Report

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, good afternoon, everyone. I'm very pleased to be here with Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky and Ambassador John Miller1, who heads our trafficking program, and our purpose is to roll out this year's Trafficking in Persons report.The crimes of trafficking in persons are very high on President Bush's priority list, as you all know, and that's why he emphasized it in his UN General Assembly speech this past September. As the President said then, "There is a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable. The trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time." [Read More]

Powell, Releasing Report, Cites Progress on Trafficking - US Department of State

We're talking about women and girls, as young as six years old, trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; men trafficked into forced labor; children trafficked as child soldiers. The victims are not few, and the vast majority are women and children. We estimate between 600- and 800,000 cases each year of people illegally transported across international frontiers. ...

Numbers so large can be numbing. They can freeze our imaginations. So consider just one documented example from many, many thousands of cases. Traffickers in southeast Asia took Khan, an 11-year-old girl living in the hills of Laos, to an embroidery factory in a large city. She and dozens of other children were made to work 14 hours a day for food and clothing, but for no wages. That's called slavery. When Khan protested this, she was beaten. When she protested again, she was stuffed into a closet where the factory owner's son poured industrial chemicals over her and disfigured her. ... [Read More]

Country Narratives -- Countries H through P

Nepal is a source country of women and girls trafficked primarily to India for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and debt bondage. Nepali women traveling to the Middle East in search of work have been put into situations of coerced labor and other slave-like conditions. Internal trafficking also takes place in Nepal. Women are trafficked from rural areas to cities for commercial sexual exploitation and children are placed into debt bondage or other exploitative child labor by their impoverished parents. An ongoing Maoist insurgency has used violence to wrest control of remote areas from the government; many trafficking victims originate from those areas. The insurgents have forcibly conscripted girls and boys. ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries H through P

Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for women and girls trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Women and girls are trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, and Europe for sexual exploitation. Boys from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are trafficked through Iran to Gulf states, where they are ultimately forced to work as camel jockeys, beggars, or laborers. Afghan women and girls are trafficked to Iran for sexual exploitation, and for sexual and labor exploitation in the context of forced marriage. Internal trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation and children for forced labor also takes place. The internal trafficking of women and children is fueled by an increasing number of vulnerable groups, such as runaway women, street children, and drug addicts. The U.S. Department of State’s lack of access to Iran prohibits the colle ... [Read More]

Europe and Eurasia

In May, U.S. funding through IOM helped create the Special Division for Combating Kidnapping, Trafficking in Persons and Racketeering under the Combating Organized Crime Department of the Ministry of Interior. The Division has dedicated five officers solely to the investigation of TIP cases. Since the establishment of this division, fourteen cases of human trafficking have been investigated and criminal proceeding instituted, as compared with none in previous years (when trafficking was prosecuted under different crimes). This funding is also linked to the successful prosecution in September of Tajikistan's first TIP trial, involving a woman who adopted a girl solely for the purpose of trafficking her to the UAE and Turkey for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The girl escaped, and the woman was charged with exploitation for prostitution, trafficking in under-aged people, organization of rape, pandering, and document fraud and sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment and property confis ... [Read More]