IMPLEMENTING JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN, A CHALLENGE FOR VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN NORTH MACEDONIA – GAPS BETWEEN LAW AND PRACTICE

Abstract

Child trafficking in North Macedonia represents one of the most serious, darkest and most 
undetected forms of crime, with profound and long term consequences for victims, while 
simultaneously testing the functioning of justice and child protection mechanisms. This 
phenomenon presents at least three related dimensions: serious violations of children's rights, gaps 
in early identification and inter-institutional coordination, and testing the capacity of investigative 
and prosecution bodies. Globally, it has been reported that over 40 million people live in forms of 
modern slavery and trafficking, while about one in four victims is a child, which underlines the 
massive and systematic dimension of child exploitation (Rafferty 2020). The risk of trafficking 
affects every child regardless of nationality, gender or age but increases significantly when 
protective aspects such as family and social are broken due to poverty, economy, family problems, 
discrimination based on gender, identity, disability, as well as as a result of conflicts, illegal 
migration or breakdown of the legal order (Gutierrez et al 2021). Forms of modern slavery 
including psychological control, isolation, forced debt and violence prevent seeking help and 
remove the victim from recognition, support and research, while prejudices about the “appearance” 
or behaviour of the victim can lead to non-identification by competent authorities (Identification 
and Initial Care 2014). As for North Macedonia, in the normative aspect, it has taken important 
steps to be as close as possible to harmonizing its legislation with international standards, by 
including principles such as proactive identification of victims, the principle of their non
punishment, child-friendly procedures, the obligation to avoid re-victimization and the provision 
of legal remedies. But what is important in all this is the emergence of gaps in terms of 
implementation: potential victims are identified late, not identified at all or misidentified as 
offenders, interviews are not conducted in a specialized environment, while criminal proceedings 
are usually proceeded towards lighter offenses (e.g. exploitation for prostitution or aiding illegal 
migration), with symbolic or not at all proportionate sentences. This shows that the main challenge 
lies not only in the text of the norm, but in the way it is implemented in practice and in the real 
capacities of institutions to ensure child-sensitive justice.