The Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) welcomes the recently published report of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) that concerns the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by Cyprus. GRETA is the monitoring mechanism to supervise the implementation of states’ obligations under the Convention that has been signed and ratified by Cyprus and entered into force on 1 February 2008.
It is clear from the report that there are still serious gaps in Cyprus in relation to prevention, protection of victims of trafficking, as well as prosecution of traffickers. Furthermore, according to the report, there are a number of discrepancies in basic legal provisions. GRETA strongly recommends that the Cyprus authorities conduct a thorough assessment of the effectiveness of the Cyprus Trafficking Law citing its limited application in practice and the failure to secure a single conviction for trafficking.
The report stresses that the Cypriot authorities have not yet undertaken any measures to discourage demand for the services of trafficked persons, which is critical in combating trafficking, and recommends that such measures be adopted in relation to the most common forms of trafficking in Cyprus. They also stress the importance of proactive investigation of potential cases of trafficking in sectors such as entertainment, tourism, agriculture and domestic work, and recommend the close monitoring of the application of the new visa regimes for performing artists.
In relation to the protection of victims, GRETA expresses its concerns for the protection of victims and specifically for the need to protect victims’ private life and safety during criminal proceedings. It also considers that the stay of victims in Cyprus should be facilitated so that they can testify and exercise their rights to compensation and redress.
Among the most important findings of the report is that the legal definition of “victim” in the Cyprus legislation is not in line with the definition in the Convention, which may result in negative implications for the identification of victims and their access to assistance and protection measures.
Above all, GRETA emphasizes that the human rights based and victim-centered approach that underpins the Convention is not fully reflected and applied in the Cypriot system to combat trafficking in persons, and calls on the Cyprus Government to take immediate measures to ensure this approach is put into practice.
Despite these findings, with surprise the Institute observes that the Office of the Attorney General, in its comments to the final report, seems to have a negative attitude towards the suggestions of GRETA dismissing the comments of the Expert Group arguing that the legal framework of Cyprus is complete and satisfactory. Thus, the Office of the Attorney General ignores our obligations to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Persons.
The Institute calls on the Cyprus Government and the Office of the Attorney General to comply with the recommendations of GRETA regarding the gaps in the Convention’s implementation, and harmonize our legal framework based on its legally binding provisions.
Finally some sort of justice! The accusations against the head of Greece’s Statistical Agency (ELSTAT), Andreas Georgiou, who apparently helped former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou purposely inflate Greece's 2009 budget figures to be more than that of Ireland's are now going to be fully investigated, a report in the Financial Times said today.
The investigation is going to focus on former International Monetary Fund official, and now director of ELSTAT, Andreas Georgiou's actions. The ELSTAT director has already appeared informally before a junior financial prosecutor investigating accusations by a fellow statistician, including Mr.s Georgantas, that he “betrayed the country’s interests” by inflating the 2009 budget deficit figures.
Georgiou iis now expected to attend a formal hearing next month conducted by Grigoris Peponis, the senior prosecutor for financial crime, who was appointed this year after the Troika pressured the Greek government to crack down harder on tax evasion and economic crime.
A second case, filed by the Athens lawyers’ union, also demands a criminal investigation on the grounds that the fake deficit numbers damaged Greece’s credibility, national sovereignty and violated the constitution.
If you go on google and type in the word "Vatopedi" thousands of articles will pop up claiming that this was one of the biggest and most controversial scandals to ever break out in Greece. Vatopedi, was indeed a scandal, not because there were any criminal acts tied to it, but because the people behind this affair used it to bring down the former government of Costas Karamanlis. All those who were shown to be culprits have been cleared of any wrongdoings today, but nonetheless their political careers have been tarnished. No kickbacks to political leaders were ever found and neither was any money laundering, but people continue to term it as a scandal. So what did remain...? What unfortunately remained was a soiled view of the previous Karamanlis Cabinet, even from some of its very own supporters.With this in mind, SKAI channel last night debuted a new series entitled "Vatopedi - The whole Story".
Last night's episode cut right to the chase, it said that the Vatopedi issue was surfaced in August 2008 when the ruling conservative party of Costas Karamanlis decided to persecute D. Kontominas (the owner of ALPHA Television), for criminal acts in other foreign countries. The justice system got involved and after a careful review passed judgement that there were no criminal acts noted in the Vatopedi issue. Nonetheless, the "dark side" of the ruling socialist empire took over, and the issue was once again brought to center stage a few weeks later with so many falsifications that it would take a massive load of lawsuits to ever clear the garbage that was being broadcasted to the public by both domestic and foreign mass media giants.
Why? Aside from Kontominas, a peculiar power game against Theodore Roussopoulos who was the acting government spokesman began being played after former premier Costas Karamanlis returned from Bucharest in 2008 where he vetoed FYROM's accession to NATO.
Roussopoulos was suddenly shown as one of the leading offenders in the Vatopedi issue and from the evidence presented by reporters (especially three particular names on ALPHA Channel) he became the "spark" that then ignited the beginning of the end of the Karamanlis government in 2009 by George Papandreou's PASOK party.
Today we know there was much political intrigue and
other dark purposes that were behind the so called Vatopedi issue as we also know that it was totally exploited by the ruling socialists at the time, for obvious reasons, because George Papandreou's popularity could never challenge that of Karamanlis.
This is probably why it took so long to investigate this case because it
was very smartly set up. Till this day not one criminal
act, on a political level has been found, not one penny has been found to be laundered but people still talk about
this affair as if it was a scandal. When you ask Greek citizens where the bribes, they will answer in some Swiss account, or that the two major political parties decided to cover it up. Which of course is not true.
The topic is still too controversial that is why we decided to first review the series ourselves and after doing so, we have decided to post it. We are very happy to say that although it does not do Karamanlis justice (because it does not go into the political intrigue in the way we had expected (at least it has not done so yet) it nonetheless explores the real reasons behind this case, which we once again note was used by PASOK to bring down the government of Karamanlis in 2009.
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