Analysis of the regulations on child trafficking under current Polish criminal law

Abstract

The postulate proposed in this paper is that State authorities should consider criminal law protection of children as a priority. Protection of a child is also guaranteed by relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. However, an analysis of the binding criminal law regulations, particularly in the scope of children trafficking, shows that the State fails to provide for their adequate protection, despite the fact that pursuant to the Law of 20 May 2010, article 189a providing for penalisation of human trafficking has been recently added to the Criminal Code (Journal of Laws No. 98, item 626) replacing former article 253. Pursuant to the same Law, a statutory definition of human trafficking has also been introduced. A question asked in the paper is to what extent these amendments to the Criminal Code contribute to the antitrafficking protection of children. It is proposed de lege ferenda that a statutory definition of a child should be formulated and adopted. This would eliminate the current interpretation difficulties. A recommendation to introduce another type of qualified offence under article 189a of the Criminal Code is also made with a view to toughen the criminal liability of perpetrators who commit the offence of child trafficking. The authoresses believe that these changes will ensure a much higher level of child protection.