A/HRC/44/45/Add.1 2. Domestic legal framework 12. Trafficking in persons is criminalized under article 444 of the Criminal Code. Article 444 was amended in 2017 to include the “conclusion of unlawful marriage” and “slavery or acts similar to slavery” to the forms of exploitation in the definition of trafficking. The crime of unlawful marriage covers forced marriage and child marriage. 13. Key provisions in the article include the following: (1) Anyone who by force or threat, deceit or keeping in delusion, by abuse of authority, trust, relationship of dependency or the vulnerability of another person, or by withholding identification documents, or by giving or receiving money or other benefit, for the purpose of obtaining the consent of a person having control over another person, recruits, transports, transfers, hands over, sells, buys, mediates in sale, hides or keeps another person for exploitation of work, submission to servitude, commission of crimes, slavery or acts similar to slavery, prostitution or other form of sexual exploitation, begging, pornographic use, entering into unlawful marriage, removal of a body part for transplantation, or use in armed conflicts, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of 1 to 10 years. … (3) If the offence referred to in paragraph 1 is committed against a minor or by a public official in the performance of his/her official duties or with the intent of endangering the life of one or more persons, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment of at least three years. … (9) The consent of the victim against whom the offence from paragraph 1 to 3 of this section has been committed does not vitiate that criminal offence. 14. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the definition of the concept of consent in article 444 differs from the one contained in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and can be misleading. The Protocol explicitly states that consent is irrelevant, where any of the illicit means set forth in the definition are used. The difference in the definition of consent could potentially lead to the criminalization of a broad range of activities, including those related to prostitution and sex work that would not be criminalized under the definition contained in the Protocol. 15. Regarding the amendment to the Criminal Code concerning the inclusion of unlawful marriage, concerns were raised during the visit that the term was not consistently applied so as to cover cases of child marriage, which particularly affects Roma girls. Officials who were interviewed acknowledged that, in practice, it was difficult to uncover cases of unlawful marriage. Police do not always consider it as a criminal offence, but instead as part of traditional customs. In addition, national legislation allows children to enter into marriage from 16 years of age. That is not consistent with international standards, under which 18 years of age is the minimum marriage age. 1 Both the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child raised the issue and included specific recommendations in their concluding observations on the periodic reports of Montenegro, in 2018 and 2017 respectively, with a view to compelling Montenegro to raise the minimum marriage age to 18 years (CEDAW/C/MNE/CO/2, para. 21; and CRC/C/MNE/CO/2-3, para. 20). 16. Article 210 of the Criminal Code, concerning incitement to prostitution, is also applied in cases of trafficking for sexual exploitation. Experts have reported that authorities have investigated and prosecuted possible sex trafficking cases under that offense. In previous years, prosecutors in local courts stopped some investigations when they secured 1 4 Article 16 (2) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and article 16 of Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2019) on harmful practices.