A/HRC/4/31 page 13 India and South Africa during 1997-1998.8 Their findings revealed different points and among them, that there existed strong and persistent race, class, and gender inequalities and injustices in the acquisition, harvesting and distribution of organs, persistent and flagrant human rights violations of cadavers in public morgues, with organs and tissues removed without any consent for international sale and a spread and persistence of narratives of terror concerning the theft and disappearance of bodies and body parts globally. 45. Further studies were conducted by Professor Scheper-Hughes also a member of the Bellagio Task Force. In 2000, she put forward a paper entitled “The global traffic in human organs”. Moreover, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) submitted a report9 in order to improve the flow of information related to the removal of organs, specifically to kidneys. The study concluded that effective regulation would require a system of free long-term health care for kidney-sellers. According to the report, in human and organ trafficking, the root causes are poverty and discrimination. Its recommendations for the Governments are to promote the ratification of relevant international instruments and to elaborate alternative measures such as increasing the supply of cadaver donations. The report suggests that NGOs undertake needs assessments in the area so as to provide specialized services to the victims of organ trafficking. The donor organizations’ contribution should be for example, to support research for campaigning purposes in order to encourage effective legislative action. B. National strategies: responses from Governments 1. Reported cases: replies of Governments and NGOs 46. The questionnaire asked Governments to identify cases relating to the sale of organs involving adults and children, if there had been cases of abduction/disappearing of children where the victim was later found with a missing organ and if there had been reports relating to the existence of religious/magic rituals which could lead to the removal of organs. Based on the information received, few Member States have encountered cases of sale or trafficking of organs. Some of them have nevertheless been reported. 47. Germany indicated that there had only been reports relating to attempted trafficking of organs. In 2002, the Munich Regional Court found an individual guilty of attempted trafficking of organs from Eastern Europe. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Shortly after that, the Hombert/Efze local court held the view that offering one’s own kidney for sale on the Internet was considered an illegal trafficking attempt. Moreover, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) is currently investigating different cases. The Mannheim public prosecutor’s office is looking into a case of a Chinese student who offered to act as a middleman in finding donors from an alleged Chinese public hospital. The Hanover public prosecutor’s office is also investigating a company based in Prague advertising access to donated kidneys without a waiting list. But in all the cases investigated in Germany, there has been no proof of illegal removal or transplantation of organs or human tissue, nor has there been any specific case related to the trafficking of children’s organs. 48. Finland reported a case of sale and/or trafficking of organs in which a minor was involved. Its National Bureau of Investigation is aware of a particular case in which intelligence reports suggest that, in 2004, a young Russian girl was transported through