The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings is the first international legal instrument to adopt a human rights-based and victim-centred approach to combating human trafficking.
For the third evaluation round of the Convention, launched in 2019, the Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) decided to focus on access to justice and effective remedies for victims of trafficking, which is crucial to the rehabilitation of victims and the restoration of their rights. A number of provisions of the Convention establishing substantive and procedural obligations are relevant to this topic, in particular articles 12, 15, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 32.
The stock-taking of the third evaluation round of the Convention presents a horizontal review of the 35 country evaluation reports adopted by GRETA under this round by the end of 2023. It features an analysis of the articles of the Convention that are addressed under the third evaluation round and identifies promising practices, common challenges and remaining gaps after three rounds of evaluation. GRETA’s recommendations to address the challenges identified are also cited.
