Report of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings

The Experts Group

This group was commisioned to transform the recommendations of the Brussels Declaration into practice. The group worked together for one year with the objective to create clear proposals for the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Brussels Declaration. The Expert Group consisted of 20 independent experts coming from different countries and from different professional backgrounds who were appointed on personal title by the European Commission.

The Report 

This report formulates proposals on how to implement the recommendations of the Brussels Declaration. On December 22^nd 2004 the report was officially submitted to Vice-President Frattini, EU Commissioner for Justice, Security and Liberty.

The aim of the report is to propose options for tackling trafficking in human beings within the EU. It also lists possibilities for new initiatives, programs and activities. When the experts group developed this report, it did not only consider solely the Brussels Declaration but also benefited from the examination of other sources

The structure of the report follows that of the Brussels Declaration with its three main focuses on prevention, victim assistance and protection. It tries to redress the balance between a criminalistic approach and the protection of trafficked persons. Therefore it strongly recommends a human rights based approach. A trafficked person is seen as a subjects of rights. Furthermore the report underlines the importance of an integrated and multidisciplinary approach towards combating trafficking in human beings. The report contains 132 recommendations. These are backed up by explanatory papers.

The report is available in English and in Czech. A summary of the report is also available in German.

To read the whole report of the experts group please download the pdf-document. Simply click on the Download icon.