Declaration
(Strasbourg) “Justice must be done to the victims of trafficking – by making sure they receive compensation, they are protected from being trafficked again and they are given sufficient help to put their lives back together”. Council of Europe Secretary General, Marija Pejčinović Burić, said this to mark the European Anti-trafficking Day. In a statement, she drew attention to the Council of Europe’s Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which is the “first international treaty to require states to make sure that victims are compensated for the damages they have suffered”. Out of the 47 CoE member states, Russia is the only country that has not yet ratified the Convention. The Council’s Group of Experts, which monitors the implementation of the Convention (the so-called GRETA), shows that “it is still very rare for victims of trafficking to obtain compensation from the perpetrators”. Moreover, “whilst most countries have laws in place making it possible to receive compensation from the state, such schemes still do not exist in several countries”. Compensation will be the main focus of the next round of GRETA evaluation reports.
