A/75/169
Report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons,
especially women and children, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro
Summary
In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution
35/5, the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children,
Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, further develops her findings and recommendations
made in her report to the Human Rights Council at its forty-fourth session
(A/HRC/44/45). She calls for alternative approaches in the implementation of the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women
and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime, shifting from a law enforcement approach to an approach that is
centred on human rights and victims, whether through a rights-oriented interpretation
of existing provisions of the Protocol together with the jurisprudence of regional
human rights courts and soft law instruments or, potentially, through a new
international instrument. She develops an interpretation of due diligence obligations
of States in relation to, for example, the implementation of the rights of trafficked
persons to effective remedies and the non-punishment principle. She also reflects on
the negative impact of restrictive migration policies on the protection of trafficked and
exploited persons and on the negative implications of the current model of victim
identification, which is shaped from a criminal proceedings perspective, is made
conditional on the collaboration of victims with the law enforcement authorities in
many countries and is not focused on the vulnerability of trafficked persons based on
personal circumstances. Consequently, she proposes a new methodology to ensure the
provision of early support to trafficked persons and those vulnerable to trafficking and
exploitation. The Special Rapporteur also takes the discussion on businesses’ due
diligence obligations further, analysing how Governments and businesses should
comply with their own obligations to eradicate trafficking and exploitation, especially
from supply chains, through a combination of binding legislation and voluntary
initiatives. Her recommendations offer a guide to States in adopting a genuinely human
rights-based approach, placing at its centre the protection of the rights of victims and
potential victims. The recommendations are also intended to move the anti -trafficking
agenda from the criminal paradigm into a more comprehensive approach, tackling the
systemic nature of exploitation and treating trafficking and exploitation as a social
justice issue.
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20-09659