To mark the 30th anniversary of its creation, the Committee against Modern Slavery (Comité Contre l'Esclavage Moderne, CCEM) organised a colloquium entitled “30 years of fighting to make the invisible visible" in Paris on 15 November 2024. Key speakers included Petya Nestorova, Executive Secretary of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, Cyril Cosmes, Director of the International Labour Organisation Office in Paris, Magali Lafourcade, Secretary General of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits de l'Homme, CNCDH), and Roxana Maracineanu, Secretary General of the Interministerial task-force on combatting violence against women and human trafficking (Mission Interministérielle en charge de la lutte contre la traite, MIPROF).
"The statistics included in the country reports of the Council of Europe Group of Experts (GRETA) indicate that trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation has been on the rise and has emerged as the predominant form of exploitation in many countries. Combating this form of trafficking requires co-ordinated action between states, civil society, trade unions and the private sector," said Petya Nestorova at the opening.
The Council of Europe has established comprehensive standards to help states combat human trafficking, and its Committee of Ministers adopted, in September 2022, a recommendation specifically on trafficking for labour exploitation. It draws on GRETA's monitoring work, its Compendium of good practices and its Guidance Note on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation, as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Civil society organisations such as CCEM play an essential role in combating human trafficking through awareness raising, detecting victims, providing them with assistance, and supporting them through the criminal justice process. They also contribute to the monitoring of the implementation of the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention, by providing valuable information to GRETA.
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