This comprehensive Commentary provides the first fully up-to-date analysis and interpretation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. It offers a concise yet thorough article-by-article guide to the Convention’s anti-trafficking standards and corresponding human rights obligations.

Opposite pages bear duplicate numbering.

This book explores the external dimension of the ambitious EU policy on human trafficking. Through this policy the EU institutions and Member States promote the eradication of human trafficking and support, to that end, cooperation with their partners, being third States or international organisations. Analysing the unilateral and multilateral mechanisms the EU uses to achieve these aims, the book questions whether the EU's external response to human trafficking addresses it in all its dimensions, and whether it does so in a coherent way. As a case study, the book explores the cooperation of the EU with countries of the Western Balkans, which constitutes a specific unilateral mechanism. The analysis of the multilateral mechanisms covers the cooperation of the EU with key international and regional organisations combating human trafficking, including but not limited to the Council of Europe or the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The book also examines the impact of the evolution of migration flows and the increasing reliance of military tools on the EU's response to human trafficking.

The Convention entered into force in respect of the United Kingdom on 1 April 2009. The Convention was previously published as Miscellaneous no. 7 (2008), Cm. 7465 (ISBN 9780101746526)

Trafficking in human beings has become a major problem in Europe. Each year, an increasing number of people, the majority of them women and children, fall victim to trafficking for the purposes of sexual or other exploitation, both within and over borders. This phenomenon has hit unprecedented levels, to the extent that it can be considered as a new form of slavery. One of the primary concerns of the Council of Europe is to safeguard and to protect human rights - trafficking in human beings directly undermines the values on which the Council of Europe is based. While other international instruments already exist in this field, the Council of Europe Convention, the first European treaty in this field, is a comprehensive treaty focussing mainly on the protection of victims of trafficking and the safeguard of their rights. It also aims to prevent trafficking and to prosecute traffickers. In addition, the Convention provides for the setting up of an effective and independent monitoring mechanism capable of controlling the implementation of the obligations contained in the Convention. The Convention entered into force on 1 February 2008 (though it has been signed but not yet ratified by the UK).

This Convention aims to prevent trafficking in human beings, protect victims of trafficking and prosecute traffickers. Its comprehensive scope of application encompasses all forms of trafficking (whether national or transnational, linked or not to organised crime) and covers all victims of trafficking (women, men and children) as well as all forms of exploitation. With an emphasis on the human rights of victims of trafficking, the Convention contains measures to ensure the proper identification of victims, their assistance and protection as well as their compensation. It also contains measures to ensure the effective investigation and prosecution of traffickers. In addition, it sets out measures to promote international co-operation and partnerships with civil society. Finally, it provides for a mechanism to monitor compliance with the obligations it contains.

"This book seeks to determine to what extent the European Union's efforts to promote its approach to combating trafficking in human beings at the external level contribute to their adoption and implementation outside its borders. It is divided in three parts. The first part aims to identify the legal context in which the European Union conducts its externalisation efforts. In the second part, the work done by other actors who are also involved in promoting anti-trafficking activities in the Western Balkans region is analysed, as it also participates to the development of counter-trafficking measures and promote cooperation. The third and final part aims to assess the impact on national legislation and policies of the joint efforts of the European Union and its partners to promote a comprehensive approach to combating trafficking in human beings"--