Secretariat - Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings

The Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings assists participating States in their anti-trafficking effort by providing support at four levels:

• policy-making;
• field work;
• technical expertise, and;
• co-ordination of international actors.

The Office of the Special Representative works with governments, motivating them to intensify action to curb human trafficking and assisting them with policy-making information. The mandate of the Office of the Special Representative includes assistance with setting up national strategies for efficient internal and international co-operation. At the same time, the Special Representative continues to raise awareness of the complexity of the problem and suggest comprehensive approaches to solving complex problems.

The Office of the Special Representative is committed to addressing all forms of trafficking as identified in the UN Trafficking Protocol, and to looking for cross-cutting and comprehensive solutions that engage all dimensions of the OSCE.

Linking policy to practice in 2006

The Office, under the auspices of the Alliance Against Trafficking in Persons, and in co-operation with the Austrian EU Presidency and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), organized a high-level conference in Vienna in March 2006 which focused on ways of investigating child trafficking by law enforcement and promoted the implementation of the Addendum to the OSCE Action Plan on the Special Needs of Child Victims of Trafficking. Furthermore, the Office contributed to the development of the Resource Book for Law Enforcement Officers on Good Practices in Combating Child Trafficking, elaborated within the framework of the EU AGIS project of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior, entitled "Comprehensive Training for Law Enforcement Authorities Responsible for Trafficking Children/Minors", implemented by the IOM.

The multi-dimensional approach of the OSCE is one of its great strengths in combating an issue as complex as trafficking in human beings. The Office therefore works closely with the OSCE's Strategic Police Matters Unit and the Office of the Co-ordinator for Environmental and Economic Affairs (OCEEA). In 2006, the Office contributed to the "Handbook on Establishing Effective Labor Migration Policies in Countries of Origin and Destination," developed by the OCEEA.

To raise awareness of all forms of trafficking across the OSCE Region, the Office convened, under the auspices of the Alliance Against Trafficking in Persons, its Second Conference on Trafficking for Labour Exploitation and Forced and Bonded Labour in November 2006. This conference, building on the recommendations of the 2005 conference, focused on the legal aspects of this form of trafficking and convened prosecutors, investigators, judges, law enforcement and policy makers for two days of focused, practical and action-driven discussion.

In 2006, the Office launched a series of publications, "Occasional Papers on Trafficking in Human Beings in the OSCE Region".  The first in the series, "A Summary of Challenges Facing Legal Responses to Human Trafficking for Labour Exploitation in the OSCE Region," was initially prepared as a background paper for the November conference described above.