OSCE promotes instruments to address current challenges and emerging trends in the identification and referral of trafficking victims

GENEVA, Switzerland, 25 November 2016 – Aiming to develop more effective responses to address trafficking on a national level, NGOs, think tanks, private businesses, leading international organizations and academics gathered in Geneva this week for consultations organized by the Office of the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, and supported by the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).

On 23 and 24 November, 23 NGOs from 22 participating States and representatives of Geneva-based UN agencies worked together to identify and highlight challenges related to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), a framework within which state actors, in co-operation with civil society, fulfil their obligations to protect and promote the human rights of all trafficked persons.

 “Addressing trafficking as a human rights violation implies a state obligation to put in place protective measures for persons at risks, as well as potential, presumed and actual victims,” said OSCE Special Representative Madina Jarbussynova. “Ten years on from the introduction of the NRM concept, the effectiveness of such measures greatly depends on how well these mechanisms can adapt to emerging challenges and needs.”

Besides its prominent human rights protection principle, the NRM aims to ensure the identification, support and empowerment of victims of human trafficking through a comprehensive, multiagency and multidisciplinary approach. However, the experience of implementing the NRM across the OSCE region has revealed a number of gaps in relevant protection-specific legal frameworks. The identification of trafficking victims among migrants and refugees, along with asylum seekers and the protection of unaccompanied minors, remain problematic areas.

The OSCE is assisting and encouraging participating States to further develop their NRMs by creating ownership and accountability among agencies involved in the protection and assistance to trafficked persons and people at risk, while taking into account current challenges and emerging trends.

A high-level meeting organized by DCAF seeking new ways of tackling human trafficking for forced labour along migration routes follows on from this event in Geneva today.