Joint Statement by the Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of South-East Europe
On the occasion of the 15 th EU Anti-Trafficking Day on 18 October 2021, WE, the Anti-Trafficking
Coordinators of South-East Europe (SEE), members of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of
SEE, within the framework of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU 2021:
RECALLING the commitments made by the Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of SEE, as stated in the Joint
Declarations on enhancing Transnational Referral Mechanisms (TRM) and Strengthening Cooperation in
Cases of Human Trafficking (2012) and on strengthening regional cooperation in SEE to combat
trafficking in human beings (2018);
WELCOMING the adoption of the EU Strategy on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings 2021-2025, as
well as the review of the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive;
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the Recommendations adopted by the Group of Experts on Action against
Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Council of
Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings;
RECOGNISING that persistent challenges continue to affect our region and Europe as a whole, 20 years
after the adoption of the Palermo Protocol;
BUILDING on the conclusions of the 20 th Conference of the OSCE Alliance against Trafficking in Persons
entitled “Ending Impunity. Delivering Justice through Prosecuting Trafficking in Human Beings”;
ACKNOWLEDGING the worldwide large discrepancy between the high number of estimated victims and
the consistently low number of identified victims on the one hand, and the very low rate of prosecutions
and convictions on the other;
1. REITERATE the strategic priorities for 2020-2024 set forth in the Strategy Paper of the Network of
Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of SEE, adopted on 4 March 2020, particularly that of countering the
culture of impunity by striving to make investigations and prosecutions more effective through
capacity building, information exchange, law enforcement, and judicial cooperation;
2. DECLARE that the current state of impunity for the crime of trafficking in human beings is
unacceptable;
3. ENCOURAGE the development of a robust criminal justice response to conduct effective
investigations, increase prosecution rates, achieve a higher number of convictions and apply
appropriate sentences;
4. INVITE the European Union and its Member States to enhance information sharing in the field of
criminal intelligence and to facilitate cross-border and international operational and judicial
cooperation with non-EU countries in the SEE region, as provided for in the EU Strategy on
Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings 2021-2025,
5. UNDERTAKE TO, in a spirit of common resolve:
– Publicise and disseminate the informative action messages developed under the initiative of the
Government of Slovenia by the Secretariat of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of
SEE to address the issue of impunity in the context of the crime of trafficking in human beings;
– Step up our efforts to ensure a continued and robust political mobilization to address impunity
for the crime of trafficking in human beings and the allocation of adequate resources to enable
an efficiently functioning criminal justice response;
– Continue to invest resources towards enhanced regional cooperation in the fight against
trafficking in human beings, within the SEE region but also with the European Union and its
Member States;
– Promote a culture of continuous professional development in order to reach the highest
professional standards among law enforcement actors and the judiciary;
6. THANK the Republic of Slovenia for integrating the topic of combating trafficking in human beings
into its EU presidency programme, and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development
for its support as the Secretariat of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of SEE.
