The general report 2023 from the GRETA, which covers the period from 1 January to 31 December 2023, provides an overview of its activities. By the end of 2023, GRETA completed the third evaluation round of the Convention in respect of 35 of the 48 States Parties to the Convention and launched a new evaluation round.

The report highlights some of the main conclusions from the stocktaking of the third evaluation round of the Convention, inter alia:

• Access to legal assistance and free legal aid is not available for some categories of victims of human trafficking nor for all relevant proceedings. Further, there is a lack of lawyers who are trained and specialised to represent victims of trafficking.
   
• Obtaining compensation from the perpetrators in the context of criminal or civil proceedings is challenging. Compensation awarded by courts is rarely paid to victims because the perpetrators’ assets have not been identified and frozen at an early stage. Moreover, state compensation schemes are rarely applied in practice to victims of trafficking due to restrictive criteria and lack of free legal aid to claim state compensation.
   
• Several State Parties have implemented legislative changes and/ or issued specific guidelines related to the non-punishment provision. However, gaps in identifying victims of trafficking continue to hamper the application of the non-punishment principle.
   
• The low number of prosecutions and convictions for human trafficking is a concern. A recurring challenge is that human trafficking cases are requalified as other offences which carry lighter penalties and deprive trafficking victims of access to certain rights.

The report refers to the launch of the fourth evaluation round of the Convention by GRETA, with a thematic focus on vulnerabilities to human trafficking and measures taken by States Parties to prevent them, detect and support vulnerable victims, and punish the offenders. This includes a focus on the use of information and communication technology, which brings structural changes to the way offenders operate and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities.

Moreover, the 2023 general report contains a section on preventing and detecting trafficking in human beings amongst persons displaced following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

For further information, please read the report attached above.