HRC63 - EU Statement - Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons

United Nations Human Rights Council

63^rd session 

Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons

9 September 2026

EU Statement

Mr President,

The European Union would like to thank the Special Rapporteur for the report and presentation today. We welcome the vision it lays out for the joined slavery and trafficking mandate. Your report clearly shows the advantages of this holistic approach of the merged mandate. 

Trafficking in persons and contemporary forms of slavery entail some of the gravest violations of human rights of our time. At the centennial of the Anti-Slavery convention of 1926, with estimates of roughly 50 million people living under conditions considered contemporary forms of slavery, the issue is far from being a ghost of the past. Equally concerning are the hundreds of thousands of people subjected to trafficking at the beginning of this decade alone, that you mention. 

Madam Special Rapporteur, the European Union has taken concrete legislative steps to address this reality and stands ready to work with you in strengthening the implementation of anti-slavery and anti-trafficking frameworks around the globe and close any protection and accountability gaps, and ensuring human rights-based, survivor-centred, gender-responsive and child-sensitive responses. We promote a clear and coherent legal and policy framework.

In June 2024, the EU adopted a revised Anti-Trafficking Directive. For the first time, it makes it mandatory for Member States to criminalise the knowing use of services provided by trafficked persons, and it explicitly includes the exploitation of forced marriage, illegal adoption, and surrogacy. It also responds to the digital dimension of this crime: the use of the internet and smartphones for sexual exploitation shall be seen as an aggravating circumstance, for the purpose of sentencing. Trafficking in persons often happen in secluded spaces, praying on the most hard-to-reach and vulnerable individuals. We know how difficult it is to protect victims and prosecute perpetrators. This revised framework aims to change this.

Beyond criminal law, the EU has moved to close the market for forced labour itself. The Forced Labour Regulation, prohibits products made with forced labour anywhere in the world from entering the EU market — with the possibility that affected workers be compensated before such products can circulate again.

Madam Special Rapporteur, in what areas do you perceive the biggest protection and accountability gaps for persons affected by contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking, and what can member states do to close them?