Memoranda of Understanding between key stakholders and law enforcement agencies on counter-trafficking cooperation

In the framework of the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), of which the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is one of the members of the Steering Committee, IOM Vienna implemented an Expert Group Initiative (EGI) on cooperation between law enforcement agencies and stakeholders.

The outcome of this EGI is the development of guiding principles on cooperation between law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders. The guiding principles should support the elaboration of Memoranda of Understanding regarding the protection and assistance to trafficked persons. In order to ensure a multidisciplinary approach, a Working-Level Expert Group was established. It consisted of national and international trafficking in human beings experts from the law enforcement sector, NGOs, Intergovernmental Organizations, research institutions as well as labour inspectorates. The group had the possibility to discuss the text during a 2-day conference and commented on the guiding principles throughout the whole development process.

At the final conference on 30 March 2009, the “Guiding Principles on Memoranda of Understanding between Key Stakeholders and Law Enforcement Agencies” were presented by the author Julia Planitzer.