On 9 November 2018 Julia Planitzer, Senior Researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM), has been elected as new Member of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (“GRETA”), upon nomination by Austria. The mandate will start in January 2019 and will last for four years.

After Helmut Sax, who has been a member of GRETA for 8 years, Julia Planitzer is the second expert of the BIM who was nominated and elected as GRETA member. Julia Planitzer has extensive work experience in international human rights law, with a focus on trafficking in human beings and its links to human rights. She conducted her Ph.D on the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking and cooperated with both public sector and civil society organisations in implementing measures against trafficking in human beings.

Article 36 of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005) establishes GRETA as an independent expert group to monitor the implementation of the Convention in the States Parties. For this purpose GRETA prepares assessment reports, in particular on the basis of country visits, which started in 2010.

For further information on GRETA, please see: www.coe.int/trafficking