Today and tomorrow (November 21 and 22, 2022), organized by the Council of Europe, a meeting of experts, specialized lawyers and representatives of specialized organizations for providing legal aid and support to victims of human trafficking is taking place in Strasbourg. In these two days, the professionals present will be introduced to the findings of GRETA from the third round of evaluation of the Convention, whose focus was on access to justice for victims and the application of effective remedies in court processes related to cases of human trafficking; the new case law of the European Court of Human Rights regarding human trafficking; cases that reached the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, etc. All this will be followed by work in groups on the following topics: the role of lawyers in the identification of victims of human trafficking, the principle of impunity for victims of human trafficking, and highlighting claims for compensation for victims.
During the second day of the meeting, in the session “National strategic litigation: presentation of cases from different countries”, the attendees will be introduced to the most significant cases of good practice in terms of protecting victims in the justice system. On that occasion, ASTRA director Marija Anđelković will speak about the revolutionary decision of the Constitutional Court from March 2021, when the Supreme Court accepted the appeal of ASTRA’s client, who was a minor at the time of the crime, and ruled that the competent state authorities – the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade and the High Court in Belgrade did not fulfill their positive obligations in the procedural aspect concerning the prohibition of all forms of human trafficking, and therefore did not conduct an effective and fair procedure, which would have resulted in the passing of a relevant court verdict.
You can find more about this decision of the Constitutional Court HERE!