POLICY PAPER - The Impact of Criminalising the ‘Knowing Use’ on

One of the major reasons to evaluate the Directive and call for a revision, is the strong push amongst certain policy makers and others to change the recommendation in article 18(4) of the Directive into a binding provision.1 With the aim to curb demand for human trafficking, article 18(4) of the EU Trafficking Directive recommends the criminalisation of the ‘knowing use of services which are the. [...] PAGE: 4 // 16 Policy Paper: The Impact of Criminalising the ‘Knowing Use’ on Human Trafficking | La Strada International In addition to these binding provisions, article 19 of the CoE Convention and article 18(4) of the EU Trafficking Directive include a recommendation to criminalise the use of services which are the objects of exploitation, with the knowledge that the person is a victim of human. [...] PAGE: 9 // 16 Policy Paper: The Impact of Criminalising the ‘Knowing Use’ on Human Trafficking | La Strada International The uncertainty as to whether a prior conviction for human trafficking is required is striking, because one of the claims in favour of introducing the criminalisation of the ‘knowing use’ was that this would allow for the possibility of ‘going after’ the user (client) when prose. [...] These are exactly the types of measures which are laid down as binding obligations in both the EU Trafficking Directive and the CoE Convention,45 while the criminalisation of the ‘knowing use’ is merely a non-binding recommendation.46 One of the interviewees also specifically cited the binding obligation in article 18(1-3) of the Directive to explain the focus should be on awareness raising, educa. [...] The lack of impact of the criminalisation of the ‘knowing use’ on combating trafficking and curbing demand, as well as the apparent presence of negative side effects, should thus be taken into account in the revision of the EU Trafficking Directive.