Updating the EU Anti-Trafficking Legal Framework: A Study of the Role and Value of the 2011 EU Directive on Trafficking in Human Beings

Updating the EU Anti-Trafficking Legal Framework:
A Study of the Role and Value of the 2011 EU Directive
on Trafficking in Human Beings

Metaxia Kouskouna

Assistant Professor in EU Law, Law School, NKUA

Tenia Kyriazi

Senior Lecturer in Law, Middlesex University Dubai

This paper examines the scope of the 2011/36/EU Directive on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, within the context of EU law, and evaluates its contribution in addressing trafficking in human beings with the adoption of a human rights-based approach. The relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the recommendations of European anti-trafficking experts’ bodies are used as a benchmark for assessing the added value of the Directive from a human rights law perspective.