On Friday 4th December, the Committee of the Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings elected 8 new members of GRETA, the Group of Experts that monitors the implementation of the Convention. LSI observed the elections and the nominations of candidates sending in a recommendation letter supporting several candidates.
LSI is happy with the results; many qualified persons were nominated and the members elected have generally a long record of promoting human rights. The newly elected members are Ms Helga GAYER; Ms Conny RIJKEN; Mr Thomas AHLSTRAND; Mr Georgios VANIKIOTIS; Mr Sergey GHAZINYAN; Mr Peter VAN HAUWERMEIREN; Ms Dorothea WINKLER and Mr Aurelijus GUTAUSKAS.
The mandates of the new 8 members are 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2024. The remaining 7 GRETA members will stay until the end of 2022. The new GRETA composition shows a good balance in gender, geographical representation as well as in expertise and professional backgrounds, with five members now representing civil society.
At the meeting, the Committee adopted recommendations concerning Albania, Croatia and the Republic of Moldova, based on GRETA’s third round evaluation reports and considered the reports of Andorra, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and Switzerland concerning the actual implementation of previous recommendations issued to these countries.