Creating a Cycle of Protection

This Guidance aims to encourage States to develop and strengthen comprehensive, child-centred cooperation between anti-trafficking and child protection systems. It focuses on the Member States’ obligations to identify, support, and assist trafficked children during criminal and child protection proceedings, as well as to prevent child trafficking. It builds on the report In Need of Targeted Support, commissioned by CBSS from Child Circle, which focused on whether Barnahus or similar services, could play a role both in enhancing the identification, support and assistance provided to trafficked children and in supporting criminal investigations.

The development of the Guidance was informed by national dialogues in six Baltic Sea region countries, bringing together key stakeholders to identify challenges and opportunities for better cooperation.

The Guidance serves as a support to States in fulfilling their obligations to trafficked children, highlighting relevant international laws, regional resources, and noteworthy practices to inspire further action and cooperation.

This publication was published by the Council of the Baltic Sea States and Child Circle as part of the PROMISE TRM project. It was produced with the financial support of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) 2021-2027 of the European Union. The contents are the sole responsibility of project partnership and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission