Furthermore, States in co-operation with civil society shall consider to provide for the physical,
psychological and social recovery of victims or trafficking in persons. This shall include:
• Appropriate housing;
• Counselling and information, especially concerning legal rights, in a language that the victim can
understand;
• Medical, psychological and material assistance; and
• Employment, education and training opportunities.
This subparagraph recognises that victims of trafficking in persons have some basic needs. The
paragraph also outlines multi-agency co-operation as a model for providing victim assistance. In many
instances non-governmental organizations are better equipped to deal with victims in a sensitive way
than authorities, be it in sheltering them, giving legal and psychological counselling and training. It is
necessary for States to co-operate with civil society in providing victim assistance.
This paragraph does not give any legal obligations to State Parties although the Convention itself
does contain a provision on mandatory, general assistance to victims. During the negotiations for the
Protocol participants could not agree on mandatory assistance. It was mainly some of the countries of
destination that opposed this obligation referring to its financial implications. As a consequence, the
types of assistance as set forth in this subparagraph shall be applicable only to persons who are in a
State Party’s territory. Thus the measures of assistance are applicable to the receiving state only until
the victim has returned to his or her state of origin. Ideally, in implementing the Protocol, all involved
States should have an obligation to take care of the victims, also those that have been repatriated.
Wealthier countries should preferably provide assistance for poorer countries in fulfilling the demand of
providing services for victims.
States shall especially take into account the age, gender and special needs of victims of trafficking
in persons, notably the needs of children. The measures taken should be both gender and child
sensitive in terms of housing, education and care. This provision shows that States recognise that
trafficking in persons has specially harmful effects on women and children.