A/HRC/17/35 in the first place, such as poverty, the lack of economic opportunities and the absence of a comprehensive child protection system, still persisted at the time of repatriation. Therefore, repatriation and reintegration of the children inevitably entailed tackling the root causes of trafficking and strengthening the child protection system, including providing basic education and health services in a sustainable manner. 22. Measures to address the root causes of trafficking, such as gender discrimination and inequality, also play a crucial role in ensuring effective restitution of trafficked women and girls. Where trafficked women and girls have been subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, they may face discrimination, social stigma, communal and family ostracism upon return to their families and communities, thereby resulting in their re-victimization. In these cases, “restitution of identity, family life and citizenship for them may require measures that target their wider communities – including attempts to subvert cultural understandings around the value of women’s purity and sexuality”.13 23. Further, returning a trafficked person to his or her country of origin may not be an appropriate form of remedy where he or she has lost legal, cultural or social ties with the country of origin and it is no longer in his or her best interest to return to it. For instance, it is conceivable that a child who is trafficked to another country and perpetuated in this situation over decades may lose his or her social and cultural identity in the country of origin. In this case, it would be difficult to justify that “restitution” in a traditional sense alone would be an appropriate, victim-centred remedy. Where these factors exist, restitution may involve reintegration of the trafficked person into the host community or resettlement in a third country. Recovery (rehabilitation)14 2. 24. Recovery is a crucial form of reparation for trafficked persons, which includes medical and psychological care, as well as legal and social services. By definition, trafficking often involves physical and sexual violence, physical and emotional coercion, threats and intimidation, which has severe physical and psychological consequences on the victims. The Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking are thus explicit in acknowledging that the right to fair and adequate remedies includes “the means for as full a rehabilitation as possible”.15 25. Article 6, paragraph 3, of the Palermo Protocol requires States to “consider implementing measures to provide for the physical, psychological and social recovery” of trafficked persons and sets out some such measures, including: “(a) Appropriate housing; (b) Counselling and information, in particular as regards their legal rights, in a language that the victims of trafficking in persons can understand; (c) Medical, psychological and material assistance; and (d) Employment, educational and training opportunities”. While according to the legislative guide for the implementation of the Palermo Protocol (“the Legislative Guide”), this provision was not rendered mandatory due to the varying level of socio-economic development or availability of resources in different States,16 it should be read in conjunction with the purposes of the Palermo Protocol, which include “to protect 13 14 15 16 Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (A/HRC/14/22), para. 50. In the present report, the word “recovery” is used in the context of trafficked persons in order to avoid re-victimizing trafficked persons by labelling them as individuals requiring “rehabilitation”. Guideline 9, para. 1. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Legislative Guides for the Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto (New York, 2004), part two, para. 62. 7