A/HRC/4/23 page 2 Summary This report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council decision 1/102. It covers the period January-December 2006. Section I of the report outlines the Special Rapporteur’s activities, including participation at different conferences, the issuing of press releases and the sending of individual complaints to Governments on cases of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, during the reporting period. Section II is devoted to a thematic study on forced marriages in the context of trafficking in persons. In this section, the Special Rapporteur defines what amounts to a forced marriage and lists different forms of existing forced marriages as reported to her in the different replies to a questionnaire on forced marriages that the Special Rapporteur sent to Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations. The Special Rapporteur examines forced marriage as an act or an element of trafficking in persons, in accordance with article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and describes some of the consequences. The Special Rapporteur further addresses the element of demand as a means to effectively combat trafficking in persons generally and, with reference to certain situations concerning marriage-brokering agencies, in the context of forced marriages specifically. Finally, section III contains the Special Rapporteur’s conclusions and recommendations to States and non-State actors on ways to prevent trafficking in persons through or for the purpose of forced marriages, discourage the demand for such marriages, protect and assist the victims concerned, and establish legal and prosecutorial measures to combat forced marriages in the context of trafficking in persons, especially women and children.