A/HRC/15/27 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 11/3 on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to organize a “two-day seminar aimed at identifying opportunities and challenges in the development of rights-based responses to trafficking in persons with a view to acknowledging emerging good practices and further promoting the practical application of the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking”(para. 9). 2. The seminar was organized in coordination with the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. In accordance with the resolution, it brought together “Governments … relevant special procedures, treaty bodies, United Nations specialized agencies and programmes, regional, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions, academics, medical experts and representatives of victims” (para. 9). The seminar considered both challenges and opportunities in implementing a human rights approach to trafficking, with a particular focus on how the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking have and can be used to structure and facilitate such an approach. 3. The seminar was announced on the OHCHR web site. On 28 April 2010 a note verbale was sent to all permanent missions. 4. In addition to experts invited by the Office of the High Commissioner (see the list of experts in annex II), representatives from 59 States Members of the United Nations took part: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chad, China, Colombia, Congo, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Germany, Haiti, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Israel, Japan, Jordan, Lesotho, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Viet Nam; a representative from the Holy See also attended. A number of Member States also brought national experts on countering trafficking to address the seminar. Members of the Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) Contact Group on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, convened and coordinated by OHCHR since 2000, also took part in the seminar, including representatives of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Council of Europe, Coalition against Trafficking in Women, ECPAT International, International Federation Terre des Hommes, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 5. In its resolution 11/3, the Human Rights Council also requested OHCHR to: “disseminate the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, and to collect the views of the stakeholders, including Governments, observers of the United Nations, relevant United Nations bodies, specialized agencies and programmes, regional bodies, non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions, on the Recommended Principles and Guidelines, as well as on experiences and emerging good practices while applying them, and to make available to the Council a compilation of these views as an addendum to the above-mentioned report” (para. 10). A 3