A/HRC/4/31 page 11 international level, GPAT provides assistance to agencies, institutions and Governments in order to design effective measures against trafficking in human beings and cooperated closely with other intergovernmental and NGOs in the implementation of the activities. 37. Among the organizations working on the issue of trafficking of organs are Interpol and Europol. But due to lack of information on their activities, it is difficult for the Special Rapporteur to express his views as to what the two entities are currently undertaking. Finally, it is also worth mentioning the following legal standards developed by the World Medical Association (WMA) on the subject: the Statement on Live Organ Donation and Transplantation (revised in October 2006); the Resolution on the non-commercialization of human reproductive material (May 2003); the Statement on Fetal Tissue Transplantation (2006); and the Statement on In-Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transplantation (2006). 2. Regional standards 38. On the regional level, the Council of Europe has greatly contributed through the elaboration of legal standards and publication of reports. A number of conventions and recommendations have been adopted by the Committee of Ministers, more specifically the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005), the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (1997), the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, on Transplantation of Organs and Tissues of Human Origin.5 There were also recommendations relating to the issue: Recommendation No. 94 on human tissue banks, Recommendation No. 97 on liver transplantation from living related donors, and Recommendation No. 5 on the management or organ transplant waiting lists and waiting times. 39. The Rapporteur of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold has also worked on the question of trafficking of organs. In June 2003, she submitted a report entitled “Trafficking in organs in Europe”,6 which raised important ethical questions on the subject. As a result, the Assembly called on the Council of Europe to develop a European strategy for combating trafficking in organs and recommended a number of concrete measures to be taken in the “donor” and the “demand” countries. According to the Rapporteur, most countries in Europe still have legislative loopholes in the domain of criminal responsibility in organ trafficking and it is rarely specified in details in national criminal codes. The Rapporteur also visited several countries of Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Moldova. She mainly expressed her deep concern on the issue of the disappearance of newborn children in this area. Only three legal inquiries have been launched (in December 2002) and they have produced no concrete results to date. To date, no further updates on the investigations have been produced or made public by the Rapporteur. 40. Recommendation 1611, adopted in 2003, invited States to strengthen their existing mechanisms of cooperation with the Committee on the Organization Aspects of Cooperation in Organ Transplantation and step up funding for assistance activities in this area. It also recommended the adoption and application of the recommendations in the World Medical Association. As for the “demand” countries, it invited, among others, to take appropriate measures to encourage individuals to indicate, by means of statements of “consent”, their