Maria Grazia Giammarinaro

The OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro has transformed their efforts.

Maria Grazia Giammarinaro has served as the OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings since January, 2010. Her efforts, dedication, and leadership have propelled OSCE’s policies forward, and improved their anti-trafficking efforts. In 2011, she visited 16 countries and met with government officials, members of parliament, law enforcement, judiciary, and civil society in order to discuss human trafficking. In focusing on domestic servitude and forced labor, she has actively promoted research on codes of conduct in the private sector, and their effects on the supply of slave-made goods. She continues to promote these codes of conduct for European companies.

The OSCE held a ministerial conference in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2011. During that conference, they published a Ministerial Declaration about combatting the trafficking of persons, and that was largely facilitated and encouraged by Dr. Giammarinaro. She has devoted some effort to strengthening their partnership with the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons, which is a network and advocacy platfor and includes UN agencies, international organizations, social partners, and international NGOs. She has also been a judge at the Criminal Court of Rome since 1991. She was instrumental in the development of the Italian legislation against trafficking in persons, the 2005 Council of Europe Convention, and the 2011 EU Directive on trafficking. She also coordinated the European Commission Group of Experts on Trafficking in Human Beings.