ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on anti-trafficking policies by presenting a case study of the ways in which grass-roots organizations and NGOs play a role within specific local contexts where anti-trafficking law is applied. It reviews the international and national contexts of trafficking law and of the principle of victim protection within the law. The principle of "victim protection" was established in Italy through Article 18 of Italian immigration law, which grants a residence permit for "reasons of social protection" to foreign individuals who are administratively defined as victims of trafficking. Italy took an active role in this debate, and it was in fact under pressure of Italian delegation that, during the works of an ad hoc group for the drafting of the United Nations (UN) Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and of additional Protocol against Trafficking, the slavery offence was included among crimes involved in trafficking, and protection and assistance of victims was proposed as part of strategies to combat trafficking.