State responsibility for human trafficking – perspectives from Malta

Purpose - This paper aims to establish the existence and enforceability of State responsibility for human trafficking, making special reference to children and Malta. Given that trafficking has been described by the European Court of Human Rights as a form of modern slavery, the paper's hypothesis is that the State has a responsibility to ensure that all possible steps are taken to combat the practice and to protect possible victims. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is divided into three parts: the first part makes a concise review of the international criteria applied in response to human trafficking, the second part examines the pertaining situation relating to human trafficking in Malta and the final part makes an analysis of the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights inRantsevv.Cyprus and Russia. Findings - The paper demonstrates that the affirmation of State responsibility to combat human trafficking is enforceable, with reference to the Rantsev judgement which clearly attributes a positive obligation on States under Article 4. It also highlights the difficulty in tracing judgments related to human trafficking as evidenced by the review of the Maltese position, although this appears to be an issue common to a number of States which indiscriminately put together all cases for trafficking (drug trafficking and human trafficking). Originality/value - The paper only uses first‐hand sources and Maltese judgements are supplemented with original research into cases as reported in the press. The third part of the work analyses the recent judgement of the European Court of Human Rights inRantsevv.Cyprus and Russia(2010), speculating as to its impact on all member states of the Council of Europe, including Malta.