and, in some cases, is restricted to proceedings for certain offences or certain categories of witness. Doing no further harm The issues of criminalization, restrictions on liberty of trafficked persons and discrimination on various grounds are not necessarily specific to the process of return of trafficked persons. Instead, these are generic issues concerning the need for the adequate treatment of trafficked persons by destination countries. Nevertheless, these issues must be duly addressed in the return process, since treating them separately can lead to further harm being caused to trafficked persons as a result of re-victimization. Since the adoption of the OSCE Ministerial Council Decision of 2000,266 there have been notable developments in the attitudes of OSCE participating States towards the issue of criminalization.267 The OSCE commitments provide that victims of trafficking must not be subject to criminal proceedings solely as a direct result of having been trafficked.268 The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings has explicitly expressed the view that “States have an obligation to keep victims immune from punishment where their crime was caused or directly linked to their having been trafficked, and States have a degree of discretion only regarding how to implement the requirement not to punish, according to their national legal systems.”269 While the UN Trafficking Protocol does not specifically address this issue, the body established to provide recommendations on the protocol’s implementation has suggested that a non-criminalization approach be adopted.270 In the same vein, the UN Global Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons urges governments to ensure that identified victims are not penalized for having been trafficked,271 a standard that is also referenced in the OHCHR Trafficking Principles.272 The Council of Europe requires 266  OSCE Ministerial Council, Decision No. 1, Enhancing the OSCE’s Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, Vienna, 28 November 2000, para. 9, <http://www.osce.org/mc/14105?download=true. 267  Decision No. 8/07 of the OSCE Ministerial Council already discusses the possible provision to not impose penalties on victims for their involvement in unlawful activities, to the extent that they have been compelled to do so (see OSCE Ministerial Council, Decision No. 8/07, para. 10). The same approach was taken at the 2011 Ministerial Council Declaration (see OSCE Ministerial Council Declaration, “On Combating All Forms of Human Trafficking”, Vilnius, 7 December 2011, para. 10, <http://www.osce.org/mc/86373?download=true>). 268  OSCE Action Plan, part III, para. 1.8. 269  OSCE Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Policy and legislative recommendations towards the effective implementation of the non-punishment provision with regard to victims of trafficking (Vienna: OSCE, 2013), para. 14, <http://www.osce.org/secretariat/101002?download=true>. 270  Recommendations adopted by the meeting of the Open-ended Interim Working Group on Trafficking in Persons held in Vienna on 14 and 15 April 2009, annexed to UN General Assembly, Trafficking in women and girls : report of the Secretary-General, 4 August 2008, A/63/215, para. 11. See also UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, 20 May 2002, E/2002/68/Add.1 (hereafter: OHCHR Trafficking Principles), guideline 2, para. 5. 271  UN General Assembly, United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly, 12 August 2010, A/RES/64/293, para. 30. 272  OHCHR Trafficking Principles, principle 7. 76 Part 2: Explanatory Report to the Principles