OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev OSCE/Blanca Tapia OSCE/Alberto Andreani Foreword and Acknowledgements As the OSCE Special Representative for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (THB), I see it as my responsibility to ensure that THB is understood in all its complexity, and to deepen this understanding by demonstrating how it is connected to other human rights violations, including torture and other forms of ill-treatment. In particular, it is my duty to denounce and condemn the practice of torture as a method used by traffickers to subjugate, control and exploit victims of trafficking in all its forms. Most cases presented in this paper are cases of sexual and labour exploitation including domestic servitude, and show the common patterns of interpersonal violence amounting to torture. The victim is detained or kept under the factual power or control of the torturer; the latter uses this unequal power relation in order to achieve a certain purpose, be it obtaining a confession or keeping a person in exploitation. It is important to underline, however, that having control over a person does not necessarily mean that this person is locked up. For example, repetitive abuse gives the perpetrator regular control and makes the victim feel helpless. This research shows indeed very well the extent to which trafficking in human beings is associated with violence and human suffering, such that we can compare it and even consider it to be a form of torture. This association clearly indicates that THB is not only a violation of human rights, is not only a crime, it is also something whose existence is unbearable, against which it is necessary to mobilize moral resources, as in the case of historical slavery. It also suggests, in my view, new criteria to enhance political will against both trafficking and torture, and new means to provide victims with additional protection such as reparation which includes not only compensation but also rehabilitation and satisfaction. This fifth paper in the Occasional Paper Series published by my Office is a very special occasional paper. It is the first of a kind, and I hope not the last one, developed and issued in partnership with other institutions. I am very proud that with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM), and the Helen Bamber Foundation we were able to partner with two institutions of long-standing expertise and excellence on such an important topic: Trafficking in Human Beings Amounting to Torture and other Forms of Ill-treatment. I am convinced that the findings of this Occasional Paper will provide important guidance to state actors, civil society and the international community, to contribute to the improvement of relevant policy and practice, and critically to afford justice to victims of human trafficking. I look forward to continuing to work closely with governments, parliaments, law enforcement, the judiciary, the medical profession, civil society, academics, and international organizations to prevent and combat THB through an approach rooted in the rule of law and human rights. Professor Dr. Manfred Nowak, the former UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment, now the Scientific Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute; and Julia Planitzer, legal researcher at the BIM, authored the legal analysis, which forms part one of this paper. 5