The Committee of the Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (COP) elected eight new members on November 29. La Strada International followed the elections and had previously supported nine candidates. The elected GRETA members are: Conny Rijken (Netherlands), David Mancini (Italy), Ulrike Haberl-Schwarz (Austria), Peter van Hauwermeiren (Belgium), Dorothea Czarnecki (Germany), Lynn Chircop Faure (Malta), Georgios Vanikiotis (Greece), and (Sweden). Four of them were re-elected for a second term.
La Strada International monitored the nomination process at the national level and participated as an (online) observer during the elections. They supported 4 out of the 8 elected candidates.
This year, it was more challenging for La Strada members to obtain information about the national selection and nomination processes for candidates. In some countries, they noted a lack of transparency in the process.
“The elections themselves lasted several hours due to technical issues, which led to the voting being repeated after four rounds to ensure everything was conducted fairly. During the elections, COP members were repeatedly urged to consider the need for balance in terms of gender and professional backgrounds – which may have influenced the voting, as in the end, 4 women and 4 men were elected. However, as with previous elections, no one addressed the fact that even after 15 years of GRETA’s work, a significant number of countries still have not had their candidates elected to this body,” La Strada stated.
It was also noted that, based on years of observing lobbying efforts, in addition to expertise, geographical and professional backgrounds of GRETA candidates, many other political interests play a significant role, including vote trading among countries.
Details on the election process and results can be found at the provided link.