When it comes to tracking how countries prosecute human trafficking, the GRETA Human Trafficking Database has few resources that match its precision and value. Created under the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) from the Council of Europe to access GRETA’s Data William a public resource is a new era of transparency, accountability, and comparative research, supporting legal scholars and practitioners everywhere there are human trafficking laws.
As human trafficking cases continue to mask within national borders and fragmented national court systems, GRETA’s resource works to close that gap through a public resource – a comprehensive searchable archive of domestic case law that includes the highs, lows, justice practices, judicial levels and even the forms of exploitation on the books.
What Is the GRETA Human Trafficking Database?
Launched in 2024, the database — available through the official Council of Europe website at hudoc.greta.coe.int — provides an overview of national court decisions on human trafficking from the 48 states that have ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.
This new initiative is part of GRETA’s monitoring system that assesses how states fulfill their anti-trafficking commitments on a regular basis. The database goes a step further—by publicizing and providing searchable access to domestic legal decisions, it provides lawyers, state actors and researchers with the opportunity to analyze how the Convention is being applied in real courts.
According to the official Council of Europe announcement, the goal is to facilitate knowledge sharing, identify trends in jurisprudence and to further cross-country learning regarding the prosecution of traffickers and protection of victims.
A New Level of Transparency: Inside the GRETA Human Trafficking Database Interface
The GRETA database is hosted on the HUDOC platform, the same digital environment that serves to store the documentation of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Council of Europe.
Upon accessing the site, users will see a clean, research-oriented interface with major collections.
- Country Reports – 7,500+ documents providing GRETA’s national evaluations
- Government Comments – official state responses to GRETA findings
- General Reports – annual or thematic overviews
- Domestic Case-Law – 40 carefully indexed judgments forming the core of the new database
This last category — Domestic Case-Law — is where the real innovation lies. Each case entry contains a View (summary or abstract) and Details, which list essential metadata such as:
- Document type
- Round of GRETA evaluation
- State
- Language
- Keywords
- Publication and adoption dates
- Case type and court level
These organized details enable anyone — whether they are a legal scholar or human rights advocate — to quickly identify how different jurisdictions address specific forms of exploitation (e.g., sexual exploitation, forced labor, forced marriage).
How the Advanced Search Works
The Advanced Search panel in the database, displayed in the screenshots above, is one of the most formidable features. It affords researchers with an extensive array of filters allowing for case targeting with precision.
You can narrow your query by:
- Publication or adoption date (e.g., last 12 months, last 5 years)
- Title or case type
- Court level (trial, appellate, supreme)
- Form of exploitation (sexual, labor, criminality, forced marriage)
- Victim and perpetrator nationality
- Gender and age of the victim
- Recruitment type (external, internal, ICT-facilitated)
- Sentence type, confiscation of assets, or compensation
For example, an investigator may utilize the database to narrow down forced labor cases that involve adult male victims in Eastern European countries — or even to assess sentencing outcomes in different jurisdictions.
This type of filtering not only allows for the assessment of legal outcomes, but also exposes additional social and policy trends — such as how often courts treat victims as trafficked persons or differences in compensation presiding over different jurisdictions.
Examples of Searchable Insights
At the time of writing, the GRETA database includes:
- 22 cases of sexual exploitation
- 10 cases involving forced labor or services
- 4 cases of forced criminality
- 3 cases of forced marriage
- Victims categorized by gender (30 female, 10 male) and age (24 adult, 15 child)
Although the dataset is still growing, these few examples already demonstrate the possibilities for comparative work on how states interpret and apply trafficking laws.
For instance, Slovakian courts may focus on forced labor, while Romanian rulings may focus on sexual exploitation — a difference that arises not only from the local laws but the socio-economic contexts of the trafficking.
This type of cross-jurisdictional visibility was simply not possible without tremendous manual effort.
Why the GRETA Human Trafficking Database Matters
The importance of the GRETA Human Trafficking Database lies in its ability to make domestic justice systems observable. Until recently, anti-trafficking efforts were measured largely by policy adoption and GRETA monitoring rounds. Now, with actual judicial data available, one can ask:
- How many cases lead to convictions?
- Are victims compensated fairly?
- Do courts recognize psychological coercion as a form of exploitation?
- How often are non-nationals prosecuted or protected?
Such questions are central not only for academic research but also for human rights monitoring, legal advocacy, and policy reform.
For instance, by studying sentencing data, one can identify whether punishment is proportional across Europe, or whether systemic biases exist in certain jurisdictions. Policymakers can also use the information to align national practices with GRETA recommendations.
Challenges and Future Outlook
While the GRETA database is a groundbreaking initiative, it also highlights the fragmented nature of national record-keeping. Not all member states maintain easily shareable court databases, and translation remains a challenge — although the GRETA database currently supports English and French, covering over 7,700 total entries.
Additionally, the number of domestic case-law records (currently 40) shows that data collection is ongoing. The Council of Europe has indicated that further uploads will follow as national authorities and GRETA focal points contribute more decisions.
Looking ahead, the platform could evolve into a pan-European jurisprudence hub for trafficking cases — possibly integrating machine learning tools to detect trends and gaps in legal protection.
Practical Tips for Using the GRETA Database
If you want to explore the platform effectively:
- Start with broad filters, such as “sexual exploitation” or “forced labor,” then narrow by country.
- Use Publication Date filters to track recent judgments.
- Combine Victim Gender + Sentence Type filters to analyze justice outcomes by demographics.
- Download or cite directly from the database — each case has a permanent HUDOC link.
- Cross-reference with GRETA Country Reports to understand the broader legal context of each case.
These methods turn the GRETA platform from a static archive into a dynamic research tool.
Conclusion
The GRETA Human Trafficking Database represents an important advancement in recording the judicial response to one of the most difficult crimes of our era.
Through compiling and standardizing domestic case law, it connects national practice to international obligations — a tool that can promote accountability and transparency as well as spark changes.
For scholars, journalists, and policymakers, it is greater than an archive, it is a living account of how societies confront exploitation, change their laws, and participate in the idea of justice in the TWENTY-FIRST century.
For a deeper look into international and legal data sources, explore our full collection of expert-reviewed resources in the Legal Databases section.
