Effective response to a complex and multidisciplinarycrime needs a coordinated and multi-sectoral approach.Nevertheless, for a long time, that response wasaddressed through a criminal justice approach mainlyfocused on the prosecution of the alleged crime ratherthan on the protection of trafficked survivors. Throughtime, various alternative approaches, including laborapproach, immigration approach, and social approach,have emerged.In 2003, the UN ‘Common Understanding on the humanrights-based approach to development cooperation’ wasadopted by UN agencies. Hereon, the general structureof the implementation of a human rights-based approachin practice was observed and used as a basis for a versionsensitive towards human trafficking. Perhaps the essenceof the approach is not about having human rights at solelya legal or policy level, but about the practical outcomes ofthis approach on the people it impacts. Some of the aspects