At its fourth session, held in Vienna from 8 to 17 October 2008, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime adopted decision 4/4. In that decision, the Conference decided to establish an open-ended interim working group to advise and assist the Conference in the implementation of its mandate with regard to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. It also decided that the working group should perform the following functions:

1. Make recommendations to the Conference on how States parties can better implement the provisions of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol;
2. Assist the Conference in providing guidance to its secretariat on its activities relating to the implementation of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol;
3. Make recommendations to the Conference on how it can better coordinate with the various international bodies combating trafficking in persons with respect to implementing, supporting and promoting the Trafficking in Persons Protocol.

The Conference further decided that the working group should meet during the fifth session of the Conference and should hold at least one intersessional meeting before that session.

The first intersessional meeting of the working group was held in Vienna, Austria, from 14 to 15 April 2009.

Issues proposed for discussion in the provisional agenda include:

• Analysis of key concepts of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol (i.a. art 14.2 of the Protocol)
• Good practices and tools in discouraging the demand for exploitative service.
• Non-punishment and non-prosecution of victims of trafficking: Administrative/Judicial approaches to offences committed in the process of trafficking.
• Good practices and tools for case management, including front line law enforcement authorities in responding to trafficking in persons.