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Part Two. Article 8 385Notes by the Secretariat1. At the fourth session of the Ad Hoc Committee, the Special Rapporteur on violenceagainst women, its causes and consequences submitted a position paper in which itwas suggested that article 6 should provide for financial and other support to non-governmentalorganizations providing repatriation and reintegration services to trafficked persons(see A/AC.254/CRP.13).2. At the fourth session of the Ad Hoc Committee, the United Nations HighCommissioner for Human Rights submitted an informal note in which it was argued thatsafe and, as far as possible, voluntary return must be at the core of any credible protectionstrategy for trafficked persons (see A/AC.254/16, para. 20; see also in the same contextthe note submitted during the eighth session of the Ad Hoc Committee by the Officeof the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund and theInternational Organization for Migration (A/AC.254/27 and Corr.1, para. 8)).3. At the informal consultations held during the fifth session of the Ad HocCommittee, a restructured version of the draft protocol was submitted by Belgium, Polandand the United States (A/AC.254/5/Add.13). At the sixth session of the Ad Hoc Committee,it was agreed that the restructured version should be used as the basis for further discussion.In that version, former article 11, entitled “Verification of documents” was insertedas new paragraph 3 of the present article, where it seemed to fit better. In addition, as themajority of delegations had suggested, the title of the article was changed from “Returnof victims of trafficking in persons” to “Repatriation of victims of trafficking in persons”.4. The version of article 6 contained in document A/AC.254/4/Add.3/Rev.3 remainedunchanged in the intermediate draft of the protocol (A/AC.254/4/Add.3/Rev.4).Rolling text (A/AC.254/4/Add.3/Rev.5)Seventh session: 17-28 January 2000“Article 6“Repatriation of victims of trafficking in persons“1. Each State Party agrees to facilitate and accept, without delay, 11 the returnof a victim of trafficking in persons who is a national of that State Party or who hadthe right of abode 12 in the territory of that State Party at the time of entry into thereceiving State. 13“2. At the request of a State Party that is the receiving State, each State Partyshall, without [undue or unreasonable] delay, verify whether a person who is avictim of such trafficking is a national of the requested State.11At the informal consultations held during the seventh session of the Ad Hoc Committee, some delegations suggestedadding the words “once all the legal proceedings are concluded” after the word “delay”. One delegation suggested replacingthe words “without delay” with the words “within a reasonable time”.12As indicated above, at the fourth session of the Ad Hoc Committee, some delegations stated that there was a needto clarify the term “right of abode”. For example, it was not clear whether it included right to transit or temporary residence.In that context, Mexico suggested replacing the word “had” with the word “has”. At the informal consultations heldduring the seventh session of the Ad Hoc Committee, a similar discussion took place. Many delegations expressed the viewthat the right of abode should be based on the victim’s past right, which was easier to establish than the right any suchvictim might have on the date of return.13At the informal consultations held during the seventh session of the Ad Hoc Committee, one delegation suggestedadding the following sentence at the end of this paragraph: “States Parties agree to facilitate the passage of such personsthrough their territories.”