The Committee of Experts on Trafficking in Human Organs, Tissues and Cells (PC-TO) met three times and drafted the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs (CETS n°216). The Convention entered into force on 1^st  of March 2018.

History: As demonstrated in the joint Council of Europe/United Nations Study on trafficking in organs, tissues and cells and trafficking in human beings for the purpose of the removal of organs from 2009, the trafficking in human organs, tissues and cells is a problem of global proportions that violates basic human rights and constitutes a direct threat to individual and public health.

Under the authority of the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) and taking into account the Council of Europe Convention of Human Rights and Biomedicine and its Additional Protocol concerning Transplantation of Organs and Tissues of Human Origin, the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, the WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation, the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism, the joint Council of Europe/United Nations Study “Trafficking in organs, tissues and cells and trafficking in human beings for the purpose of the removal of organs” and the additional opinion of the Steering Committee on Bioethics (CDBI), the European Committee of Crime Problems (CDPC) and the European Committee on Transplantation of Organs (CD-P-TO) prepared by experts of the three steering committees, the PC-TO shall prepare i) a draft criminal law convention against trafficking in human organs and, if appropriate, ii) a draft additional protocol to the aforesaid draft criminal law convention against trafficking in human tissues and cells (terms of reference).