This past week, eLiberare has had the opportunity to be present at the ‘Not For Sale’ event in Vienna, hosted by the OSCE and the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with Swiss cooperation.
The event hosted world class leaders, diplomats, and civil society members, and fortified the dialog on how to join forces in order to eradicate modern day slavery. As a Romanian NGO focused on prevention and awareness, the conference was a great encouragement because it confirmed to us that we are working on the right things!
Just a few highlights from the conference: One of the major changes in Human Trafficking trends this past year has been the increased use of internet and social media in recruiting and exploiting people. Several speakers stressed the importance of retaliation through the same means. Since our major projects are based on the use of social media, we definitely found new motivation for uncovering creative solutions and continuing to push for a strong online presence among the age group normally targeted by traffickers, as well as the general public.
Another call to action was directed towards including at-risk populations, that most organizations avoid. At the end of March, eLiberare will be piloting a curriculum for institutionalized children, most of them coming from Roma communities. The call to equality and social inclusion was a theme of all the panels, so we are excited to see how we can be catalysts for that with the new project that we are starting.
From the category ‘Food for (your) Thought’: some of the panelists highlighted that there are people in the world who choose to enter exploiting circumstances because they have no alternatives. It became more clear than ever that we cannot fight modern day slavery if we do not address its main causes: poverty, social inequality, poor migration legal systems, and disastrous circumstances caused by either natural, or man-made causes.
Legal systems provide that victims need to be present in court and testify, but a Serbian judge asked a great question: if an investigation had surveillance, good financial traces, and the laws to get compensation for victims from either traffickers or the state, then why is there a need for retraumatization through court testimony?
We are extremely excited for what this year has in store for us! We had some great networking opportunities, so once we solidify those, we will have more updates for you!