The General Assembly of the European NGO Platform for Combating Human Trafficking – LA STRADA International was held this year in Helsinki from 20 to June 22, 2022. The meeting brought together representatives of member organizations of the network, of which there are currently 32.
The gathering first discussed the platform’s activities realized until 2022, achieved results of joint advocacy activities in the previous period, and board updates.
On the second day of the meeting (June 21), in the form of workshops, the participants dealt with some of the most current topics in the anti-trafficking sector: Access to the residence on personal grounds; Ensuring access to Non – Punishment for victims of human trafficking; Shrinking space and crisis support to LSI members; NGO involvement identification; Impact of criminalization of the knowingly use of trafficked persons; Labour migration schemes; Towards joint data collection; Hidden at Work; “From Southeast Asia to Europe: Strengthening migrant and trafficked women’s rights to inclusive re/integration.”
Nest follows a seminar entitled “A Spotlight on Access to Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking: the Role of Media and National Supervisory Authorities,” organized by La Strada International and Victim Support Finland. The seminar focuses on methods to improve trafficking victims’ access to justice through complaint mechanisms, highlighting a case study from Finland, where an article on problems in police investigations related to human trafficking led to a broad review process by the Finnish Deputy Chancellor of Justice, resulting in a wide range of measures to improve current practices and internal review mechanisms. The article “The Investigation is Closed” by journalist Paavo Teittinen recently won the European Press Prize for investigative journalism.
The last day of the annual assembly (June 22) served as a time for reflection on the previous two days, and the adoption of the action plan for the period 2022-2025, as well as the conclusions from the workshops. During the assembly, in one of the additional sessions, all members of the network introduced the others present with their new projects, initiatives and examples of good practice.