19th Alliance against Trafficking in Persons

With 4.2 billion people having access to the internet in 2018, information and communications technology (ICT) plays an important role in the field of trafficking in human beings (THB) and is a dominant topic among a broad range of anti-trafficking stakeholders, including governments, NGOs, private sector, academia and international organizations, including the OSCE. As stated in Ministerial Council Decision 7/13, OSCE participating States are “deeply concerned by the significant growth in all forms of THB, both transnational and internal, and reiterating the particular need to take more vigorous measures to address current and emerging THB trends and patterns.” According to the 2013 Addendum to the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, the OSCE participating States recognize the importance of identifying and taking adequate measures to “enhance their capacities in monitoring, investigating and disrupting all forms of trafficking in human beings facilitated by the ICT”, and call on relevant stakeholders from the private sector, including banking, credit card companies, ICT companies and Internet service providers to contribute to these efforts.

Harnessing the power of technology in combating trafficking in human beings

One reason for the increasing attention on technology is that technology can be of significant value to the human trafficking industry: the misuse of technology by traffickers has strong potential to facilitate entry into the THB marketplace, to amplify the size of the THB market, to increase recruitment and exploitation frequency as well as the overall number of victims and customers, and to hide traffickers’ identity in the virtual space. A second reason is that anti-trafficking stakeholders have shown increasing interest in technology due to its potential to combat trafficking. Research conducted by the OSCE Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings has identified numerous promising initiatives to leverage technology in a positive way to address trafficking.

19th Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference

The Alliance against Trafficking in Persons is an informal platform for advocacy and co-operation that includes international and civil society organizations. The Alliance was launched in 2004 to combine and co-ordinate the efforts of all its partners behind the common goal of preventing and combating human trafficking. Acting as a framework to improve synergy, the Alliance also supports the OSCE participating States in establishing a harmonized approach to combat this heinous crime which violates human rights and undermines the rule of law, human security and good migration governance throughout the region.

The 2019 OSCE Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference will focus on two goals: (1) improving understanding of how technology is being misused to facilitate trafficking so that better responses can be built, and (2) exploring how technology can be developed, harmonized and deployed to help combat all forms of trafficking. The Alliance Conference will discuss contemporary approaches and available promising practices and debate how national legal and institutional frameworks could be improved to allow replications of these good practices on a wider scale. It will also examine how technology’s potential can be leveraged in order to support victims to break the vicious cycle of human trafficking.

Fostering a future of collaboration

The 19th Alliance conference will be attended by representatives of the 57 OSCE participating States and 11 Partners for Co-operation, major international organizations and NGOs which are partners in the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons, as well as civil society, media, the private sector and academia. Active participation during the discussion sessions and via Twitter - @osce_cthb, #cthb19 - is highly encouraged.