Tech tools crucial to improving proactive identification of trafficking victims, say participants at OSCE/ODIHR event in Vienna

Opportunities and benefits technology provides to governmental institutions, law enforcement agencies, corporations and civil society in identifying victims of human trafficking were the focus of discussion at an event on 9 April 2019 during the 19th Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference in Vienna. The panel discussion was organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department.

The panel brought together a multi-disciplinary group with representatives of ODIHR, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights, the Spanish National Police, Western Union, Thorn, a non-profit group working to combat  child trafficking, and a trafficking survivor leader.

“Technology has played a pivotal role in providing easy access to traffickers for the recruitment and exploitation of victims of trafficking. At the same time, today we clearly see that technology can be effectively utilized to identify victims of trafficking and gather evidence to convict traffickers,” said Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, ODIHR Director. “All OSCE participating States should both promote and prioritize the use of technology to combat the trafficking of human beings.”

Speakers and participants highlighted that only a small fraction of the estimated 40 million victims of trafficking in human beings have currently been identified. As technology and globalization increasingly connect the world, traffickers’ ability to recruit and exploit their victims, especially children, has also exponentially increased and moved online. The event featured presentations on promising technologies to address these gaps, ranging from artificial intelligence software and tools for intelligence-led financial investigations to web-based training curricula for targeted audiences.

“The SOAR to Health and Wellness (“Stop, Observe, Ask, Respond”) training equips professionals with skills to identify, treat and provide trauma-informed responses to human trafficking,” said Katherine Chon, Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. “In 2017, we trained 288 participants through SOAR. The following year, we trained 5,078 participants – a seventeen-fold increase, largely attributed to the launch of SOAR Online.”

The SESTA/FOSTA (Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) legislation recently passed in the United States was also highlighted at the event.

Mykola Kuleba, Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights, said: “Investment in technology is essential not only in identifying child trafficking victims, but also in preventing this and other forms of exploitation and abuse of children.”

During the conference, ODIHR launched an online survey for stakeholders from across the OSCE region to provide suggestions on improving and strengthening the OSCE participating States’ capacities in combating all forms of trafficking in human beings through a comprehensive human rights-based, gender-sensitive and survivor-centered approach.