Effective National Referral Mechanisms to protect and promote the rights of victims and survivors of trafficking, especially children

The topic of this year’s 22nd High-Level Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference, which will take place from 4 to 6 April 2022 in Vienna/online, will focus on protection and assistance. In this respect, the side event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Righs (ODIHR) will focus on:

• Key components and new features of ODIHR’s updated National Referral Mechanisms (NRM) Handbook;
• The NRM for children and the specific guidance for dealing with child victims of trafficking; and
• The overall importance to establish and strengthen NRMs with a human rights-based, gender-sensitive, trauma-informed, survivor and victim-centered and child-appropriate approach.

Agenda and participants

The updated NRM Handbook will be presented by Tatiana Kotlyarenko, ODIHR Adviser on Anti-Trafficking Issues, and Rachel Witkin, lead project consultant and Head of Counter-Trafficking, Helen Bamber Foundation.

Reflections on the NRM Handbook with a particular focus on the NRM for children will be presented by:

• Jerome Elam, Member of the International Survivors of Trafficking Advisory Council (ISTAC)
• Maia Rusakova, Child Exploitation and Trafficking Expert and Executive Director of Stellit
• Pierre Cazenave, Anti-Trafficking Specialist, ICMPD (TBC)
• Dorothea Czarnecki, Child Protection Expert and former Deputy Executive Director, ECPAT (TBC)

With welcome remarks by Kateryna Ryabiko, First Deputy Director, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

Moderators: Tatiana Kotlyarenko, ODIHR Adviser on Anti-Trafficking Issues.

Registration

Those interested can register here.

Background

An NRM is a co-operative, national framework through which governments fulfil their obligations to protect and promote the human rights of victims of trafficking, and co-ordinate their efforts in a strategic partnership with civil society organizations, survivor leaders and the private sector. The first edition of the NRM Handbook was published by ODIHR in 2004, and since then NRMs have been established and become operational in many OSCE participating States and outside of the OSCE region.

The updated NRM Handbook provides a framework which all OSCE participating States can adapt and apply within their own national systems. For the first time, it explains the specific and individual needs and risks of both adults and children who are victims of trafficking, centring all communications and actions on the protection of victims.

ODIHR has been active in preventing and combating trafficking in human beings in the OSCE region since 1999. The Office has developed expertise and a significant role in victim protection, national referral mechanisms and the promotion of rights of trafficked persons and at-risk groups.