by Emma Makey, Project Assistant

I’m really excited to be a part of Parliamentarians against Human Trafficking – a new two-year project headed by ECPAT UK, in partnership with the Human Trafficking Foundation and the Asociatia Children’s High Level Group.

The project aims to establish a network of parliamentarians across the European Union, developing contacts between parliamentarians in different EU Parliaments.

As well as this, we will establish and develop links between parliamentarians and other parties interested in combating human trafficking: from NGOs, law enforcement agencies or the business community.

By facilitating contacts, we hope that parliamentarians will have more information relating to human trafficking at their fingertips – and consequently, will be better prepared to debate the issue in their national parliaments.

So how are we going to do this?  The centrepiece of the project is a series of pan-European events for parliamentarians aiming to develop subject knowledge and links.

From Lisbon in the West of Europe to Bucharest in the East, we will hold themed seminars, good practice exchanges and conferences in eight European countries. The first event will be a seminar held in Berlin in late November.

Another important aspect of the project is the production of briefing papers for parliamentarians to use in debates. This will be both subject-themed and country-themed. We will also produce progress reports.

Aside from the support of the project partners, we will also draw upon the expertise of our associate partners: the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; British Chambers of Commerce in Europe (COBCOE); the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings in the Netherlands; and the Wilberforce Institute for the Emancipation of Slavery (WISE).

The Parliamentarians against Human Trafficking project was made possible by funding from the European Commission (Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme), together with the Tudor Trust.

You can keep up to date on the project by visiting our website: www.humantraffickingfoundation.org/europe-project.

For more information, please contact the project team:
Stana Buchowska – s.buchowska@ecpat.org.uk
Emma Makey – e.makey@ecpat.org.uk