CONFERENCE ON TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS

NARATIVE REPORT

This is a report from the Conference on Trafficking in Human Beings, organized by the Informal Youth Group "Freedom has no price" in cooperation with the Local Network for Combating Human Trafficking from Novi Sad. The conference was supported by Novi Sad Youth Capital of Europe 2019 – OPENS, Novi Sad Humanitarian Center, Evangelical Students' Association (IFES Serbia), Christien Unie and European Christian Political Movement (ECPM).

In Serbia, as a country that qualifies as a country of origin, transit and destination when it comes to trafficking in human beings, children, women and men, it is traded for sexual and labor exploitation, coercion to commit crimes, forced begging and forced marriages. Although among the identified victims most of our citizens are still one of the biggest prejudices that this is not happening in our country.

Objective of the Conference:

The aim of the Conference was to raise awareness of trafficking in human beings and to acquire new knowledge and skills in the trade of people from distinguished lecturers and experts who are daily facing this problem.

The conference was held on December 14, 2017 in the hall of the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Banovinski prolaz bb, Novi Sad).

Guests / lecturers of the conference were:

• Mitar Đurašković - Head of the Office for Coordination of Activities in Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Department of the police
• Djordje Dogandzić - Center for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings
• Jelica Bojanić-Kerkez - First Deputy President of the Appellate Court in Novi Sad
• Katarina Ivanovic - NGO ASTRA
• Čila Stojanović - Novi Sad Humanitarian Center
• Nada Padejski-Šekerović - Center for Social Work Novi Sad and Local Network for Combating Trafficking in Persons
• Vesna Ćerimović and Natalija Ignac - Roma Association Novi Bečej
• Nataša Igić - Novi Sad Youth Capital of Europe 2019 - OPENS

Moderator:

Dobrila Markovic - Informal Youth Group "Freedom has no price"

Total participants at the conference: 80 participants (students, professionals, employees and associates of NGO and institutions member of the Local Network for the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings, etc.).

Agenda and course of the conference:

At the beginning of the Conference, representatives of the Informal Youth Group "Freedom has no price", IFES Serbia, OPENS and Local Network for Combating Trafficking in Persons welcomed all the attendees and emphasized the importance of organizing this conference, especially since the Conference was held in the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, which gives great significance to the whole event.

On the first panel of the conference, the topic of trafficking in human beings was discussed in the Republic of Serbia, the legal framework and the state's response to the problem of trafficking in human beings ".

The main panel of the conference discussed the trafficking in human beings in the Republic of Serbia, the legal framework and the state's response to the problem of trafficking in human beings. Mitar Djurašković, from the Office for Coordination of Activities in Combating Trafficking in Human Beings spoke about the legal regulation of trafficking in human beings in the laws of the Republic of Serbia and presented a new Strategy for the fight against human trafficking for Serbia adopted in 2017, after years of lobbying by non-governmental organizations to adopt this Strategy. After that, Djordje Dozganić speaks about the work of the Center for the Protection of Trafficking in Human Beings in Serbia, the needs of victims and the problems that this institution encounters since there is still no state shelter for victims of trafficking in human beings. At the end of the first panel, Jelica Bojanic-Kerkez, the first deputy of the President of the Appellate Court in Novi Sad, spoke about the case in which only one victim of trafficking received compensation in 2014-2017.

After the break for coffee, the agenda of the conference continued.

The second panel discussed the protection of victims of human trafficking in the Republic of Serbia. Katarina Ivanović from the NGO ASTRA presented the work of this organization and emphasized the importance of media campaigns to raise public awareness of this problem and to directly influence the prevention of trafficking in human beings. Special attention was paid to cases of labor exploitation and the situation in Serbia for this type of trafficking in persons, given that in the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of victims of labor exploitation. After her, Čila Stojanović from the Novi Sad Humanitarian Center, also presented the organization from which she came, and then presented the methods of working with victims according to the principle of mobile teams. This organization for over 15 years through the work of mobile teams provides support to vulnerable groups (victims of trafficking, refugees, migrants, etc.). This way of work has proved to be very efficient and presented at the conference as an example of good practice.  Nada Padejski-Šekerović representative of the Center for Social Work Novi Sad and the Local Network for the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings has overtaken the previous two speakers and spoke about the psychological consequences of trafficking in human beings on the victims as well as the specificities of work with these victims from the perspective of psychologists. At the end of the second panel, Vesna Ćerimović and Natalija Ignac from Roma Association Novi Bečej talked about forced marriages as a form of trafficking. Their speech left a noticeable influence on the conference participants. They talked about the phenomenon of forced marriages, the consequences of forced marriages on children, but also about their personal stories and stories of their beneficiaries. Particularly pointed out were the problem of the pressure of members of the Roma community and its leaders, primarily men, with whom their association meets when they speak publicly about this topic.

All the topics covered for the conference were processed in the envisaged scope and within the given calendar. The agenda of the conference is attached to the report. In terms of the number of questions and interest of the participants in the conversation with the lecturers, it can be seen that the topic was very welcoming and that we managed to animate the participants and encourage us to think about this topic.

Media Coverage:

Radio Television of Vojvodina covered the Conference and the news about the conference was transferred to the National News. (Link to news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kU1fVKPSn8&feature=youtu.be).

Social networking announcements were highly visible (the album with photos of the conference had 194 likes and over 1558 people had seen the publication; FB: @SlobodaNemaCenuSNC).

Recommendations/ Follow up:

After discussing with participants and lecturers, as well as with volunteers involved in the organization of each conference, we concluded that the following steps and activities should be directed to:

- training of volunteers, which would contribute to the greater motivation of volunteers to get involved in the work of the Informal Youth Group "Freedom has no price",

- continue training for representatives of NGOs and representatives of city authorities,

- training for young members of political parties in Novi Sad.