UNODC: Bridging the Gap
Bridging the Gap: GLO.ACT Women’s Network Advances Disability-Inclusion in Anti-Trafficking Responses
Vienna, Austria. In light of the alarming invisibility of persons with disability in both human trafficking research and anti-trafficking responses, where access to justice is often undermined and the provision of assistance may be unresponsive, the GLO.ACT Women’s Network of Gender Champions took an important first step towards enhancing inclusivity and mainstreaming disability-inclusion in anti-trafficking work.
To raise awareness around how human trafficking affects persons living with disabilities, and how legal and policy frameworks as well as prevention and protection initiatives can be tailored to promote the rights of persons with disabilities, the Network hosted an introductory workshop on “Removing Barriers: Facilitating Disability-Inclusion in Anti-Trafficking Work.”
Jee Aei Lee, UNODC Legal and Policy Officer, provided opening remarks underlining that this workshop seeks to provide tangible take-aways for participants on how they can inform anti-trafficking interventions in their respective institutions, with a clear view for disability-inclusion.
In a first segment, Katharina Thon, Programme and Capacity Building Officer at the Office of the Special Representative/Co-Ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), presented the OSCE’s recent publication Invisible Victims: the nexus between disabilities and trafficking in persons. Stressing that “disability must be elevated from being a footnote to forming a central element of all anti-trafficking efforts,” she explained the four different ways in which disability manifests in human trafficking: as a vulnerability factor, a feature of exploitation, a result of trafficking and/or a barrier to access services.
Ms. Thon further drew attention to a worrying trend in criminal justice systems that suggests removing the means element, thereby considering victims of trafficking with disabilities as children, warning that this constitutes fundamental rights violation, denying agency and autonomy.
In a second segment, Marine Uldry, Human Rights Policy Coordinator at the European Disability Forum (EDF), shed light on the invisibility of persons with disabilities in laws and policies addressing human trafficking, focusing especially on the European context. Building on EDF’s Position paper on combatting trafficking in persons with disabilities, Ms. Uldry provided practical insights on the organizations inputs towards amending the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive to include explicit references to disability, underlining that “what is needed now is a strong and ambitious transposition of the Directive, allowing anti-trafficking experts to impactfully mainstream disability.” This served as a valuable example for network members of the power of advocacy and its tangible impact on legislative change.
The event was attended by over 55 network members, representing law enforcement, the judiciary, civil society, and international organizations, and benefited from lively participation with members expressing a keen interest in continuing the conversation on this important issue. In closing, Dr. Ibtisam Aziz, Chair of the GLO.ACT Women’s Network, underscored that the Network is committed to take forward its efforts to continue meaningfully mainstreaming disability-inclusion.
