Progress in Combating Human Trafficking
October 2007
As part of its ongoing efforts to disseminate innovative products, EQUAL
Portugal promoted the CAIM Project's products at its Monitoring
Committee Meeting, held in June in Lisbon. Among the Project's products was the
new Training Toolkit for the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking Women
for Sexual Exploitation. The Toolkit was designed to address the need for
training models in this area in the Portuguese context, and was oriented by
EQUAL's guiding principles: Innovation, Usefulness, Equality, Accessibility,
Suitability, and Empowerment.
"I am very pleased with the work that has been accomplished, which has led
to the first plan designed to combat human trafficking. The Project made a
vital contribution to making the plan an integral part of domestic policy",
said Jorge Lacão, Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of
Ministers during the presentation of the Project that was behind the drafting of
the First National Plan against People Trafficking[1].
Ana Vale, manager of the EQUAL CI in Portugal, also expressed her
satisfaction with the mainstreaming of what was clearly an innovative product
that addressed real needs felt by public and private sector organisations in
their dealings with the issue.
"Measures containing specific social components relating to victim support
need to be put in place. We endeavoured to ensure that the plan would be in
coherence with the existing legal instruments that would be supporting it, and
proceeded to adapt the Penal Code. It is important that action is taken and
that there is recognition of the fact that human trafficking is a criminal
phenomenon that requires transnational level responses", Jorge Lacão
emphasised.
The Training Toolkit seeks to address concrete problems
The Toolkit was developed after a prior exhaustive diagnosis process that
revealed there was a need not only for a model for the reception, support and
integration of trafficking victims, but also the training of those working, or
who might be able to work, with trafficking victims.
The Training Toolkit for the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking Women
for Sexual Exploitation was designed by the CAIM (Cooperation, Action,
Research, World Vision) Project's Development Partnership, comprising the
Commission for Equality and Women's Rights (CIDM), Ministry of the Interior,
Ministry of Justice, High Commission for Immigration and Ethnic Minorities (ACIME),
International Organisation for Migration, and the Family Planning Association (APF),
and co-financed by the EQUAL Community Initiative.
Intended for use as a training tool and a means of reinforcing training
initiatives for the different agents working in the area, this pedagogical
resource consists of the following materials:
- Product's general characterisation, background, and instructions on how it
should be used;
- Overview of trafficking women for sexual exploitation, linking specific
theoretical issues to corresponding pedagogical activities;
- Set of different pedagogical activities and respective support materials
(including television spots on the issue of trafficking women for sexual
exploitation, developed by the CAIM Project Development Partnership), which may
be adapted to suit different types of training situations;
- Trainer's teaching resources (including glossary, contact network, relevant
legislation for reference, support bibliography, online resources, etc.),
designed to ensure trainers are fully informed and updated on the subject.
In the words of Ministry of the Interior consultant Paulo Machado, the
Toolkit is innovative, "addresses an important deficit, and provides a vast
amount of qualitative and quantitative information". The APF's Jorge Martins
said this was an "exemplary project" that would "greatly
benefit people who had previously had little or no visibility".
Promoting and Developing Skills
One of the Toolkit's key added value features is that it is user-friendly,
functional and accessible, and allows beneficiaries a high degree of autonomy.
It is a flexible product that is adaptable to different training situations and
levels of knowledge. For these reasons it meets the needs of welfare
institutions and criminal police agencies, and furthermore generates and
necessitates interinstitutional cooperation between the different social
stakeholders dealing with the matter in the course of their work.
In this respect, Paulo Machado pointed out how the project adhered to EQUAL's
guiding principles: "It is a highly empowering tool because by using the
Training Toolkit users develop new skills; it strengthens networking among
public and private sector organisations, and helps ensure they are up to date."
Based on a partnership approach, the product is a component of a project
whose overriding objective has been the adoption of a coordinated, shared
responsibility strategy for combating human trafficking and supporting and
protecting the victims of this crime.
Portugal is no exception as far as human trafficking is concerned, and
considering the scarcity of its resources for tackling the problem, the Training
Toolkit will be an important strategic weapon, which will be used in conjunction
with other planned lines of action:
- Reviewing domestic and foreign legislation, and drafting/proposing measures
and policies on protection and help for trafficking victims.
- Broadening the understanding of human trafficking:
- Setting up a system for monitoring the trafficking of women for sexual
exploitation;
- Devising and applying a method for recording all cases of women trafficking;
- Examining and appraising practices involving trafficking women for sexual
exploitation in Portugal, in order to gain an insight into current dynamics and
likely trends;
- Developing communication strategies.
- Devising measures for supporting women trafficking victims, including
assistance with social integration.
- Training of intervention workers, security personnel and services,
intercultural mediators, and women trafficking victims, as well as trainer
training, in order to underpin the multiplier effects of the training.
- Developing national and international cooperation among the different
stakeholder groups.
Paulo Machado referred to another outcome of the project: the creation of an
observatory, within the Permanent Security Observatory, to serve as a knowledge
platform that provides "accurate, updated, and impartial analysis of the
characterisation and evolution of the problem and the associated range of
predominantly social phenomena".
The product will soon be made available in paper and digital form by the CAIM
Project. Dissemination activities, such as workshops, information sessions, and
visits to institutions, targeting potential incorporators, have been planned.
The product will also be downloadable from the websites of the CAIM Project's
Development Partners and others involved in the Dissemination Partnership.
- If you wish to obtain the product or find out more about it,
please contact:
Jorge Martins, APF - Associação para o Planeamento da Família
Projecto Espaço Pessoa Centro de Encontro e Apoio a Prostitutos(as) do Porto
Travessa das Liceiras, 14/16, 4000-323 Porto
Tel/Fax. 222 008 377
apf.caim@gmail.com
www.caim.com.pt /
www.mai.gov.pt
Isabel Varandas, CIDM – Comissão para a Igualdade e para os Direitos das
Mulheres - DRN
Rua Ferreira Borges, 69, 2ºC, 4050-253 Porto
Tel. 222 074 370
Fax. 222 074 398
ivarandas@mail.telepac.pt
[1] Council of Ministers'
Resolution No. 51/2007
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