Workshop for spokespersons, journalists on protecting private life of victims of human trafficking

The goal of this education is to strengthen the capacity of all professionals and improve the process of identification and protection, as well as providing assistance to victims of human trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with European standards and mechanisms.

The keynote speakers were - Jelena Hrnjak, journalist and anti-trafficking activist from the non-governmental organization "Atina" from Serbia and Una Bejtović, public relations consultant from Sarajevo.

On behalf of the CoE, the host and organizer of the meeting, the project leader Elma Zahirović welcomed the participants, pointing out that it is an education provided as part of the project "Prevention and fight against human trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina".

She reminded that, along with a series of educational gatherings organized as part of the mentioned project, a number of campaigns were launched and realized in order to animate the public and raise awareness of the need to provide adequate assistance to victims of human trafficking.

The presenters and participants of the workshop elaborated on various aspects of this sensitive topic, including the forms and consequences of human trafficking and the ways and mechanisms of proactive action to eliminate socially unacceptable behavior towards the victims of this scourge.

The focus was on the protection of minor victims and the rights of children, their identity and private life, as well as on the responsible attitude of individuals and institutions towards these categories, all for the purpose of protecting the human rights of this population and avoiding additional traumatization and stigmatization of victims of human trafficking.

In this context, various aspects of sensitizing professionals and the general public for the precise use of terms and phrases, and avoiding the victimization of victims of human trafficking, which manifests itself in various forms, from recruitment, labor and sexual exploitation to forced marriages, illegal adoption and, quite often, were considered , child abuse, begging...

At the same time, it was underlined that preventive action in terms of the fight against human trafficking, among other things, includes the fight against established stereotypes and prejudices, which are most often to the detriment of the victims themselves.

One of the conclusions of the education is that the phenomenon of human trafficking concerns all of us, and that the role of relevant institutions, i.e. law enforcement agencies and the media, is crucial in terms of breaking prejudices about it - how human trafficking is a problem of the victims themselves and wrong stereotypes that violence is private thing.

It was also established that it is necessary to achieve a proactive relationship between the competent institutions and thus to prevent emerging forms of human trafficking, and to sanction the perpetrators of criminal acts from this spectrum in accordance with the law.

The participants were particularly interested in the testimony of a survivor of human trafficking, who spoke about this phenomenon from their own experience.

Among other things, the participants of the workshop were informed about the contents of the publications - Guidelines for the preparation and adoption of instruments for the protection of private life and personal data of victims of human trafficking at all levels of government in BiH, as well as the Guidelines for the protection of privacy in the media.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a signatory country to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which establishes the obligation of the signatory state to protect the private life, identity and personal data of victims of human trafficking.

The workshop for spokespersons and journalists is one of a series of similar gatherings. The previous ones were organized for members of local anti-trafficking teams, holders of judicial functions, employees of law enforcement agencies, social and health workers, and representatives of the non-governmental sector and other institutions and organizations.

The training was organized as part of the EU project "Prevention and fight against human trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina", which is implemented within the framework of the joint program of the EU and the EU "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022", in cooperation with the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the State Coordinator for the fight against human trafficking in BiH, and in accordance with the Strategy for Combating Human Trafficking in BiH 2020-2023 and the Action Plan of the institutions of BiH for its implementation.

(FENA) L. N.

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