Photo courtesy of the International Human Trafficking Summit
Nov. 17–20 – For three days in November, Christina Comeau, OMM, CD, CPF, Practice Lead, Innovation and Collaboration, volunteered as a lead facilitator for the 2014 International Human Trafficking Summit, “Together Let’s Stop Traffick,” in Ranson, West Virginia. The summit was sponsored by the International Police Training Institute, the FBI National Academy Association, and the American Military University. Participants included law enforcement, government, social services, healthcare, transportation, NGOs, border services, academics and others. This year’s summit focused on the development of a prototype for the world’s first International Resource & Coordination Centre to enable the sharing and management of information to combat human trafficking at the local and international levels.
Human trafficking involves, at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. In 2008, the United Nations estimated nearly 2.5 million people from 127 different countries were being trafficked into 137 countries around the world. In 2006, it was estimated that human traffickers were making $31.6 billion in profit. According to the United Nations a “high” proportion of Human Trafficking victims are delivered to destinations within Canada.
This was the second such summit in the fight against human trafficking to promote collaboration with the theme “Together Let’s Stop Traffick”. Summit participants were dedicated to arriving at action oriented solutions and the Resource and Coordination Centre is a unique endeavor that is receiving global support.
Again this year, the summit organizers selected the Collaborative Transformation® methodology that Ms. Comeau developed as their means of establishing collaborative working practices, as well as facilitating the open sharing of ideas, experiences and best practice. The collaborative sessions completed during the 2014 Summit addressed 36 major issues and resulted in seven twelve-month action plans with appropriate interdisciplinary working groups responsible for each. As a result of this year’s summit, the 16 countries represented by just over 100 participants are now eager to report on progress and energize the next steps towards implementation of the Centre at the 2015 Summit in Los Angeles.
The international Resource and Coordination Centre will be a vital link joining agencies around the world in the fight against human trafficking. Engineers Canada is pleased to support staff willing to help with this effort.
