Leo van Doesburg

In the framework of the European Anti-Trafficking Day, I was invited as a speaker to a large online conference on "Combating Human Trafficking - a Continued Struggle, adapted to the new context generated by the COVID-19 Pandemic". This conference was organized by the Parliamentary Group for the Fight Against Human Trafficking in the Romanian Parliament. See here my presentation: Some of the other speakers were : Angel TÎLVĂR , coordinator of the Parliamentary Group for the Fight against human trafficking, Valiant RICHEY, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Bogdan DESPESCU , Secretary of State, Police Chief-Quaestor of Police, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Cornel FERUȚĂ , Secretary of State for Global Affairs and Diplomatic Strategies Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cristina-Ionela IURIŞNIŢI , Chair of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, Olivier ONIDI , EU Anti-trafficking Coordinator, Gabriela SCUTEA , Pr...

Biased Amnesty International Report revealed Today, we celebrate the 11th EU Anti-Trafficking day .  Human trafficking is a prevalent practice globally, with instances of exploitation and human rights violations being reported in many nations each year . There are an estimated 21 million people in forced or coerced human trafficking worldwide according to the International Labour Organization Estimate on Forced Labour , which was published in 2012.  Moreover, according to the International Organization on Migration, 70% of trafficked victims are led to prostitution. One would expect, that this correlation between trafficking and prostitution, would lead national governments and non-government organizations to join efforts in putting barriers to prostitution. On the contrary, Germany and the Netherlands decriminalized prostitution and Amnesty International published a controversial report that supports the view that the decriminalization of prostitution can ...

The 18 th of October is the 10 th EU Anti Trafficking day. This  day is an opportunity to reflect on our anti-trafficking policies and a call for more targeted action. Last Tuesday, as General Secretary of the European Parliament Working Group on Human Dignity, I was involved in organizing an event on Human Dignity with the title "Combating Human Trafficking”. It was a very fruitful meeting that showed that there is substantial interest across political groups in the European Parliament on this issue. The event was hosted by MEPs Bastiaan Belder (ECR,  Chair of the Steering Committe of the Working Group ) and Diane Dodds (NA). Keynote speakers were: Lord Maurice Morrow  (Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly)  who tabled the latest law on prostitution in Northern Ireland based on criminalizing the client, Maria Vassiliadou, (EU anti-trafficking coordinator) and Frits Rouvoet (Director of Brightfame Foundation) who helps prostitutes in Amsterdam to leave prosti...

On the 22nd of April, more than 200 representatives of international and national NGOs, key Romanian politicians came together to discuss about how politicians and civil society could work better together to combat Human Trafficking. This meeting was organized by the European Christian Political Movement, the Romanian Parliamentary Working Group on combating the trafficking of persons, and the European Freedom Network. H.E. Angel Tîlvăr, Romanian Government Minister for Romanians abroad and coordinator of the Romanian Parliamentary Group on combating trafficking of human beings chaired the morning session and was a keynote speaker. Other Romanian speakers were amongst others: Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania (1996-2000); Daniel Ioniță, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs; Codrin Scutaru and Ioana Cazacu, both State Secretaries for Labor, Family and Social Protection; Paul Nicolae Petrovan, the Prefect of Bucharest, Branislav Škripek MEP; Spiru Bărbuceanu, Directio...