The Global Initiative and Babson College are pleased to share the recording of the first in our series of six webinars, entitled Next Generation Human Trafficking and Smuggling Challenges.

National and global challenges are too often addressed only after they have manifested themselves as a cancer on the global system.  The forms of human trafficking are many and varied. Women, children and men across the globe find themselves being enslaved for forced labour and domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, or the illegal organ trade.  Criminal groups prey on the weakest and most vulnerable in society, exacerbating challenges to health, human security, and social justice.

The current trafficking and smuggling environment demonstrates this phenomenon, with a range of issues coming to the fore that highlight the need for new approaches to the challenges of trafficking, particularly promising practices emerging from the private sector. New technology and globalization have increased human vulnerability and changed the onus of responsibility towards individuals and corporations.  Anti-trafficking leaders must anticipate certain key future threats and risks before they occur and preemptively identify public and private sector solutions.

While there are many excellent organizations active in the fight against human trafficking, there remains a place for strategic dialogue between diverse stakeholders providing relevant contributions to research; building linkages between trafficking and other crimes; and attempting to mobilise political will towards a more effective global response.

This webinar is the first in a series hosted by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime and Babson College’s Initiative on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery.  

The panel featured the following speakers drawn from the Global Initiative Network of experts (full bios below):

• Ilias Chatzis, Chief of Section Against Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, UNODC
• Steve Chalke, Founder and CEO, Stop the Traffik
• Quinn Kepes, Programme Director, Verité
• Mary Gentile, PhD, Creator and Director, Giving Voice to Values and Senior Research Scholar, Babson College (Moderator)

As the premiere webinar in the series, this webinar will provide the foundation of how human trafficking is impacting the private sector and what initiatives have been developed to address it.

Recordings and presentations of the webinar are available for view here: Next Generation Human Trafficking and Smuggling Challenges, October 29^th 2014.

If you would like further information on this series, please contact Livia Wagner of the Global Initiative Secretariat: livia.wagner@globalinitiative.net