Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

Below you will find the currently confirmed featured resource practitioners for the Human Trafficking: Addressing Modern Day Slavery dialogue. If you would like to contact one of these practitioners, you may click on the names that provide a hyperlink to their New Tactics personal biography account. Please click on the 'contact' tab to send a message to their email.  

ANGOLOA

Catalina Quintero, is a lawyer and sociologist. She is currently the Counter Traffikcing Program Coordinator for International Organization for Migration, Luanda – Angola. Her primary role is the coordination of two projects funded by the Norwegian government and Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP) of United States government; and training. From 2008 to 2008, she was Counter Trafficking Program Coordinator for IOM Bogotá- Colombia where her main activities included training, liaison with donors and counterparts, direct assistance to victims of trafficking in person and the design and set up of a database about trafficking in persons. Prior to her work with IOM, she was the Legal Coordinator for Fundación Esperanza. Bogotá, Colombia (2002-2004) providing training, legal research and advocacy to enact the Colombian law against trafficking in persons. 

BRAZIL

Anália Belisa Ribeiro Pinto is a psychologist with specializations in human rights, witness protection, public security and human trafficking. She is currently the Coordinator of the Office to Prevent and Combat Traffic Persons – Secretary of Justice and Defense to Citizenship in São Paulo, Brazil. Prior to this position she held a founding membership at the Latin-American Institute for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (ILADH) from 2002 to 2008 and served as Coordinator of the Brazilian System on Preventing and Fighting Human Trafficking  at ILADH 2004 to 2006. Her expertise in witness protection and the area of human trafficking has been sought after by government and international institutions.

Elizabeth da Cunha Sussekind is a professor of criminology and human rights at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. She has a degree in criminology and a master’s degree in Law and Development Sciences from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. She is a human rights activist, working with problems of violence and prison issues, and has served as Secretary of Justice of Brazil. She is interested in governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations in their methods and procedures used in preventing and combating human trafficking, especially organ trafficking. She is interested to increase her knowledge base regarding international organizations and their efforts in controlling human trafficking, international organized crime, money laundering, and terrorism.

CAMBODIA

Kristin Wiebe is the Anti-Trafficking Program Director (Asia) for World Hope International and a Steering Committee Member for the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST).  After designing handcrafts for rural women's cooperatives in Bangladesh, Kristin pursued a law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law to gain skills to combat slavery and human trafficking.  Since then, she has developed anti-trafficking prevention, education, and aftercare projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States.  She has also lobbied at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to address the demand for trafficking.  Kristin is a member of the California Bar Association and holds degrees in law, creative writing and studio art.    

INDIA

Bhuwan Ribhu is a young and dynamic lawyer in the courts of Delhi, He has been leading the Anti Trafficking Campaign in Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA). He is one of the most emerging and promising lawyers in the area of PILs for victims of trafficking and slavery. He is a regular resource person to train senior police, intelligence officers and public prosecutors across the country. He has been amongst the pioneers of the movement against trafficking for forced labour. He has been responsible for rescuing thousands of children and was brutally attacked by circus mafia while rescuing the trafficked girls from circus mafia while rescuing trafficked girls from circus has not yet recovered completely. He has now been elected as one of the national secretaries of BBA.

Pronab Mohanty received a bachelor's degree in electronics and instrumentation engineering and a master's degree in civil and criminal law from Utkal University, India. Currently, he serves as the Deputy Inspector General of Police with the Central Bureau of Investigation for the Government of India in the state of Orissa on human trafficking, cyber crimes, issues related to women and children equity, and police-public partnerships.

MOLDOVA

Elina Saaristo and Blaec Kalweit, IOM Chisinau Prevention & Protection Team: International Organization for Migration, Mission to Moldova, known as IOM Chisinau, has been operating in Moldova since 2000. Moldova is the poorest country in Europe with high levels of migration and trafficking. IOM Chisinau runs a comprehensive program of prevention and protection in the CT field. IOM has strong links with the Government and other CT actors in the country, including NGOs in the Transnistrian break-away region. IOM was the leading agency in developing the National Referral System in Moldova and continues to work closely with the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child. IOM also supports the only specialized shelter for VoTs in Moldova. IOM has provided assistance to more than 2500 victims of trafficking and 1000 potential VoTs between 2000 and 2008. IOM Chisinau Prevention and Protection team consists of 10 people, who are here represented by Blaec Kalweit and Elina Saaristo. Please see www.iom.md for more info!

PHILIPPINES

Amy A. Avellano is an alternative lawyer who represents children in the legal system in the Philippines. She works with a multi-disciplinary team in case management and after-care programs for these children. She serves as lecturer on laws pertaining to women and children, gender sensitivity, and access to justice. She co-founded the WomenLEAD Foundation, a women’s NGO that provides feminist legal services to victims of gender-based violence. She holds bachelors degrees in law and mass communications as well as a diploma in Children, Youth, and Development. She has worked in the field of women’s and children’s rights protection for more than a decade. She is interested in developing a manual on conducting forensic video interviews of trafficked victims to preserve their testimony and to facilitate better prosecution of trafficking cases. 

 SERBIA

Aleksandra Galonja, lives in Belgrade and works at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as a gender focal point as well as the IOM Belgrade Counter-Trafficking Unit. Aleksandra has been a women’s movement and anti-war activist in Serbia from 1996. She worked as a coordinator of Women Can Do It programme in Serbia and coordinator of the Group for Women Political Participation and Women’s Human Rights within the Center for Education of the Democratic Party in the Republic of Serbia. She is an experienced trainer for women’s human rights and social justice programmes. She worked as a consultant for peer mediation programmes in GTZ Serbia. Aleksandra is still volunteering for different Serbian NGOs engaged in promotion of anti-discrimination policies and social justice values and the promotion of civic participation and empowerment of civil society in the Republic of Serbia. She is an author of different manuals and articles. The most relevant are: Women and Political Influence, Camping Based on Social Democratic Values, Power Games and ADR Techniques.

Jovana Mihajlovic lives in Belgrade, Serbia and works with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as a mission’s Counter Trafficking Focal Point. She has been with the IOM since 1997, first being involved in refugee applications processing. For a year, Jovana was part of UNHCR’s Resettlement Unit.  As of 2003 Jovana joined the IOM Belgrade Counter-Trafficking Unit. The unit has designed and implemented different national and regional Counter Trafficking initiatives, mainly focused at protection of human rights of the victims of trafficking and their social inclusion. Of special importance for the Belgrade Unit was a regional Temporary Residence Permit project that managed to change legislation in the field of victim protection in six out of seven project countries in the area of South Eastern Europe (SEE). Along with her colleague Aleksandra, Jovana coordinated the design of different publications in the Counter Trafficking field such was a mechanism for monitoring of THB phenomenon (Bosia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia), Identification and Referral of Victims of Trafficking (Serbia), Victim Assistance Manual (Serbia, Montenegro) as well as the compilation of the first Migration Profile for Republic of Serbia (2007, 2008). She graduated from the political sciences faculty with journalism and communications as her major.

SIERRA LEONE

Janet Nickel is the Technical Coordinator for the World Hope International Implemented (FAAST) Project in Sierra Leone. She is an American who has been working internationally since 1980. She was an elementary school teacher in the United States from 1975-1980. Nickel originally moved to Sierra Leone in 1980 and has worked in the country for nearly 20 years. She also worked as a humanitarian worker in Guinea for three years facilitating Stress and Trauma Healing Workshops for refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia. She has experience working in Nigeria and Russia. Nickel joined WHI’s anti-trafficking initiative in 2004, where her vast knowledge of Sierra Leone, experience with training and community education, and passion for seeking justice has given her an edge in providing technical support to the program. 

SOUTH AFRICA

Mia Immelback is currently working with International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Southern African Counter Trafficking Assistance Program (SACTAP) where her work partially revolves around facilitating monitoring and coordinating capacity building amongst civil society organizations. Moreover, throughout the “Programme of Assistance to the South African Government to Prevent and React to Human Trafficking”, she is conducting nationwide trainings with labour inspectors and providing them with skills to identify victims and perpetrators of trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation, as well as assure that corrective measures are taken after detection. In addition to this Mia is involved in the development of audio visional material and campaigns for national and regional awareness raising and information dissemination on human trafficking. Mia is a Swedish national with a background Business Management and African Development Studies. Although raised and born in Sweden she has obtained her her BA in Business Management at the London School of Economics and her MSc in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the UK. She has spent the past two years in South Africa and was initially working with UNESCO’s Associated Schools Program Network, where she has spent the past two years in South Africa and was initially working with UNESCO’s Associated Schools Program Network, where she helped integrate human rights and anti xenophobic education amongst Zimbabwean and South African high schools. 

Susan le Roux is a qualified Forensic Psychologist (MSc) and has been working for the International Organization for Migration in South Africa for the past 3 years as a Victim Assistance Specialist on the Counter Trafficking Program SACTAP. Prior to this I worked with victims of all forms of Gender based violence including domestic violence and sexual assault providing support pre and post trail. 

Mariam Khokhar is a Pakistani national with a social and public policy background.  She has worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the past seven years on a wide variety of migration management issues.  She currently serves as Programme Manager for Irregular Migration and Counter-Trafficking at IOM’s Regional Office for Southern Africa in Pretoria. Ms. Khokhar’s experience on counter-trafficking includes working with governments to develop and effect policy specific to the issue of trafficking in persons; working directly to assist victims of trafficking; serving as a trainer for government officials, including law enforcement, and civil society to build capacities to address trafficking in persons; research on trafficking; and in creating and disseminating awareness-raising material to inform communities and prevent trafficking.  Ms. Khokhar is a member of Mentor Pakistan and serves on the Advisory Committee of the North South Group for Poverty Reduction, an international non-governmental developmental organization based in Washington DC. In 2005, Ms. Khokhar was awarded the Director General's Award for her "essential contribution to IOM's immediate earthquake response" in Pakistan. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania in Criminal Justice, and a Master’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington DC in Liberal Studies, with a concentration in Social and Public Policy.   Due to her parents’ diplomatic assignments, she has lived and studied in a number of countries around the world.

Elske Reyneke-Barnard is the Director of World Hope South Africa. She has worked with World Hope International in South Africa since 2004. She completed her MPhil (Applied Theology) and MA (Theology), from the University of Pretoria. She loves development work, believing that it should go hand in hand with evangelism. Elske has a strong passion for anti-trafficking work and has been overseeing the Anti-Trafficking work of World Hope South Africa since 2007. She has a special interest in children and therefore a particular focus on the prevention of child-trafficking. The anti-trafficking efforts of World Hope South Africa have included Educational Round Tables and community conversations, facilitation of FAAST’s Hands that Heal workshops and beginning grassroots awareness in anticipation of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. This includes the development of an age-appropriate curriculum to teach children about personal safety and trafficking.

UKRAINE

Svitlana Batsyukova, IOM Ukraine is currently the Project Manager for the Counter-trafficking Program of the International Organization for Migration, Mission in Ukraine. Her practical, as well as, analytical experience has shaped her commitment to anti-trafficking policies. She has coordinated and participated in a number of team projects and performed analyses and program evaluation dedicated to trafficking in human beings. She pilots counter-trafficking initiatives with private sector, oversees prevention activities in the regions, takes part in the planning of the capacity building activities and counter-trafficking curriculum development for different stakeholders, prepares reports and monitors project expenditures. She received Masters in Public Administration and Certificate in International Development from the University of Washington, USA. She has over six years of professional experience, two of them dedicated to child policies’ development and studies and services provision to children with special needs. For over two years she has been in the sphere of project management, public–private partnership, donor relations and development work. She has worked in the UK, USA and the Ukraine.

UNITED KINGDOM

Glenn Miles, PhD, (University of Wales) MSc.(University College London) RN-C, RN-A, RN-CA, PGCE, ACIE. Glenn is the Love146, Director of Prevention. He has more than 20 years experience focused on children in South-East and South Asia. His research concerns are into underrepresented and sexually exploited communities and overseeing Love146’s prevention partners in Asia. His PhD in Childhood Studies focused on Cambodian children’s experiences and understandings of violence including sexual abuse and trafficking. He is co-editor of Celebrating Children, a textbook for people working with children in developing countries and recently rolled out the Celebrating Children course in 9 countries in Asia and 4 countries in Africa.

Victoria Kuhr is STOP THE TRAFFIK’s Community Action and Resources Officer. STOP THE TRAFFIK is a global movement working to prevent people trafficking, prosecute traffickers and protect the victims of trafficking. Previously, Victoria was part of a team driving a successful awareness and fundraising campaign focusing on child trafficking and exploitation in the cocoa industry at an international level. She has devised and delivered education materials and resources to empower and equip people of all ages to become advocates in the fight against global injustice. Victoria has a passion for equality and human rights, with an academic and practical background in social services and education, Victoria is driven by a steadfast belief in the need to act on behalf of others.

UNITED STATES

Adeyemi Oshodi, is the Director of Anti-Trafficking Programs at  World Hope International in Washington, DC, where she provides guidance to WHI’s Anti-Trafficking program. She provides specific management to anti-trafficking care, support and public awareness programs in the US, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Southern Africa and Azerbaijan. She is a Steering Committee member of the Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST). Oshodi has a background in program management and has managed human rights, Women’s Rights, and numerous global health programs around the world. Prior to working for World Hope International, Yemi worked for international organizations including PATH and Population Services International.  She has lived and worked in The Gambia, Guinea and Swaziland.  In 2004, she founded a human rights youth organization in Swaziland. She received her MA in International Development Support.

Beatríz Menanteau is a Staff Attorney with the Women’s Human Rights Program of The Advocates for Human Rights.  Prior to joining The Advocates, Beatríz practiced general corporate litigation as an Associate at the law firm of Maslon, Edelman, Borman & Brand, LLP in Minneapolis.  She previously clerked for the Honorable Franklin L. Noel, Magistrate Judge, District of Minnesota and the Honorable Susan R. Nelson, Magistrate Judge, District of Minnesota. Beatríz interned with the human rights organization PROVEA in Caracas, Venezuela, as an Upper Midwest International Human Rights Fellow.  She has also volunteered with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, assisting clients in naturalization applications.  She received her law degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2003.  She is admitted to practice before Minnesota state and federal courts.  Born in Chile, Beatríz graduated with the highest honors from the University of Minnesota with a double major in Psychology and Women’s Studies. Beatríz is currently on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association and is a member of the Steering Committee for the National Lawyers Guild Minnesota Chapter.  

Mary Ellingen is a Staff Attorney with the Women's Program at The Advocates for Human Rights.  Prior to joining the staff of The Advocates for Human Rights, Ms. Ellingen was a long-time volunteer for the organization, and assisted in conducting fact-finding missions and writing reports in Poland, Tajikistan and the Twin Cities metropolitan area. She has worked in private practice in family law and in the Trust Department of the former Northwestern Bank. She received her law degree from The University of Michigan Law School and her B.A., with highest honors, from Michigan State University. She is admitted to practice in Minnesota.

Mary C. Ellison is a Staff Attorney in the Women’s Human Rights program at The Advocates for Human Rights. She assisted in writing and editing the recently published “Sex Trafficking Needs Assessment for the State of Minnesota.” Mary has also assisted Cheryl Thomas and Aviva Breen in conducting two days of meetings in Yerevan, Armenia in June 2008 on “Advocacy and Lobbying for a Domestic Violence Law in Armenia.” She received her law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in June 2007. She is admitted to practice in Minnesota. Mary graduated cum laude from St. Olaf College with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Family Studies with a concentration in Women's Studies. She also earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Colorado State University. 

Tania DoCarmo is U.S. Director of Development for Chab Dai Coalition's U.S. arm in California. Chab Dai Coalition is a coalition of faith-based organizations working against sexual abuse and trafficking in Cambodia and beyond. After working and living abroad for several years in Brazil, Cambodia and the UK, Tania moved back to the United States in July 2008 and is currently working to extend Chab Dai's collaboration and networking model against human trafficking into the context of the United States. In Cambodia, Tania worked as Assistant Coordinator at ChabDai, where she developed an extensive resource library of over 2,000 resources, worked directly with member organizations & practitioners, facilitated discussion forums, and attended collaboration events with UN agencies, government agencies and NGOS across the region. Tania is passionate about seeing an end to human trafficking through models of prevention, collaboration between agencies, and a victim centered approach to care.