 Thank you so much and welcome everyone for this session. Before I run through the agenda, if we can remove the slide for a second. I would like to start by saying that the cluster system was created, I think 16 years ago, almost to the month. For one basic reason is that protection problems are complex or wicked. And not, we cannot find one single actor who can alone tackle these kinds of problems. So we need an alliance, and hence the cluster was created. But also protection problems in themselves are are very complicated they are multifaceted. But as we said at the beginning of the forum yesterday. The main challenge across all kinds of protection problems that we face today is the fact that we have this sense of invisibility of the survivors and the victims. So we have a sense of invisibility. We have a sense of one organization or actor cannot tackle it alone. So these two concepts and look at trafficking in person. I don't think there is any more through series of crimes for which these two notions come together invisibility and the need for multiple actors to come together across multiple years to be able to tackle. These are known facts, and we try to work on them. And we enter we add today a layer that is technology. Technology comes in many ways shapes or form. It has a lot of advantages that should be captured. There's also one more space where we see that there are challenges where criminals and traffickers are savvy as much as the general public. So we can see a force of good that could be used as an additional platform to commit crimes. And bringing these three notions together protection the need for dismantling invisibility collaboration the need to have a cluster and a group of an alliance to come together and technology that is a space that is wide and open and good and bad and all of it, and bring all together. I think that would make a fantastic conversation to bring these three notions together. And the panelists we have with us today are as diverse and colorful and come from different angles as much as this wicked problem require. So if we can put the agenda on. I'm very glad that today with us to address this problem we have split our sessions to two main parts. The first is to listen to to experts to people to individuals that have vested personal interest, plus expertise in guiding us and giving us opinions and and perspectives on how to address this issue. So roughly the first 45 minutes of the session. The second 45 minutes is for you the 129 participants that are with us this afternoon. And it's first to hear from from the experts and then to hear from you from the different countries where you are in and I would be very pleased if you participants can type quickly in the chat box from which operation which country. Are you joining us today that would give us a sense of diversity. So back to the first part of today. And here from walk free foundation grace for us, who will be speaking to us about her personal interest in the foundation work in this area. She will be followed by the special reporter on trafficking in person she won. She won is not a stranger for the global protection cluster. And she has been with us during the first forum last year. We're also joined by Hannah Danton. I will introduce her more appropriately when she speaks but she brings with her, both personal investment in this area as well as as an institutional engagement in technology against trafficking. And finally, we will have with us, one of my, my personal heroes, my early in the Gara Perez, who is the founder of Rena sir, working to combat trafficking in Columbia. So, without further ado, and really was with the enthusiasm and the curiosity that this topic brings. I would like to hand over to you grace to open this for us, an inject of, of ideas and motivation on how we tackle this wicked problem base over to you. Thank you so much, William. And thank you for the opportunity to provide opening remarks today on the role of technology in tackling modern slavery in crisis settings at walk free and international human rights group focused on accelerating the end of all forms of modern slavery. We recognize innovation in technology, provide great opportunity for us to fight on slavery everywhere it occurs. And so I'm so pleased to join you to learn more about the opportunities and importantly the challenges and limitations of technology to counter human trafficking. Let me set this discussion in 2021 estimated 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection at a cost of 35.1 billion US dollars. This is a 40% increase on 2020 and is almost entirely as a result of COVID-19 crisis situations increase the prevalence of modern slavery and people's vulnerability to modern slavery. In conflict situations and crisis situations. We see this vulnerability exacerbated tenfold through things such as the erosion of the rule of law breakdown in protections and the normalization of violence. It makes it much easier to exercise coercion. For example, armed groups take advantage of the situation to explore children as child soldiers or forced into individuals into labor situations. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable due to increased incidents of gender based violence and sexual violence. This includes forced child and early marriage and forced sexual exploitation. It's vital that we acknowledge the intersectionality of the big issues we are facing in the world today. Environmental issues, political instability, the erosion of justice and the rule of law and conflict and war all contribute to vulnerability to modern slavery. For example, such crisis can lead to migration and displacement which exacerbate vulnerability. There are currently 82.4 million people forcibly displaced globally, of which 48 million are internally displaced people. 26.4 million are refugees and 4.1 million are asylum seekers. During times of crisis, it is highly likely that migration is unplanned and at higher risk. Mass movement makes it difficult for protection actors to identify and respond to this risk and create circumstances where criminal networks may take advantage. Our understanding of what works to eradicate all forms of modern slavery is limited and particularly so in crisis settings. It has never been a more urgent time to address this gap. This clear gap in knowledge led to Walkfree's partnership with UNHCR and the global protection cluster and support for the development of the introductory guide on anti-trafficking action in internal displacement contexts. This guide assists practitioners in the detention, identification, referral protection and assistance of trafficked person. This measurement is a cornerstone of Walkfree's approach. Through this partnership, the GPC has begun reporting quarterly on trafficking risks and associated phenomenon such as forced labour, forced recruitment, child and forced marriage and the scale or exchange of sex in the 32 countries where the cluster mechanism is activated. Understanding the trafficking trends in crisis context is an important step in improving identification and supporting trafficking persons. And the role of technology is critical to counter modern slavery, facilitate cooperation, reach survivors and to address their needs. Innovation in the anti-trafficking space is a two-edged sword. Technology is often referred to as a driver of and solution to tackling modern slavery. Tech can be used to recruit people into conditions of modern slavery. In fact, internal Facebook documents leaked in just the past few days revealed that Apple threatened to pull Facebook and Instagram from its app store over concerns the social media sites were being used to buy and sell domestic workers in the Middle East. The commodification of human beings being used on social media platforms that many of us have on our phones here today. Of course Facebook promised a crackdown and Apple relented but we know these platforms along with many others are still being used by unscrupulous recruiters. But tech can also be used to raise awareness and fight modern slavery. For example, the global freedom network which is Walkfree's faith based arm recently released the Faith for Freedom app, which is designed for and with faith leaders to help them identify and tackle modern slavery in their communities and congregations. It can also help our responses to modern slavery. Fair Supplier, an Australian company that we at Walkfree are supporting, uses powerful mathematical algorithms to examine supply chains for risks of modern slavery. Given the increasingly complex conflicts, intricate geopolitical pressures, large scale displacement and continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never been a more urgent time to have discussions such as this. We need to explore the opportunities to broaden our understanding of technological possibilities, raise awareness of concerns and discuss directly with survivors, activists, humanitarian actors and donors working in humanitarian crisis. And we need to understand the limitations and dangers of using technology in conflict settings. There are some that believe technology is a silverboard solution. Of course, it is not, but where it can help advance our efforts, close gaps and bring movements closer together, it is critical we use it and understand it to the best of our ability. Thank you all for the opportunity to join you today for this time in discussion. I am looking forward to learning from you as we already raise awareness of existing tech tools and identify opportunities to use technology to combat modern slavery. Thank you. Thank you so much, Grace. Thank you for this framing topic for us. Thank you for the partnership, the commitment and the work that you do. I would be looking forward to engage further with you and the questions start coming from the operations and get back to you. But now I would like to turn to to use your phone from Greta to the special reportorship. This is an issue that is not new. Though technology, as the terms remain steady, the content of it keeps evolving at a high pace. I think is ugly technology to combat trafficking. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it ugly? Help us frame how we should think of it. Over to you, Siobhan. Thank you very much, William. And thank you again to the Global Protection Cluster for this opportunity to join this event and to engage with you on the work of my mandate as special rapporteur and trafficking in persons. I would like to learn from you from all of you in the field and at the front line of this situation. Trafficking in persons in conflict and humanitarian settings is a thematic priority for my mandate. And I've already spoken with William and others from the Global Protection Cluster team to discuss how we can cooperate to really enable all those in conflict and humanitarian settings to identify victims of trafficking to be proactive and ensure effective access to protection, and most importantly to be more effective in our prevention actions. The role of technology is key. And as Grace said, and as William said, there are positive opportunities for us to be able to harness technologies, digital technologies for more inclusive environments, and to reach a wider range of people to prevent trafficking occurring in the first place. But digital technologies also pose very significant security challenges and challenges in terms of the series human rights violation of trafficking in persons. In my mandate as special rapporteur and trafficking in persons, we have been working with the potential of digital technologies to enhance protection mechanisms and to enhance prevention operations in particular. And to give some examples, we've worked in the in the labor exploitation context in particular with vulnerable migrants and those who are forcibly displaced, who are often targeted by recruiters. We're working at the use of technologies to develop smartphone apps, for example, to empower workers in the workplace, and also to ensure that their voices are heard monitoring what's happening in businesses in workplaces in agricultural settings. But they themselves may become the key voices or the primary voices in monitoring and ensuring respect for labor rights. And here I think this touches on a point that William mentioned the importance of ensuring that survivors of trafficking that their voices are heard, and that they are taking a leadership role in defining how best to respond to the problem of trafficking in persons. That was a key theme for the World Day Against Trafficking in July this year. Here I think we see that the use of digital technologies can ensure that survivors in different parts of the world can play this key role in early warning mechanisms in monitoring human rights compliance and ensuring the dissemination of information to prevent trafficking occurring in the first place. While we know that digital technologies can be harnessed for the good, there are also, as I said, quite serious risks in my mandate and in the reports that I'm presenting tomorrow to the General Assembly. For example, I'm highlighting the nexus between trafficking and terrorism and trafficking by terrorist extremist groups and other armed groups, and terrorist groups in particular make very good use of digital technologies to recruit children and adults online, particularly in vulnerable situations, in crisis settings, forcibly displaced, unaccompanied and separated children. And we have seen this problem increasing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Children being targeted for recruitment into armed groups, which as we know is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. And that continues to occur in different parts of the world. My mandate worked with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made submissions on the recent general comments on the rights of the child in the digital environment. And the general comment highlights the positive effects of digital technologies in giving children the opportunity to have their voices heard children from different parts of the world in different settings. And importantly, I think here we also need to remember that digital technologies can play a critical role in ensuring disability inclusion in all anti trafficking action. And that is particularly important in conflict settings and crisis settings where we know people with disabilities may face additional obstacles to being identified as at risk and accessing protection mechanisms. So this is something that was highlighted particularly in the engagement with the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and we've also engaged directly with the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and highlighted the positive role that digital technologies can play in ensuring this inclusive environment. But the problem of targeting of people who are in vulnerable situations in the online environment remains a serious concern. And not only for purposes of sexual exploitation but also forced labor, child marriage, forced marriage, and in for the purposes of forced criminality. And here, I just want to highlight this because it's something that comes up again in my report tomorrow to the General Assembly that victims of trafficking who are alleged to be associated with armed groups or terrorist groups, who may have been for purposes of forced criminality are often punished and prosecuted rather than protected and are not identified as such. And we see terrorist groups and armed groups using messaging platforms are using online platforms to groom people in vulnerable situations to recruit them initially apparently for jobs. But then they end up in situations of sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced labor. And while the use of voluntary codes of conduct by businesses are useful, we really need to be looking at more stringent ways of monitoring and ensuring compliance by the big tech sector, and by all businesses including in their recruitment practices. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has the BTEC project which you may be familiar with. And there the Office of the High Commissioner provides resources on implementing the UN guiding principles on business and human rights in the technology space. And my mandate and other special procedures have met directly with tech companies to discuss how to be more effective in their prevention action in particular. In ensuring access to remedies for victims because that's where we often see very serious gaps. And I just want to highlight in particular the problem of the digital divide, the gender dimensions of the digital divide, which is a human rights concern in the context of crisis settings. This has become even more obvious in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where we see increased difficulties in accessing information and accessing protection for girls, children in particular, and for women, including in rural settings. The digital divide was something that was highlighted by the special representative of the Secretary General on sexual violence in conflict in her recent report to the Security Council in March. And she highlighted again the problem and challenge of women and girls in conflict affected and displacement settings being harder to reach, and having less access to technologies because of restrictive social norms and the gender based digital divide. And the additional impact that that can have on the protection of their rights. So to conclude, I just want to note as well, the CEDAW, the general recommendation number 38 of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which again looks at the role of the tech sector, the need for more effective action to protect women in the context of international migration and girls and the need for more proactive identification of the production of online sexual abuse material, particularly what we've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for more effective action by technology companies and cooperation with tech companies as well in terms of detecting online recruitment, identifying the perpetrators and ensuring effective access to protection for victims. And all of these recommendations apply even more so in crisis settings. A crisis situation is a continuum of what we see happening in the everyday. So technology, digital technologies, like anything can be used for the good, but it poses very significant challenges in terms of combating impunity for trafficking and traffickers know this. So we see the exploitation of gaps in terms of international cooperation, jurisdiction, access to remedies and effective communication to prevent trafficking in persons. But I think these are tools that we can use for the good, and through forums like this we can ensure enhanced cooperation. I look forward to continue discussions. Thank you. Over to you, William. Thank you so much, Siobhan. And I'm looking forward at the end of this session after you've listened to the, to the, to the whole discussion as well to give us towards in a bit of marching orders to the cluster to the GPC of how do we build on today's session and what should we do in the next year to help advance the community and the guidance on this on this important issue. Now I would like to turn to Hannah D'Arnton. Hannah, we have heard from, from Siobhan and Grace, the gender dimension, the digital divide, the, the, the steps of detecting identifying, ensuring follow up with survivors for access to remedies. You have spent most of your career trying to align business and human rights. So, tell us how do we continue thinking about this topic. What are the measures that we need to take. And what have you learned through these years of engagement on on topics like this. Over to you, Hannah. Great. Thanks so much, William. And thank you all at the global protection cluster for having me today really looking forward to diving further into this issue with you all. My name as William said is Hannah D'Arnton, I am an associate director of ethics technology and human rights here at business for social responsibility, or BSR in our San Francisco office. And as part of my role, I help lead the tech against trafficking coalition, which is what I'll be focusing on today. I'm going to go back to a little bit of an overview of tech against trafficking, some of the tools that we've identified, and then we'll move into some of the learnings from our work. So first off, tech against trafficking is a coalition of technology companies, including Amazon, BT or British telecom, Microsoft and Salesforce that are collaborating with global experts such as yourselves to help eradicate human trafficking using technology. In 2018, the goal of tech against trafficking is to work with civil society, law enforcement, academia and survivors to identify and support technology solutions that disrupt and reduce human trafficking that prevent and identify crimes and that provide remedy mechanisms for victims and survivors. And by tapping into their expertise, their capacity for innovation, their global reach, our member companies believe that the tech industry can really provide the opportunity to accelerate solutions tackling modern slavery. Slide. Great. So following our launch in 2018, our first step as a coalition was to map the landscape of existing technology tools being used to combat human trafficking. We then identified the technology tools with the potential for scale or interest in exploring new innovative partnerships geared towards greater impact through the use of technology. And really to help create a comprehensive, constantly updated map of the list of anti trafficking technology tools that currently exist in different geographies and different languages with varied target populations. Then through our technology accelerator program, we continue to support those identified tools those organizations leveraging technology for more effective use and deployment to really advance and scale their work, while simultaneously trying to create the connective tissue that brings together organizations and technology tools operating across the anti trafficking sector and help lead them to systems level change. Slide. So throughout this process and over the course of our landscape mapping we actually identified more than 300 anti trafficking tools used across a wide range of geographies target users and focus areas. And here that you can see on the slide that more than quarter of the tools are victim or trafficker identification tools over 24% of the tools focused on supply chain management or corporate risk identification. And many of them did the exact same thing just slightly differently or in slightly different geographies. So lots of duplication lots of replication and a lot of funding going to recreating the same tool over and over again. Next slide. Now these tools were really present in a range of different geographies but we mainly saw them popping up in North America in Asia and in Europe. And to this day we're not quite sure if that's because that's what we were able to access and see those were in languages more accessible to the team doing the research. Or if there's actually fewer digital technologies being used in areas such as Latin America Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceana. And we're continuing to explore this continuing to map today, but this is a little bit of a trend we're seeing here is the tools being created in these specific countries I mentioned, but then used for deployment in other geographies, which of course creates an inherent unbalance, you know if there's tool being created in the United States that's then used in Latin America there's a lot of cultural dissonance or boundaries that they haven't necessarily explored when they're being used on the ground in different countries. And let's go to the next slide. The tools range from simple mobile apps informing vulnerable communities and individuals at the risk of labor or labor exploitation to more advanced technologies such as satellite imagery and geospatial mapping tools being used to track down phishing vessels engaged in illegal activity. The tools using facial recognition using blockchain or big data analysis and visualization, but really there was a huge spread in the different types of technologies being deployed. And actually that's the end of the slide so happy to go off the slides for a moment and just speak to some of the learnings. What we saw here was that even with all of these technology tools which purportedly can help bring us together and create communications and networking across these different types of geographies across different types of actors. The anti trafficking ecosystem still remains largely siloed and I'm sure this is something that much of many of you see in your day to day practice as well. The collaboration and engagement between the organizations deploying these technologies has really been minimal and effort efforts as I mentioned earlier often and duplicated opportunities for new solutions are missed doing to a lack of information about similar initiatives, or a lack of shared or compatible data and the nominal technical infrastructure and expertise, as well as a dearth of sustained funding and support. So, as an example, our landscape mapping identified approximately 70 unique technology tools developed for the purpose of victim or trafficker identification with better systems to share information share best practices to communicate across different areas across different types of actors, we could have used a similar tool in each of these geographies, learned from the deployment in one area to help convert it or lift and shift it to a new area where we could just repurpose it, rather than spending all that time funding resource re learning how to develop a tool for specific settings. Technology as we've mentioned before has a huge opportunity here. It really can help advance and scale our work in the anti trafficking sector. But the ways in which these technologies can be misuse and abuse, as Sean was mentioning earlier, is something that we have to really consider and do our due diligence on as we consider how to use them at scale. So, for the final part of this presentation, what I'd like to do is just highlight six key considerations that we need to keep in mind, as we think through the role of technology across the anti trafficking sector. And I've only been a little bit of a broken record on a few of these issues so please forgive me if you've heard these before. But the first is that, as we consider how to deploy technologies we need to provide ongoing technical support. And so technology often acts as a multiplier effect in terms of organizational impact. But many of the civil society organizations developing or deploying these tools have limited capacity resources and personnel, which creates barriers and challenges to taking on and maintaining effective technology and scaling it. Organizations deploying any and all forms of technology will need support in the form of capacity building, maintenance and long term staffing and technical support within their organizations. As well as a reevaluation of how we fund these actual technologies for deployment and making sure that we're providing that overhead or administrative costs that prevent investments and funding of technology or they have prevented it in the past. As a second item, we really need active engagement and participation from those closest to the issue those working on the ground, and helping to tackle this, this crime. So those who are funding developing implementing and deploying the technology based solutions need to ensure that active engagement participation of the vulnerable population or target group throughout the design development and deployment of technology solutions. And this means even as, for example, a case manager within a social social service provider bringing in those beneficiaries of your programs, making sure that as you're capturing data, as you're making sure that you're, you know, being able to track movement of an individual from one service to another, that you're speaking to them about the potential risks of those technologies, how this could be better used and help serve those beneficiaries to a greater extent. Survivors of trafficking and victims of trafficking are ultimately the beneficiaries of all interventions in this field, and they play a very important role in the development of the tools designed to end human trafficking and help provide support to the phenomenon. As a third, I'd like to talk about fit for purpose. So this plays into the importance of addressing and understanding the various stakeholder groups needs before developing a technology solution for them. So again, those that are funding developing deploying and implementing technology based solutions should ensure that solutions are fit for purpose, taking into account issues regarding access coverage literacy organizational resources and technical infrastructure, prior to deploying a solution. One of the solutions that I was looking at that really was monitoring migration over the US Mexico border had this beautiful design, you know, the app was really fantastic, and it looked like it would be absolutely wonderful when rolled out. They hadn't actually consulted stakeholders, they hadn't considered the actual connectivity for the app in that geography, and so it never actually really worked they weren't able to get people to download it onto their phones because nobody had a smart phone. The language wasn't a real great fit with the populations they were targeting and then of course the lack of connectivity meant no one could use it in the first place. So what would have been better in that situation how can you make that technology fit for purpose in that scenario. Many practitioners that we've spoken to have highlighted that organizations looking for technology based solutions are not always clear about the specific problems they hope to solve. And there's a risk that technology will be seen as the solution itself, rather than a means to solve the problem. Furthermore, we really want to make sure that we understand and conduct due diligence to see if the solution already exists. Resources should not be spent duplicating work or remedies already exists. And instead, we can seek to share relevant data and technologies, increase collaboration and aim to innovate on a work solving problems. And when there's no efficient tool and existence already. A few more here before I wind things up. So, fourth is that there are limits to what technology can do. And I think a lot of you realize that already but many people I speak to always think that technology is going to be the silver bullet and technology cannot act as a substitute for the range of other factors needed to effectively combat trafficking, such as political will adequate resources or a commitment from a wide range of actors with the mandate and competencies in this field to really help tackle the problem. The human trafficking value chain if we can call you that needs to be addressed at multiple points, requiring significant collaborations across sectors. And then fifth, consider the easy solution so a range of technology solutions are needed in this space from those big AI solutions so satellite solutions to what's that Facebook message or a dedicated SMS text phone channels that allow multiple avenues of communication with a victim when they're seeking assistance. Messaging apps can provide a straightforward way for victims to communicate in real time with service providers or personnel personal support networks, and capturing data in the same way so that we're actually able to standardize information collected and this is a big one is how do we actually create systems that capture information so we can track trends across different geographies make sure that we're in the same language. And as I say all of this, I would very much agree with the UN special rapporteur that, despite the positive uses of all these technologies, we really need to be conducting our due diligence on the technologies themselves and I think this is one of my most important points here is that the provision of such technologies must be accompanied with training, not only on the direct use of the tools, but their ethical use of the respect of human rights and data protection due to be conducted on technologies deployed by government, law enforcement and service providers, and the technology developers the larger tech companies developing these different tools to identify, avoid, address and mitigate all potential adverse human rights impacts that may arise from the use of technology in accordance with the UN guiding principles on business and human rights. If you take a look at the report produced earlier this year or actually now it's last year, what is time anymore, but by tech against trafficking and OSCE, our report really speaks to the potential for both international, or sorry, both intentional and unintentional misuse of technology, and we're urging all partners across the life cycle of technology but especially those closest to the ground using these technologies that can help identify issues to undertake due diligence on these products to ensure that the appropriate protections and mitigation measures are put in place. And that's where I'll stop today but happy to answer any questions as we go on with the discussion. Hannah, thank you so much. And one on the content and the consideration that's very useful to have this structuring of what we should look into. But I think also your mapping is a is a is a factual reason why we're having this session. One of the wonders that you have shown shows that this is a space that exists like it or not. It's there. It has taken off, and we got to engage in it. I would like to turn next to my own. I encourage all the participants to start raising their hands or writing questions in the chat box, because after my own speaks I will start turning to two interventions from from you guys. Eileen, you work every day. You work every day on combating trafficking, the simple exhausting physical personal tracking identification, saving protection and accompanying girls and boys that that have been trafficked or at risk of traffic. We have heard from from the speakers so far that some of the existing technologies like social media are used to target and to to to recruit so to speak victims to be trafficked. We have also heard that organizations are using technological tools, either simple ones or customized to share information to record to track to identify. If two things exist. Does any of this resonate with your daily work. What do you think about it is technology useful for you on day to day basis or is it increasing the risk over to you. Thank you very much, William. Good day. Good afternoon to all. Yes, to all. From the foundation to be valued. The fact that this topic is put on the agenda in this forum so important. Unfortunately, the pandemic has brought an impact not only on what we all know and we know, but it has also been put closer to the children and the girls of the technologies on the Internet. And with that, the risk, the risk of abuse, sexual exploitation and the treatment of people with sexual exploitation purposes or with any other of the other things. A diario, as William said, we are working with the children, with the teenagers, with the women survivors, too. In the homes of attention, but we also work in the communities and in the educational institutions and we find, on the one hand, young people using information and communication technologies to prevent sexual exploitation, using videos, using all the tools that young people and the girls know, they have made virtual forums right now during the pandemic and it has been really important to see young people share in the region of Latin America, for example, new ideas and new strategies to prevent the sexual protection of children and adolescent children. But on the other hand, we have the other group of children and children who are still being contacted through social media, even through video games, being these propitious scenarios so that the abusers and the exploiters come in or contact the children and the girls. We also find, for example, as women, and this is associated with the migratory flow, as women from other countries are contracted and brought to the territory of Colombia to be exploited sexually here. And this is done through WhatsApp, via Facebook, where the treaters contact them, they send the photos of the girls and the treaters approve them as if it were a merchandise. So, and this has been deepened right now in these last two years. We find, for example, in prostitution establishments that during the pandemic they were closed, because at least the first six months they were closed, they were closed for the public, but they continued contacting the girls, they were created, they were reinvented as well, as well as the trade was reinvented, and we reinvented the treaters, the sexual exploiters, and in this case the prostitution establishments were also reinvented, they also opened pages and they also contacted the girls and the boys through social media and the physical encounters were given. So we believe that this has had an alarming growth during the pandemic, it is necessary, as my predecessors said, to generate an intersectional strategy to be able to generate a prevention not only from the digital environment, but that prevention must be infused with the physical environment, that is to say, as well as creating prevention strategies where companies, families, and the government and society must participate in the same way as prevention in the physical environment. So, on the other hand, we consider the collaboration between countries necessary. In Colombia, we have had several cases of collaboration between countries and Sacoa Colación 1 where a sexual exploiter exploited children and girls starting here in Colombia, in the Caribbean coast, Colombian, and it was spreading, and at the end of the years, already with so many children in Latin America, and it is in Argentina where it is identified, and here the government of Argentina, in collaboration with the Colombian government, has managed to capture this crime that had more than 200 victims on its networks, on all its internet pages, and of all those more than 200 victims, we only managed to place two in physical, in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, but with those two victims it was achieved that the testimony of them was important and it contributed to the judicialization of this aggressor. On the other hand, we consider it important to turn it around, as well as, as I understand that this forum is achieving, to turn it around and how we begin to strengthen the use of the technologies of information and communication for prevention and also for denunciation. So, the figures are alarming, Hanna shared some figures, I want to share some of them too, from Weeprotep, in a document that showed the evaluation of the global threat of 2021, it says, in 2020, a million, 38,268 files of individual multimedia through the classification platform and compilation of material about sexual abuse of children. And in May of 2021, the Ilocoll dismantled a web page of sexual abuse of children of the Darwek, with more than 400,000 subscribers, and there are more than 3 million accounts registered in the 10 most harmful pages of sexual abuse of children in the Darwek. So, they are alarming figures that, where we say, this is surpassing our capacity to respond. I want to finish by telling you that the impact of abuse of sexual exploitation and the treatment of people in the lives of children and girls, through all its being, and as it is necessary to prevent it, it is also necessary that we continue to attend and accompany the survivors and the survivors in their emotional recovery process. But above all, I think it is important that the families, the students, the educators and educators, we learn a little more about technology to be at the level of the children, the children of the survivors, and to be able to do a little more effective accompaniment to prevent this delictive practice as harmful as it is the treatment of people with sexual exploitation purposes and sexual abuse. Thank you very much. You echoed a bit what the first three speakers said as there is no silver bullet, but also you summed up. I think you said it in a very elegant way that the technical, technological environment needs to be in touch with the physical environment for it to work and I think it's a good summary also of what Hanna, Grace and and Siobhan have said. So thank you so much. I will be getting back to you. Now I have a number of interventions from operations. I have five recorded. I encourage new questions also to be written in the chat box and we will pick up on them. So we will listen first to Lazar from Burundi, then followed by Jean from Burkina, then by FNO HD from Central Africa, Melania Rosita, and then finally from Isidore. So this will be the first round of interventions from the from the field, and then we will go to the to the panelists after. So Lazar from Burundi. You work like Maya in very concrete way on combating trafficking with children with girls with boys. And I'm very curious to hear from you as we've heard from my early is that topic that we're discussing today. Does the information and the opinion and the guidance that we heard from the panelists doesn't resonate with you. Does it make sense on day to day basis. Thank you so much. My name is Lazar. I'm from Burundi. I work in the NOMG. Action with women and vulnerable. As you said, we are still in service for the others to give answers to the problems of the VBG. So I'm going to ask you and me, Global Protection, who did what this panel could have done. For me, as you said, we are still going to find the answers as much as possible about the process. And as the people who came earlier, really, the treatment you know very well, it's an exploitation. It's a sort of disclosure. And if I go directly to the level of the technology, yes, the technology is very important to you than the others have said. Because it helps us a lot in prevention, assistance, and even integration. The tools of technology are very effective because you know very well with the coordination and communication, they always use technological tools. In Burundi, there are two sources of treatment. There is the external treatment and also the internal treatment. At the external treatment level, we were able to have a very external treatment from technological tools. The people who went so far, in Saudi Arabia, in Noma, in Kuwait, have been able to advance because of technological tools. They have been repatriated, they have been returned to Burundi thanks to technological tools. Arriving here, of course, we have a lot of registration, a lot of identification in the database, database, and many of them, at the same time, of course, we use technological tools. What concerns the economic social assistance plan is that we always use technological tools. If we have to go back, or if we have distance algorithms, we use WhatsApp, we use emails, we use all that. So we also have lines to go back to WhatsApp, a line that asks for references. And thanks to that, we have been able to identify my RMR in the RMR and give answers in a minimal and effective time. So for me, RMR, as the others said, I absolutely say that RMR, technological tools have a considerable impact on prevention, assistance, and also on economic social integration. If I can still have time, I would really like to say that here in Burundi, the number of treatments is really very high, very many. But also, we say that RMR, the problems that the challenges we face, is that despite RMR, it is the importance of technological tools. Most of the time, they don't have these technological tools, they don't have any means to buy WhatsApp, they don't have any means to buy computers, they don't have any means to go to the internet to collect connection codes. So these are challenges, but we notice that these technological tools are RMR, the best solutions to do adequate and effective services in a minimal amount of time. So for me, it is a great pleasure to see if RMR, we can really encourage what associations are seeing in the center, in order to go against the treatment, but also against the VBG, because it is a link. Between the two, between the VBG and the treatment, there are always links. I would really say that it would be a very good thing to see how others say, to see how others know, how to do everything that is possible, so that of course, the actors or the leading parties can be very equipped with these technological tools that can really take these courses, but also... Thank you so much and thank you for bringing back that notion of tech divide and gender divide and accessing tech that Siobhan has raised initially. I would like to turn to Jean Hollanger. Jean, you are in Burkina and it would be great to hear from you a specific question or your experience in this issue. Thank you very much William. My name is Jean and I am in Burkina and I work for the Oxfam account. Well, it is not a specific question, the experience raised will make mention of everything we currently live with cybercriminality, to be able to fight or effectively contribute to fight against the treatment of human beings, in all forms of exploitation or slavery. So I would like, through this forum, that the exchanges are much deeper to see what are the effective and the most adapted measures that allow us as a structure that operates on the field to be able to develop effective mechanisms in connection with technology currently developed in the context of mechanisms that will lead to human treatment. How can we face this question of cybercriminality? Because the more technology is developed, the more cybercriminality is also developed. Is the mechanism to play stronger or not? So these are the debates on which I would like to have more elements because under the base of the field experiences, it means that there are many mechanisms already developed, but is it effective? Is it operational? Is it efficient? That is my contribution. Thank you, Jean. Thank you very much, Jean. For the direct question, I think we will demand a direct answer from our panelists. But before that, let me turn to Central Africa. FNODH, FNOHD, Central Africa, you had a question. It would be great to hear from you directly. Go ahead. Hello everyone. I think that for the question of people and the use of technology, on the other hand, we think that it is not the same technology that poses the problem. It is much more questions related to mentality and the use of technology. And I think that the tool that will be developed must take into account the intensification of the sensitization of the users who use this technology to unite the community. And I also think that we can also find ground in time with the technological giants who will be able to help us in this sense to reduce the risks of people's treatment. Because it is those who control the entire world system, the social resources and many other things. And so the contribution will really be very, very important in these discussions to be able to find adequate solutions to manage these problems of technology. Thank you very much. I see also, thank you for the clear question. I see also a question from Melania, Roswita and Isidor that are clear. And then Christina, thank you for your question on the leadership and management structures of the tech companies. I will take one last question from Amadou who has his hand up. And then I will start turning back to our panelists to start addressing some of the issues. Amadou to you. Amadou, did you have any question? Can you hear us? Yes, thank you for sharing and for a response. I have one question. What is the good technology now to use to avoid the threat of human trafficking by the population is not too rich. It is possible to use a small technology who are not very expensive for the population using. Thank you. Thank you very much, Amadou. Please for the rest, including Leonard, please do put your question in the chat box and we will take it accordingly. So let me turn back to the panelists. I think it's very interesting to see a bit the tension where you have gone systematically to your presentation. Saying that there is no silver bullet. There is no straightforward answer. There is no clear platform to talk about. And then the majority of the questions that come from the field operations is, you know, what should we do? Give us a clear straight answer. What platform should we use? Do we use this? Yes or no? So I think there is an inherent tension there that I would like in several ways to dismantle part of it with you today. So I would like first to turn to you Grace and say, from all what you have heard, what do you think is the exact role of the big companies? We have seen questions related to that resonating in two, three questions actually. For the big companies, what can we do concretely with them? What is their role and responsibility in a very concrete way? Grace, over to you. Thank you, William. And I think I'd first like to apologize to everyone for my video. I'm having some severe tech issues. It wouldn't be a COVID conference without at least one of us doing that. So I'm glad to take one for the team. I think really this comes down to radical transparency and for the big companies without that, it's the bedrock upon which all other change can be built. We know that only 6% of global supply chains have transparency across them and it's just completely unacceptable. We know that forced labour and human trafficking is occurring throughout our global economy through distressed migration, through informal migration pathways on an unprecedented level. As I said earlier, in regards to the Facebook leaks from just the last few days, you know, I don't think anyone's under any illusion that Facebook is an ethical actor. But I know from my work in the conflict mediation space, working with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue that there are many funders coming into this space now who are yet to clean up their own acts. And I think if we look at, you know, it's kind of like Coca-Cola funding a campaign for diabetes. We've got to look for the fox in the hen house and unless we can have these companies retrospectively look back and clean up their own acts and address severe gaps within their own supply chains and within their own policies, then we certainly shouldn't be letting them into these intricate spaces where survivors are vulnerable and the stakes are just way too high. And another social media platform that I didn't mention in my opening remarks was TikTok, which is obviously probably the most popular one at the moment for young people. And we've literally seen human trafficking rings occur on there for children, for domestic workers, giving the size and dimensions of people and what their skills are. And it's seriously disturbing because it's set to music and it trends in to children and young people's feeds, but that's not by mistake. It's because it is so insidious in our global economy. So I think that that radical transparency, that ability for us as a coalition to say we don't want your dirty money if you're not going to clean up your own acts. And the reality is this, this space for all of us, there needs to be a far greater investment into these fields more broadly. But we need that investment to not be doing harm while also be trying to do good. Thanks, Grace. Let me turn to you, Hannah. You have spoken in your presentation mostly about technologies used to combat trafficking. I would like to look at the other flip side and the questions that are coming from two operations at least saying, how can we face actually cyber criminality on technologies that do exist and not specific tools designed to combat trafficking spaces that do exist? Any, any trends, any ideas, any pushes in addition to what what Siobhan has mentioned earlier in her interventions. Over to you, Hannah. Yes, I'd say taking off my tech against trafficking hat for a moment. So my main role here at business for social responsibility is actually working with our 300 company members to integrate ethics and human rights based approaches to their work. And I think that's where I would really land on is that companies have a responsibility under the UN guiding principles on business and human rights to respect and protect human rights and to address the human rights impacts that they're associated with. And I think that that's where companies need to start. They need to start by identifying those adverse human rights impacts associated with their products, their services and their platforms. We can look just at human trafficking, but I think we should also look at the wider range of human rights impacts. So many different human rights, you know, the freedom of expression, the risk of forced labor and trafficking, you know, the ability to access culture, right to scientific advancement. So many of these are intertwined. So companies that need to take a step back and look at all human rights their connection to all of them and then figure out how to address each of those impacts that they're connected to. And so I think that'd be my starting place is making sure that they actually have the mechanisms of structures the processes in place to systematically review the negative impacts are associated with and address them. And part of what the UN principle states is that they need to not only identify and address but they need to track and communicate. So making sure that they are actually tracking how effective and efficient their responses are, and then being transparent in how they are responding to those items. The two additional things I'd add there is that, you know, what we don't talk about in the UN guiding principles is the opportunity to promote human rights. And so I think companies need to make sure that they're looking at how to address the negative impacts, but also thinking about how to leverage their in house resources, their skills to further tackle the issue as collaborative. And I almost see it as kind of two different sides of the coin, you know, addressing the supply chains that Grace was looking at earlier really being introspective taking a look at those negative impacts, and then thinking through as an industry, or collaboration of how we can further tackle and proactively address the issue in their own four walls. The one thing I would mention is that we talk a lot about technology companies to. But now there's so many actors deploying these technologies, you know, many of the groups that sit here in Silicon Valley, create platforms and services for companies not within the tech sector. And so how do we make sure that we're bringing others into that conversation as well and ensuring the responsibility of actors throughout the tech ecosystem, those using the technologies and those putting ads on it. Those, you know, how are we bringing them in to make sure that they're looking at their impacts as well and that they have responsibility to help protect and respect human rights, alongside the technology companies that are developing these these tools. Tech tool that you use that you find reliable and it works and tell us how do you actually use. Before answering your question, I want to add a little bit to what Hannah was saying about the companies in general and human rights. I think that the problem of treating people in general, and sexual exploitation, commercial of children, teenagers, is given in various scenarios. It is given in the physical scenario, in the community, in the family, in the educational institutions, in the migratory flows, it is also given in the tourist sector. It is also given in the mining energy sector and it is also given in the telecommunications sector. In that sense, there are experiences in Colombia and worldwide in what has to do with the tourist sector and how the tourist companies have united and have fought against sexual exploitation, commercial and against the treatment of people. And they have adhered to ethical codes, the code that conducts you, that with specific points, as well as to meet with a certification and with a certification made, that it is not only to sign a paper and take a picture, but the hotel, travel agency, the airline must be responsible for the protection of children and teenagers and the prevention of the treatment of people and sexual exploitation. I think that this is a path and it is a route to follow in what has to do with the technological companies. I think that in the technological companies of information and communication, the big ones, the mediums and the small ones, they must also assume those code of ethics, those code of conduct, that some are assumed as non-connected, not in a norm or a law that is valid in the country, and in other countries if it is like law. For example, here in Colombia, all tourist companies must assume code of conduct by law to prevent commercial sexual exploitation. I believe and it is like one of the proposals that I make here and that I put into consideration, and it is that as well as it is done with the tourist sector, it is also done with telecommunications companies of information and communication and that there is a real and serious commitment in the prevention of commercial sexual exploitation of the treatment of people, with any of the purposes that the treatment of people is given, because we are facing a crime and a violation of human rights. So you cannot negotiate with that, you cannot put money, utilities or grants on the rights of women, men, children, children and teenagers. That would be my first contribution to the discussion. The second, I was wondering if we have used any tools, because now in the pandemic all these tools of Zoom, all these tools have been of great utility. I was telling them that young people have managed to join Latin America to a voice and propose to them. I have been talking about them since I was 14 years old, until I was 25 years old, young people dialogue permanently, and we adults learn from them because, another thing that I said in my exposition, and it is that we adults have to learn, because we do not know, many of us do not know, everything that children know, children and teenagers know. So to be able to do that prevention of what I was talking about and physical means, we adults and adults, we have to know, we have to know. There is a number of social networks and I think we only know WhatsApp, Facebook. There is a number that is necessary that we know, that the teachers and the teachers know, and that in that sense we can go to synergy, also walking next to the boys and girls. Thank you very much. Yes, we have to learn from our children and young people. I fully agree. I want to give the floor to Jennifer Chase to tell us what's her main takeaways from the whole session, then give the last word to Siobhan, but before that, before closing remarks, if we can remove the slide. I'm so intrigued to turn back to you, Grace, and pick one specific question that came. Big companies have male dominated management structures. How does that have an impact in terms of in terms of human rights alignments and this specific case trafficking. Any thoughts about that I've heard you previously speaking with special about this issue and I'm very intrigued to ask you this question. Over to you. Well, I wish I had my camera on so you could see my face when you ask that question. It's a great one. I think, you know, I'd preface what I was about to say by we all know that doing the same thing and expecting a different system that has got us to where we are the system that's got us to the fact there are more people living in modern slavery than at previous times in historical. These things aren't mistakes they have happened purposefully and I think that human trafficking modern slavery, the many terms we use under that umbrella. We know these are highly gendered problems. We know that conservatively one in every 130 women and girls on earth is living in some form of modern slavery. We know that conservatively because that number is taken from the last global estimates of modern slavery created between walk free, the ILO and the IOM pre covered 19. So, the minimum amount of women and girls living in modern slavery is one in every 130. This could literally be as close as the shirt on our back, the coffee we drank this morning, the technology we speak on today. 71% of all victims of modern slavery are women and girls and I think that these problems cannot be solved by the patriarchal structures that at best have allowed them to occur, or have ignored it from being their responsibility or at worst have benefited from it directly. Thank you so much, Grace. Thank you. Jennifer, you are the lead of the gender based violence area of responsibility globally. You have been listening to this conversation, and you've got five minutes to wrap it all up for us. Over to you, Jen. So I really want to thank all of the speakers. I think it's been a fascinating session. It's been a great, great combination of hearing from special repertoire hearing from, I mean how exciting to hear about human rights within the tech companies, you know, I hope there's a lot more of you Hannah out there. Because I think that's a really important bridge to have between, you know, protection human rights, and then looking at the tech companies and the responsibilities and the accountabilities, and not just the accountability of the companies themselves, but those who are using the platforms you know hearing about those who are placing the ads here learning about supply chains and, and what a low rate of transparency that there is. And I think this is something we all need to impact. And I also really appreciated the point of broadening our perspective on on human rights, you know that that we're we're looking at the bigger issues of the digital divide that includes lack of access, and, and, and, and not just, you know, just sort of so many dimensions that need to be worked on in a comprehensive way. And, and thank you so much for the rich field experiences and I really sort of resonated with that question, I think coming from Molly of you know what what are the what what about those of us who who don't have a lot of funding and resources to deal with these issues and I think we did hear about that a lot can be done with SMS and with WhatsApp, and you know in terms of identification but also in terms of providing services linking people to services. So I think that's an example of the sophisticated tool that was created for the border between Mexico and the US but then people didn't think about languages or about access to Internet or you know so, so I think you know going back to the basics is also I appreciated Marilyn's also reminder to all of us about the need for the physical space still you know we still need the people, the people on the ground who who are accompanying survivors who are responding and I appreciated hearing about integration because I know that's a really challenging issue once people have been identified helping them integrate reintegrate back into their communities back within their families I know that's a big issue. And so it's good to hear that technology is helping with that as well. So I think really. At least for me, this has opened sort of raise a lot of new questions for me, instead of making me feel like I have more clarity I feel like I have a lot more questions. And that's probably true for many people on this call and I, and I hope what it's doing is making us all also think more about what is our role, you know, as the protection cluster as the different AORs. And our colleague from Burundi talked about the links between gender based violence and trafficking, but I think there's, there's many links we know with child protection there's also a lot of links with general protection. So, so I'm, I'm glad that we have our task team within the GPC I hope more people will be motivated to look at, you know, how can we expand our work and do something around identification and around prevention, you know I heard the, I think almost all of the speakers talked about we can use technology, not only to identify but to prevent cases of trafficking in in human beings and, you know, clearly we heard a lot about women and girls are the ones who are most targeted. And, and I think really it's important I hope everyone heard how many of the speakers talked about the importance of having the survivors themselves. Help lead the discussion and help design what we need to look for their remedies and and how we really need to to listen I think you know the six points that Hannah gave us gave us some really concrete ideas. But really I think you know we know for GBV also we need to listen to survivors. We need to listen to who's using technology, who are working directly with survivors around services. And, and I also I mean it was very depressing, the one in 130 that's the first time I've heard that statistic and that's alarming. I also heard some hope and thank you for that example of the young people between 14 and 18 who are the ones who are sort of pushing those of us who are a bit older into learning more and opening new ideas for us to think about how can we address these issues collectively. Not just as a protection sector but making all these links between the United Nations system and the tech companies and, and the users so I will leave it there I don't know William if you want to say one more thing. Thank you so much Jennifer. Actually, I want to say one more thing and hand over to to Siobhan to to give us some some instructions I would say we have a task team on anti trafficking I see there is a lot of questions asking for a specific advice. I really encourage people who have who are asking for specific good practices to connect with the task team of the global protection cluster. I'm sure we can establish the connection between experts from from field to field. I pre commit to all your recommendations for us. You have heard all of this you're working on this topic you're accountable to many aspects of it. How can we help from the GPC. Give us the marching orders over to you. Thank you very much William and thank you very much to all the panelists and all of those working in the field. First, we just noted and I think as has been highlighted we have the legal and policy tools we have endless examples of good practices of policy guidance we have the legal and nor get normative framework to address this problem the key gaps are in implementation. And I think what is surprising to me perhaps and to others working in anti trafficking are the continuing gaps in knowledge around how to access these resources and how to implement them on the ground. I think this goes back to something that William said at the very beginning that, even with all of the work that is ongoing that we tend, we are still working in in silos, and to compartmentalized in our responses to the problem of trafficking in persons. Through the work of global protection cluster and others, I think it's absolutely urgent that we break down those silos. So that we ensure that those of you who are in the field in humanitarian settings in conflict settings in crisis situations are ready. So training have the resources and capacity and support needed to prevent trafficking occurring and to identify those at risk and being trafficked, including through the use of digital technologies. So the resources are there but we need to implement them quite urgently on the ground and I think that goes back to what was said something that Hannah mentioned an example. We have for example, 70 unique that you had counted 70 unique tech tools that had been developed to identify or to assist in identifying victims of trafficking and risks of trafficking. Instead of continuing to duplicate this kind of work. We really need more effective sharing of these resources and these tools and dissemination to those in the field who are on the frontline, who need to be able to react quickly. So that I think that sharing of information that sharing of resources is absolutely critical. What I would say is that states need to step up in terms of their responses, because I don't think we can rely on businesses or the tech sector voluntary compliance hasn't worked isn't working. There are too many risks, we need oversight and effective action from states and international organizations to ensure accountability for the prevention of trafficking online, and for ensuring access to protection and yes technology isn't a silver bullet. Technology is the means by which trafficking happens or through which we can take preventive action, but the big tech sector in particular needs to step up and to allocate more resources and be more effective in its action and in particular in international cooperation, particularly in countries and in settings where there may be more difficulties in accessing information and remedies. I think a key thing is that it is effective, effective groups who lead on this, who inform us as to what tools are most effective on the ground, what are the issues around connectivity, or digital divides, whether it's linked to rural settings or it's a gender divide, so that we can address those as a matter of urgency. I would go back to the point that Maya said, made that we need to walk with children, we need to listen to children, we need to learn from children and young people, and walk with them hand in hand. So looking at ensuring that children and young people have a voice that they have access to technologies that in the context of covert 19 where we see closures of schools collapse of informal economies. I think that we ensure that access to digital technology is not distorted that it's not used in a way which is abusive and violative of human rights but can actually be an important tool to prevent exploitation and trafficking. I think to go back to the point that is made around the gender dimensions. This is something in all anti trafficking action we talk about addressing root causes discrimination violence against women. The gender dimensions the structural gender dimensions of discrimination and poverty that contributes to and leads to and creates an environment in which trafficking happens. Women and girls in particular are targeted. And we need to be mindful also that we sometimes miss men and boys that they become less visible, because they are not always perceived as vulnerable, or as there may be additional obstacles to disclosure of experiences of exploitation including trafficking. But we really need to address those structural dimensions and ensure that technology becomes a tool are really useful to that we cooperate internationally through mutual legal assistance through sharing of information through training and capacity building of justice sector actors, so that we can combat trafficking more effectively and use technology to support that work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to all our panelists. Thank you for all the participants. Please continue the engagement with the trafficking, anti trafficking task team, trafficking remains a crime that is most predictable in times of crisis. Your response to it must be as predictable as the crime and prevention needs to be as high as the risk, both in digital and physical space and I think from today acknowledging how more and more these two spaces are connected. Thank you everyone have a good afternoon and a good rest of the forum. Bye bye. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye bye.