Regional Report: “Towards greater accountability”

Participatory Monitoring of Anti-Trafficking Initiatives.

The project of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), “Towards greater accountability – Participatory Monitoring of Anti-Trafficking Initiatives”, aims to reaffirm the right of surviving victims to express their voices, by monitoring initiatives that are intended to benefit them. The Project also aims to ensure that victims’ voices are properly considered in the design or implementation of laws, policies and programs to combat trafficking. In this sense, the main objective of this global project is to increase the accountability of State authorities, NGOs and other stakeholders involved in such design or implementation.

In the framework of this project, the International Secretariat of the GAATW carried out an investigation from the years 2013 to 2014 with the participation of sixteen GAATW member organizations from three global regions. The research study aimed to identify victims’ perceptions and views of the support services they received, which would be reflected in the respective country reports. The participant organizations in the research had provided some form of assistance to surviving victims that had participated in the study. Seven of the organizations that participated in the research are from Latin America and the Caribbean: The Civil Human Rights Association of United Women Migrants and Refugees in Argentina (AMUMRA) of Argentina; Renacer, Hope Foundation and Space Corporation Foundation Women of Colombia; Ecuador Hope Foundation; Street Brigade Support Women “Elisa Martinez”, AC of Mexico and Alternative Forms of Human and Social Capital (CHS Alternativo) of Peru. Thus, each of the participating organizations presented a separate country report following a similar structure, but with particular nuances according to the focus of the work of each organization.