Date: 3-4 June 2015
Venue: Hotel Crowne Plaza, Vilnius, Lithuania
Languages: English, Russian, Lithuanian (simultaneous translation)
Target group: Baltic and Nordic police, prosecutors, border guards, representatives of ministries, politicians, and NGOs
Participation: invited guests only, pre-registration is required latest on 22 May 2015. If you are interested in participating in the knowledge forum and wish to have an invitation, please contact:
- Nordic participants: Carita Peltonen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
- Estonian participants: Merle Kuusk, NCM Office in Estonia (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
- Latvian participants: Daina Mežecka, NCM Office in Latvia (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
- Lithuanian participants: dr. Reda Sirgediene, the Ministry of the Interior of republic of Lithuania (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

The knowledge forum in the framework of the Nordic-Baltic project against trafficking in human beings* will focus on the identification of victims of human trafficking in the Baltic Sea Region in a regional cross-border perspective.

The event will be arranged as a discussion forum where the activities of the police to identify victims in Lithuania and other Baltic States, as well as in the Nordic countries will be the starting point. The police will share their practices to identify victims from the first steps of the uniformed police to the criminal police and criminal proceedings. The focus will also be on the challenges the police meet at the local level and at border check-points in identifying the victims. Discussions on when exploitation turns to trafficking, who are the victims and who are the criminals and cooperation of NGOs and the police will be raised.

Examples of presentations and speakers:

• Deputy Commissioner of Metropolitan Police in Iceland Alda Hrönn Jóhannsdóttir will present the role and challenges of the police in Iceland.
• The Liaison Police Attorney for Norway Rudolf Christoffersen, from Eurojust, will give a presentation of Norwegian practice of prosecutor and police cooperation on identification of victims.
• Senior Consultant Kristiina Luht, Ministry of Social Affairs, Estonia will discuss the social consequences for the victims of human trafficking.

The challenges for the uniformed and criminal police to identify victims of human trafficking and how to raise awareness of the public to be able to identify victims will be discussed in workshops.

* The third knowledge forum is being organised within the framework of a Nordic Council of Ministers project entitled 'Nordic – Baltic – North-West Russian Border Regional Cooperation Part II: Combating Trafficking in Human Beings for Forced Labour, Children and Sexual Exploitation'. Further information about the project can be found here.

Past activities:

• Knowledge Forum I: 'Trafficking in Human Beings: Recruitment, Identification, Victim Support' (April 24-25 2014, Tallinn, Estonia)
• Expert Seminar: 'Legal Proceedings' (November 12-13 2014, Stockholm, Sweden)
• Knowledge Forum II: 'Social Consequences' (November 27-28 2014, Riga, Latvia)