Project SPOT ON! – Responsibility of the state for processing human trafficking

Open Gate/La Strada, North Macedonia is a partner in the SPOT ON regional project, together with Vatra Psychosocial Center from Albania as a partner, and ASTRA from Serbia as a lead organization.

Within this project, we are addressing the overview of the status, trends, and practices regarding the position and treatment of human trafficking victims in the justice system, access to justice, participation in criminal proceedings, and verdicts for the crime of human trafficking.

The project combines three parts/phases. The first part involves presenting the existing and developing new methodologies for collecting, processing, and analyzing court verdicts for the crime of human trafficking and other related criminal offenses (mediation in prostitution and trafficking in minors for adoption).

The second part involves collecting verdicts and creating an Analysis of Court Practices for each country in the project.

All versions of the analyses will be bilingual – in the local language and English translation!

The third part concerns the creation of documents and materials based on the findings from the previously conducted analyses, which will serve as sources of information, knowledge, and trends that can be used in the long term for further research and advocacy, thus influencing the improvement of court practices and the position and treatment of human trafficking victims in criminal proceedings.

The aim of the project is to contribute to the strengthening of democracy, the rule of law, and consequently the EU accession process for Serbia, Macedonia, and Albania, in terms of state accountability in combating human trafficking as a form of organized crime.

The project SPOT-ON! State Accountability for Prosecution of Human Trafficking OFF/ON! is supported as a regional grant and is part of the project “SMART Balkans – Civil Society for a Connected Western Balkans” implemented by the Center for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD), Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM), and Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), and financially supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA).