PVPT's History and Background

The Center for Protection of Victims and Prevention of Trafficking in Human Beings (PVPT) is a local non-governmental, non-profit organization that addresses the causes and consequences of violence through a multi-sectoral approach (socio-economic services, awareness raising, advocacy and contribution in making social policies) and facilitates empowerment of the targeted population, by providing: social assistance to the victims of trafficking (VoTs), prevention and education, advocacy and information, awareness raising and empowerment.

Ten years ago, the terrible phenomenon of trafficking, or as we call it “buying and selling of human beings”, was practically not known to us Kosovars. We did not know that in the XX century the slavery existed and that girls and women could be sold, bought and treated as a product.

In December 1999, in Prishtina police identified and rescued 8 girls, victims of trafficking who were trafficked from countries of south-eastern Europe into Kosovo. In absence of adequate shelter, the victims were placed in a PTK office, which was quickly improvised in order to shelter the victims. For this reason the need arose to open a shelter center, where these girls and women, suspected to have been trafficked into Kosovo, would be sheltered and then repatriated to their native countries. Hence, in January 2000 the Humanitarian Organization ACT/UMCOR, Program for Women opened the first shelter center for the victims of trafficking in Kosovo.

Initially supported by ACT/UMCOR and then as registered local NGO, the Center for the Protection of Victims and Prevention of Trafficking of human beings (PVPT Center) has been working for a decade now in combating trafficking of human beings by directly assisting the victims of trafficking and working on the prevention of this phenomenon in Kosovo society.

During the period 2000-2007, in Kosovo there were only two closed type shelters for the victims of trafficking. Facing with lack of long term programs for the victims, in June 2008, the PVPT Center, through the financial support of Finnish Embassy and Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, has opened the first and the only one daily Rehabilitation Center in Kosovo offering a multi disciplinary approach for long term re-habilitation and re-integration of victims of trafficking and those potential. The Center’s experienced staff provides professional services that empower the victims and help them to overcome the traumatic trafficking experience.

PVPT staff has been working in the anti-trafficking field, mainly offering Direct Assistance for International Victims of Trafficking, since 2000, in affiliation with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), an international humanitarian aid organization However, PVPT was founded as an independent local organization in November 2003. Since 2002 PVPT Center has diversified its activities into prevention of trafficking with human being field as well by raising awareness of youth, teachers, parents, journalists, government officials, police officers and NGO’s. Whereas since 2005 PVPT Center has been providing services to local victims of trafficking and to extend its activities also in the field of rehabilitation and reintegration through projects, which enabled the long-term reintegration of victims and potential victims of trafficking as well as of children withdrawn from worst forms of child labour.

Mission

PVPT's mission is to help victims of trafficking by:

Executive Board of the PVPT Center

The Executive Board of PVPT Center is constituted from seven (7) members, who are responsible for managing and controlling the organisation’s assets and issues.

The board acts always in accordance with the aim of the Center. It is a counselling board, but also is competent to present the organisation, to act on behalf of the organisation, to facilitate potential cooperation between the organisation and others, to name and select the representatives as well as to appoint competence and duties of each representativ

The Organisation’s framework

PVPT’s organizational structure, respectively its managerial and professional capacity is composed by capable workers and with many years of experience in the field of counter trafficking.

At the moment, PVPT Center has 11 employees and experts from different fields of work: jurist/lawyer, doctor, psychologist, social worker, educator/teacher and pedagogue.

Click here to dowload the organization structure

Partners

Contribution and cooperation of PVPT Center with other actors against trafficking

The PVPT Center is a member of inter-ministerial group that was established at the end of the 2003, organized by the Prime Minister’s Office. This group developed four Kosovo Action Plan (KAP) for combating trafficking in human beings in Kosovo (2005-2007,2008-2011, 2012-2014, 2015-2019) . During this process, PVPT had a very active role in drafting the strategy in the protection and prevention groups.

On the operational level, PVPT is a member of a Direct Assistance Partners Group (including International Organization for Migration, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and Ministry of Justice) which are local and international, governmental and non-governmental organisations that work directly with Victims of Trafficking (VoT) and Potential Victims of Trafficking (PVoT). These organizations have established a highly organized and efficient referral system that is detailed in the partners’ Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that entered into force in 2008. These procedures are institutionalized and required to be mandatory implemented by each institution involved in anti-trafficking field in Kosovo. The same group has developed a Minimum Standards of Care for the Victims of Trafficking in Kosovo that entered into force in January 2010, with the purpose of ensuring that all services for VoTs in Kosovo are unified so that all beneficiaries receive quality and effective services from the identification phase to a beneficiary’s full reintegration. PVPT will continue to be a critical member of the coordinating group, as a provider of the Rehabilitation Center for VoTs and PVoTs in Kosovo.

The PVPT Center has also contributed on development of Transnational Referral Mechanisms (TRM) for trafficked persons in South-Eastern Europe and drafting the strategy and action plan for the prevention and elimination of Worst Forms of Children Labour.

Concerning national cooperation, PVPT is a member of a) Kosovan Women Network since 2004 and b) Coalition for Child Protection established in 2010 by twelve organisation that work in protection of children rights.

PVPT consider that cooperation with other organisation in direct assistance and prevention of human trafficking impacts the interest of the beneficiaries.

To provide service in three pillars of activity, PVPT has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the various National Institutions including the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and Department of Psychology nder the University of Prishtina.