PAS Kolkata Grant: Combating Human Trafficking on the Dark Web Conclave

Based on funding availability, PAS Kolkata will support a three-day conclave at the American Center in Kolkata that will convene stakeholders across the Indo-Pacific region to collaborate and build solutions to identify the threats and develop solutions to reduce the human trafficking incidents through cybercrimes.  Fifty to sixty stakeholders representing countries from the South Central Asia and East Asia Pacific regions will participate in the three-day conclave, which will be structured on sharing information and case studies, workshops on successful strategies, and brainstorming sessions on collaboration across state and national governments.  Key themes will include the mapping of hidden online services directories, customer data monitoring, social site monitoring, hidden service monitoring, semantic analysis and market place profiling.  A second focus of the conclave will be strengthening cyber technology and boosting awareness of the responsible use of technology and social media.  Technology companies and developers can create innovative solutions for detecting and disrupting human trafficking on their networks and assume a proactive role in advancing research in this area, which is still at a nascent stage. 

  The workshop will end with a public presentation by conclave participants for civil society and private enterprises on how they can collaborate with the government and law enforcement to tackle this problem.  Building on the West Bengal Commission for the Protection of Child Rights-organized December 2018 conference on the sexual exploitation of children in a digital era, this project will generate public awareness, build on existing partnerships, and engage diverse stakeholders towards data driven solutions to human trafficking.  After the three-day workshop, the grantee will be required to host informational sessions in at least five public venues on raising awareness on online-human trafficking and the responsible use of social media.

(Please refer to the full announcement available under related documents tab)