CASE STUDY

Bringing regional voices to the global stage

Advocating for better victim identification at the United Nations.

The challenge

Globally, only a fraction of people experiencing trafficking are ever formally identified. Without identification, people can remain beyond the reach of protection and support, perpetrators remain hidden, and governments lack an accurate picture of the scale and nature of trafficking.

The realities behind those statistics differ significantly between countries and communities. Global conversations need to be informed not only by international experts, but by the knowledge and experience of people working at the grassroots, including voices from regions too often absent from global discussions.

Taking regional expertise to the United Nations

In July 2026, OFN Director Sarah Scott-Webb travelled to New York to participate in the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals. Speaking at a side event organised with global advocacy partners, Sarah addressed one of the most significant challenges in the anti-trafficking response: victim identification. The presentation drew together research, practitioner knowledge and frontline experience to strengthen understanding of the identification ecosystem and the role multiple sectors can play.

But OFN didn’t take only its own voice to New York. A grassroots colleague from the Solomon Islands spoke by video directly to the UN audience, sharing firsthand the realities and challenges of identifying trafficking victims in his context. A voice thousands of kilometres from New York had a place in the room.

What changed?

Through collaboration with international advocacy partners and researchers, OFN brought evidence, practitioner expertise and Pacific experience into a global conversation, strengthening understanding of victim identification at the highest level.

This case study brings all three areas of Just Mercy’s impact together: capability through shared knowledge, advocacy in the spaces where change can be influenced, and representation by creating pathways for regional experience to be heard.