Employees of Ministry of Interior in Republic Karelia and Internal Affairs Directorate in Petrozavodsk took part in two international seminars

The first seminar took place on June 29. Beside law enforcement officers, employees of the official authorities of Petrozavodsk city district, representatives of the regional public organization "Information center of independent female forum" and the noncommercial partnership "Karelian resource center of public associations" took part in it.

The seminar took place as part of the project "Increase of safety of women and reduction of violence through practical activities in local territories". Beside Russia, four countries participate besides Russia in the organization of this international project: Canada, Tanzania, India and Argentina. Petrozavodsk has been its dedicated participant for many years while the chief coordinator in Russia is the regional public organization "Information center of independent female forum", supervised by Yelizaveta Bozhkova.

The information center of the independent female forum has already been cooperating with the Karelian Ministry of Interior for more than six years and this teamwork has yielded a number of positive results. This work has different aspects from carrying out sociological inquiries up to making specific decisions.

The purpose of the latest meeting was the development of a Plan of coordinated actions aimed at the increase of safety and reduction of violence against women. For the whole day the participants of the seminar discussed questions, problems and searched for ways of improvement of safeguarding citizens in the modern city environment taking Petrozavodsk city as an example.

On the following day a seminar took place at the Professional education center of the Ministry of Interior in Republic Karelia in which militia employees and representatives of the Bureau of International migration association participated. The seminar was to the struggle against human trafficking. Today, governments, law enforcement bodies, public associations of many countries unite their efforts to get rid of this shameful phenomenon.

In 1992, an agreement was concluded between the Government of Russia and the International migration association to implement programs in the territory of Russia which are aimed at solution of issues of the international and internal migration. Two years ago the Bureau of the International migration association in Moscow and the Ministry of Interior in Republic Karelia signed their own Memorandum of Understanding. "Over these years the interaction has got a special meaning," are words from the address of the Bureau of the International migration association in Moscow Enrico Ponziani to the Minister of Interior in Republic Karelia Mikhail Zakomaldin. - "Its principal components are: the participation of Karelian militia officers in delegations of law enforcement bodies to Germany, Italy and Belarus whose visits arranged by us for the purpose of exchanging experience of struggling against the human trafficking; offering professional training opportunities and contributing to increasing the technical capacities of units engaged in the counteraction to human trafficking".

During the seminar, a number of issues concerning the interaction of militia with public associations were discussed. The Karelian Ministry of Interior had much to share in this respect.

Upon the termination of the meeting, the participants emphasized the importance of joint actions to oppose the human trafficking while visitors from Vilnius and Kaliningrad added the experience of the Karelian public associations and militia officers in their inventory.

Press service of the Ministry of Interior in Republic Karelia

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