The Human Traf­fick­ing Stud­ies Cen­ter is a research and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion oper­at­ing with­in the Fac­ul­ty of Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Warsaw.

The aim of the Cen­ter is to meet the social needs of an inde­pen­dent aca­d­e­m­ic cen­ter deal­ing with all forms of sci­en­tif­ic, train­ing, didac­tic, and infor­ma­tion activ­i­ty relat­ed to mod­ern forms of slav­ery. The cen­ter orga­nizes debates and sem­i­nars on human traf­fick­ing, includ­ing issues such as: the def­i­n­i­tion, the issue of human organ traf­fick­ing, and the lack of vic­tims’ crim­i­nal records. The work of the Cen­tre often results in pub­li­ca­tions on spe­cif­ic issues.

The estab­lish­ment of the Cen­ter was close­ly relat­ed to the imple­men­ta­tion of the project Traf­fick­ing in human beings – pre­ven­tion and pros­e­cu­tion by the Depart­ment of Crim­i­nol­o­gy and Crim­i­nal Pol­i­cy of IPSiR UW. It includ­ed research, train­ing for law enforce­ment offi­cers, inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ences, sem­i­nars, and work­shops. The result of the project was, among oth­ers, the first monograph/textbook on traf­fick­ing in human beings in Poland, pub­lished in June 2006, as well as a num­ber of oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. Undoubt­ed­ly, a pos­i­tive effect of the project imple­men­ta­tion was the estab­lish­ment of a group of peo­ple inter­est­ed in the issues of traf­fick­ing in human beings. Due to the fact that this inter­est turned out to be per­ma­nent, and the prob­lem of traf­fick­ing in human beings did not stop being rel­e­vant, it became nat­ur­al to cre­ate a forum for an activ­i­ty for these peo­ple. Thanks to this, in 2006, the Human Traf­fick­ing Research Cen­ter of the Uni­ver­si­ty of War­saw was estab­lished (at that time oper­at­ing with­in the Depart­ment of Crim­i­nol­o­gy and Crim­i­nal Pol­i­cy of the IPSiR UW). The Cen­ter is the only research insti­tu­tion of this type in Poland and one of the few in the world.

The Center’s Team coop­er­ates with numer­ous nation­al insti­tu­tions (Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or and Admin­is­tra­tion, Police Head­quar­ters, Bor­der Guard Head­quar­ters, the Nation­al Prosecutor’s Office) and inter­na­tion­al insti­tu­tions (Euro­pean Union, the Coun­cil of Europe, EUROPOL, OSCE, Inter­na­tion­al Labour Orga­ni­za­tion, Inter­na­tion­al Orga­ni­za­tion for Migra­tion). Thanks to the mul­ti­an­nu­al coop­er­a­tion with the US Embassy in Poland, the cen­ter has estab­lished con­tacts with numer­ous uni­ver­si­ties, insti­tu­tions, and non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions involved in both research and elim­i­na­tion of traf­fick­ing in human beings in the USA.

A sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ment of the Cen­ter was the cre­ation of post­grad­u­ate stud­ies: Crim­i­no­log­i­cal, vic­ti­mo­log­i­cal, and socio-cul­tur­al aspects of migra­tion and human traf­fick­ing for offi­cers of the oper­a­tional and inves­tiga­tive divi­sion of the Bor­der Guard. These stud­ies were car­ried out in 2015–2016.