Marjan Wijers
co-founder of Rights4Change

Marjan Wijers works as independent researcher, consultant and trainer on human rights, human trafficking, sex workers rights and women’s rights. She is co-founder of Rights4Change, a cooperative of gender and human rights experts specialized in the development and application of human rights impact assessment tools. She is especially interested in the impact of laws and policies on trafficking and sex work on the human rights of trafficked persons, sex workers and migrants. She has worked at the Dutch Foundation against Trafficking in Women, the Clara Wichmann Institute, Dutch Expert Centre on Women & Law, and the Verwey-Jonker Institute, research into social issues. She has wide experience in providing assistance and support to victims of trafficking, as well as in policy development, lobby and advocacy. Amongst others she was actively involved in the NGO lobby around the UN Trafficking Protocol as part of the Human Rights Caucus, a coalition of anti-trafficking, human rights and sex workers rights organizations. She also was one of the organizers of the first European sex workers conference in Brussels in 2005. From 2003-2007 she was President of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings, established by the European Commission. Over the past years she published various articles on trafficking, sex work and human rights. She studied social sciences and law and specialized in human rights law.

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