From September 7 to 17, 2022, Ms. Zahida Israfilova, an employee of the Foreign Relations and Protocol Services Division of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, took part in the “Open World Program” sponsored by the Congressional Office for International Leadership on the topic of combating human trafficking.

Consisting of two parts, the exchange program took place in the cities of Washington D.C. and Chicago.

At the opening ceremony, held in Washington,D.C, the Executive director of the Open World Organization, officials of the US Department of State, the Office of Administrative Affairs of the US Courts, the Law Library of Congress, made presentations on the topics of the US justice system, the activities of the Law Library of Congress, the role of public defenders and provided participants with detailed information about their activities.

During the central part organized in Chicago, the participants met professors of various leading U.S. universities such as Illinois, Loyola and Northwest located in Chicago, and got acquainted with their research activities on the implementation of anti-trafficking policies.

Furthermore, the participants took part in meetings with representatives of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and got acquainted with their experiences in combating human trafficking and services provided to victims of human trafficking.

Representatives of the General Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, and the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan also took part in this program.