Inviting all for an evening of Lecture by Ms. Kate Mogulescu, a supervising attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice in the US on the topic of "Criminal Justice Advocacy for Survivors of Trafficking".

In an open discussion, Moderated by Dr. Manisha Bangar, NVP, Mulniwasi Sangh, the speaker Ms. Mogulescu will address many issues like 'How can lawyers and other advocates better represent survivors of trafficking in the criminal justice system? How can communities understand and meet survivors’ legal and other critical needs? How can courts and other criminal justice agencies better identify and provide support to trafficked persons? How do arrest policies figure into anti-trafficking efforts?".

She will also refer to pertinent areas like Working with Sexually Exploited Youth in Criminal and Juvenile Court Systems, Bridging the Gap –Community Based Organizations & Justice Systems among other issues.

In 2011, Ms. Mogulescu founded and developed the first anti-trafficking project to be implemented by a public defender organization. She continues to run the Exploitation Intervention Project, which aims to better identify victims of trafficking and exploitation among individuals prosecuted in New York City, and regularly trains public defenders, prosecutors, and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system, both in New York City and nationally, on best practices to identify victims of human trafficking and prevent the criminalization of vulnerable populations. She has provided testimony before the New York City Council, the New York State Legislature and the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In addition, her critiques of anti-prostitution policing policies have been published in the New York Times and elsewhere.

Ms. Mogulescu recently received the support of the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime to create and implement a national training and technical assistance program for lawyers serving survivors of human trafficking in the United States. This project, the Survivor Reentry Project, will begin in 2016 and will work to counteract the harmful impact of criminalization on trafficking survivors.

Ms. Mogulescu received her J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

All are welcome to this open discussion.