May 5-7, 2025 

Bukeni Waruzi has helped put a Congolese warlord behind bars at the International Criminal Court (ICC), has helped women trafficked into domestic servitude in the Middle East, and has served as a human rights champion with American, European and African organizations for more than 20 years.

As executive director of Free the Slaves, he works closely with the board, the global team and headquarters to provide strategic leadership and set a vision for one of the world’s most widely-known and respected anti-modern slavery organizations.

Waruzi has documented human rights abuses, designed and implemented advocacy campaigns, made public presentations around the world, and trained hundreds of human rights advocates and activists in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.

Eva Nullens is a Human Rights Officer at the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of Belgium, specializing in Business & Human Rights. She has led the Belgian process of adopting the second National Action Plan on Business & Human Rights. She holds two Master degrees, one in Political Sciences (KU Leuven), and one in European and International Law (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). Prior to her role in the federal government services, she worked with several regional governmental authorities, where she gained extensive experience in equal opportunities policy.

Ivann Liberatore serves as the Deputy Representative to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and to the G7-G20 Labor & Employment tracks, representing France at the ILO Governing Body and in key G7 and G20 meetings. Beside his work for the government, he holds an Adjunct Position at the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po.
Prior to that, he was a researcher at the NYU Stern 

Center for Business and Human Rights, New York, where he conducted research on due diligence, corporate accountability, and child labor. He also worked for a short period of time in the Department of Peace Operations at the UN Headquarters in New York. He has experience in legal work and teaching.
He holds two master’s degrees: one in International Relations from New York University (NYU) and another in U.S. History and Foreign Policy from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is fluent in French, English, and Spanish.

Marie Helene BOUCHARD holds the pivotal role of Head of Global Engagement, Policy and Advocacy at Free the Slaves, a globally recognized organization headquartered in Washington, DC, dedicated to eradicating human trafficking,
forced labor, modern slavery, and child labor worldwide.

In her capacity, Marie spearheads the development and execution of comprehensive engagement strategies with governments and key institutions both nationally and internationally. Her responsibilities include raising awareness, mobilizing support, engaging key actors and influencing policies aimed at combating modern slavery. She plays a crucial role in coordinating government mobilization efforts, representing the organization in high-level policy discussions, and establishing strategic partnerships with governmental entities and strategic networks and advocacy partners.

Marija Anđelkovic is director and one of the founders of NGO ASTRA-Anti trafficking action, the first grass root NGO combating trafficking in human beings. She is a lawyer by profession with 25 years of experience in field of gender-based violence and one of the first civil society activists to raise the issue of human trafficking in Balkan region, advocating for improving the position of victims and respect of victim’s rights. She has experience in direct victims’ assistance to more than 660 victims as well as in prevention and education activities as trainer and lecturer in Serbia and abroad sharing her anti-trafficking expertise with professionals from governmental institutions and NGOs. She was a member of working groups for developing and monitoring strategic anti-trafficking documents in Serbia. She is an author of numerous publications, manual, articles and shadow reports on human trafficking. Her work and work of ASTRA has influenced shaping and delivering of policy and practice across the region.

Martin is currently Head of the Modern Slavery and Business and Human Rights Team in the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) which delivers FCDO’s policy and programme commitments to reduce modern slavery and business-related human rights abuses. He was previously Deputy Head of the Protecting Children Hub and Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for FCDO’s strategic relationship with UNICEF and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Prior to joining FCDO, Martin worked in international sports development working on major sporting events including the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Earlier in his career he was Private Secretary to the Minister for Sport and Tourism.

Sian Lea, Business and Human Rights Manager, Anti-Slavery International: Sian has over 15 years of experience in human rights and social justice, managing programmes and teams of various sizes. She has worked with Anti-Slavery International for two and a half years, managing campaigns on business and human rights legislation and overseeing engagement with business. Previously, she was the Managing Director for Shiva Foundation, a corporate foundation tackling modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK. In this role, she worked closely with businesses, the hospitality sector in particular, to address risks of modern slavery, and local and national policymakers to advocate for meaningful change. Prior to joining Shiva Foundation, Sian managed humanitarian education projects with the British Red Cross and worked on capacity building and access-to-justice projects with Legal Support for Children and Women in Cambodia.

Since 2004, Suzanne Hoff is International Coordinator of La Strada International, the European NGO Platform against trafficking in human beings, comprising 32 anti-trafficking NGOs in 24 European countries (both EU and non-EU).

As International Coordinator, Suzanne Hoff manages a broad range of tasks including strategy planning, lobby & advocacy and monitoring European developments, next to coordination of joint European projects, campaigns, and research. She represents the platform in various international fora and platforms, think thanks and NGO advocacy groups.

The advocacy, campaigns and (research) projects she has contributed to over the last 20 years relate to many different aspects of human trafficking, but in particular these related to victims’ rights and their access to justice (compensation, safe reporting, non-punishment and access to residence). She also worked on monitoring and data collection and policy issues related to definitions and application of legislation, fair migration, decent work, business and human rights and addressing, demand.