Last week, Legal Momentum’s President and CEO, Carol Robles-Román, was a featured panelist at the Thomson Reuters Trust Women Conference in London. The conference brought together more than 550 delegates from 55 countries to discuss realistic and visionary solutions to the global challenges facing women today. 
Carol Robles-Román discussed child trafficking with Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi at the Trust Women Conference.
Carol’s panel, “How Can We Make Mega-Cities More Woman-Friendly?” explored challenges women face in large urban areas—where more than half the world’s population now lives—and how cities can better meet women’s needs. Carol discussed how a mega-city can implement a female-centered agenda and budget. She focused on how a mega-city like NYC created innovative Family Justice Centers to achieve a victim-centered approach. The four centers, which Carol helped spearhead as NYC Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs, bring together service providers, police, criminal prosecutors, legal representation, psychological counseling, and child care assistance together under one roof. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. noted in his keynote address that “Carol was essential in helping us open up the New York County FJC,” and that FJCs are also effective in helping victims of human trafficking. Carol also urged women to speak out. “If you don’t ask, then you won’t get. You need to be strong and persevere. Never take no for an answer when you know you are right.” (For further details of the panel discussion, read this article or this blog.)
A key feature of the Trust Women conference is its Actions agenda, a list of 30 concrete proposals for practical and innovative solutions to empower women around the world. Carol will help lead two of these initiatives. One is a Sister City Mentorship Model, identifying jurisdictions that have successfully implemented the Family Justice Center model and that can provide advocacy, mentorship and coaching to other cities planning to implement it. The second action item Carol will help lead is the effort to create protocols for identifying and reporting child trafficking for professionals who come in contact with children.
Stay tuned for more news from Legal Momentum as these Actions take shape.
