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Celhia de Lavarene, an international authority on human trafficking, most recently, completed sixteen month as the Head of the Trafficking In Persons Unit (TPU) for the United Nations Mission in Liberia. Prior to serving in Liberia, Celhia’s efforts to curb trafficking focused on Bosnia and Herzegovina where she conceptualized and established the Special Trafficking Operations Program (STOP), composed of 200 Police Officers (55 international and 150 local) with 9 regional offices and sub-offices covering the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Celhia de Lavarene has been an invited speaker at nearly a dozen major international conferences in Vienna, Bucharest, Brussels, Geneva, London and Istanbul on human trafficking. She has also provided regular briefings to senior officials of the U.S. Department of State on the STOP program. She has appeared several times on CNN, BBC, France 2, and ZDF. Among her current activities, Ms. De Lavarene is developing her NGO, STOP, standing for Stop Trafficking Of People, devoted to assisted victims of sex trafficking. She plans to open 10 to 15 offices worldwide within the next three years. Ms. De Lavarene is a journalist and has reported for Radio France Internationale; Radio Vatican; Afrique Magazine; Radio Suisse Romande and Jeune Afrique, as a UN Correspondent. She is a French citizen and lives and works in New York City.
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