The MIST: a specialized and innovative association
Based in Paris but active throughout France, Mist is a collective of women who have been victims of pimping or trafficking for sexual exploitation, and who are mobilized to promote the identification of other victims, their protection, and then their inclusion, in a process that enables them to make the most of their experience by helping other victims.
This virtuous dynamic is based on a unique social intervention methodology developed for victims of sexual exploitation. It aims to create spaces where victims can talk about themselves within an evolving framework, empower themselves by taking part in the association’s actions and governance, and work towards delivering recommendations, improving access to rights for victims, and combating trivialization of violence, power relationship or domination within peer groups.
Created in January 2020 by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals already having an extensive experience in the fight against human trafficking, Mist is the first association of trafficked women in France: half the executive board is made of women who were trafficked when they were minors.
In its first year of existence, a group of Mist members, acting as civil parties, won the biggest conviction ever handed down in France for human trafficking offences. Then, Mist signed a partnership with the Paris Bar to set up an unprecedented outreach programme in a Parisian prostitution area, involving Nigerian peer mediators and volunteer lawyers from the Bus Paris Solidarité.
Mist is a resource centre for the victims, and also for the professionals who meet and support them.
Mist is registered on the list of legal guardians with the Paris Court of Appeal, and thus supports minor victims before the courts.
The association is France’s leading referral service for Ac.Sé national programme, which enables unsafe victims to be moved from Paris regions to shelters in other parts of France (decree no. 2007-1352 of September 13, 2007 on the admission, protection, reception and accommodation of foreign victims of human trafficking).
The association is a member of several national working groups on trafficking, coordinated by the Interministerial Mission for the Protection of Women against Violence and the Fight against Human Trafficking (MIPROF).
Mist is a member of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), La Strada International (LSI) and Beyond Borders network.
VOICEOVER More than their stories
Survivor engagement occurs when survivors participate in activities beyond the receiving of care.
Having lived experience of human trafficking, they possess invaluable insight into how these violations manifest and impact individuals and communities.
However, too often, survivors are asked to share their stories, but then are excluded from conversations and decisions about policies and services.
As a result, anti-trafficking initiatives are being formulated without the input of those who will be affected directly.
The VoiceOver project will invest in the training and leadership of trafficking survivors to reframe structures of power and authority.
