Category Archives: Trafficking in Persons

High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons

Webcast of the Opening of the High Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons

The list of Speakers

H.E. Mr. Vuk Jeremić , President of the General Assembly.  Read the  Statement 
H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General     Read a summary of Secretary General’s remarks
Mr. Yury Fedotov, Under-Secretary-General, Executive Director of UNODC
Ms. Mira Sorvino, UN Goodwill Ambassador against Human Trafficking   Listen to Mira …. 23.30 – 34.16 of the recording
Ms. Alyse Nelson, President of Vital Voices Global Partnership …  Alyse follows after Mira on the recording.  Read more about Vital Voices http://www.vitalvoices.org/ an ECOSCO accredited organization.

The rest of the webcast are member states delivering their statements.

Some documents that you may or may not know about.

The Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons Resolution was passed by the General Assembly in June 2010  - Click here    to access the Resolution.  The plan of action has four parts:   Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnership.

Do you know about the UN Trust Fund for victims of human trafficking ? Access information about the trust fund     

The International law  is embodied in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.  Copy of the text is here   154 Member States are party to the protocol.

Blue Heart

Panel Discussion:  The Global Plan of Action, relevant legal instruments, and Effective Partnerships to Protect and Assist Victims of Human Trafficking.   Chair: H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations.  Mr. Jim Clancy, Anchor, CNN International;   Ms.Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.  Dr. Saisuree Chutikul, Member of the Board of Directors, UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons;  Ms. Kay Buck, Executive Director of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) and Ms. Rani Hong,Founder, Tronie Foundation and trafficking survivor.

Various perspectives are presented - Human rights measures;   The role of civil society;  Partnership with the media; UN Trust Fund it achievement sand perspectives.  Here is the link for the webcast

RISE together event at UN Headquarters

The United Nations Secretary General’s UNITE to End Violence Against Women campaign held a RISE together event on February 14th at 12.30.  The UNITE campaign and UN officials came together to RISE to end violence against women and girls.  Deputy Secretary-General of United nations Jan Eliasson addressed all gatheredIMG_1148

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Embrace the World

Read the latest edition of Embrace_the_World_October_2012  from the desk of Yolanda Sanchez.   Congratulations Yolanda! French and Spanish are available …

Embrasser le Monde Entier octobre 2012

Abrazo al Mundo octubre 2012

Some news updates …. from New York to Bangkok

Paulette LoMonacco, Executive Director of Good Shepherd Servies, New York at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open a “Time Warner Cable Learning Lab” facilitating youth preparing for college and in college who need computer access from Good Shepherd Services.

The report has been broadcasted globally in both Mandarin and Cantonese via satellites, cable channels and mobile devices, as well as locally via Time Warner Cable Ch. 589, Over-the-air WMBC-DTV 63.5 and Verizon FiOS Ch. 478; and will be always available on line at http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/b5/2012/08/14/a747523.html

Visit, keep updated and contribute to Good Shepherd Asia Pacific Justice Peace Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/groups/181535061980073/

A very good video on the distinction between human struggling and human trafficking

I think you will find this video interesting   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfJti4W8LsE&feature=player_embedded   The interview was done in Sri Lanka and is very informative re: the situation there.   There is also reference to the Trafficking in Person Report – TIP Report from the US State Department which was published in June of this year.  By visiting this link you can find the report and easily check the status of your own country.     http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/

Protesting Backpage’s Facilitation of Sex Trafficking June 20, 2012

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) in partnership with Prostitution Research & Education (PRE) held a second protest in front of the NYC office of Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC (VVM), owner of Backpage on June 20, 2012.  This protest, co-sponsored by more than 100, and counting, leading human rights organizations and prominent individuals, including InterVarsity’s New York City Urban Project, The Women’s Media Center, Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, Gloria Steinem, Alicia Keys, Ambassador Mark Lagon, Aaron Cohen, Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, Temple Committee Against Human Trafficking, Aboriginal Women’s Action Network, Geebo.com, and A Call to Men, will bring attention to Backpage’s ongoing facilitation of and profiting from sex trafficking.    ”VVM mainstreams online pimping by providing a vehicle for sex traffickers to reach buyers of human beings for prostituted sex,” says Norma Ramos, Executive Director of CATW.  Recently, corporations including T-Mobile, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and Macy’s have pulled their advertisements from VVM in protest.   Backpage generates an estimated $2 million per month largely by functioning as a virtual red light district in the U.S. and in 14 other countries.    The protestors held VVM accountable for its role in facilitating the rank exploitation of others and called upon VVM to engage in corporate responsibility by ceasing to host prostitution ads.  Good Shepherd Sisters were among the protestors and speakers. 

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‘It Does Exist – Human Trafficking’

A group of students from the University of New England School of Social Work who are committed to exposing and educating the public of the hidden injustice of human trafficking prepared this site –  Alethia Coles, Jessica Wicki, Nicole Dowden and Katherine Lamourt. Jessica has been a Good Shepherd Volunter in New York. This site is created and dedicated to aid in alleviating human trafficking by way of education and public awareness. You can watch the video by clicking on this link:  https://sites.google.com/a/une.edu/it-does-exist-trafficking/ The professional page featuring Direct Care and Research and Awareness comes from the direct experience and work of two dedicated ‘Good Shepherd Personnel’  Theresa Symons from Malaysia and Helene Hayse, New York.  See the video, read the sections, like it and use it for educational and awareness raising activities.
Congratualtions to you Jessica and your colleagues … Well done!

A Sustainable Development without Human Trafficking or Forced Labour

The Conference of Nations, gathering in Rio + 20  June 20 – 22, 2012, will call together most of the nations of the world that are looking for sustainable development, a green economy, and the reduction of poverty.  Negotiations on draft outcome document ‘The Future We Want’ are long and intense.  But a part of the future we want is A WORLD FREE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND FORCED LABOUR.   Good Shepherd have been active in the campaign to eradicate poverty through implementation of the Social Protection Floor Initiative.  The International Labour Conference in Geneva in June 2012 will seek to have a Recommendation on Social Protection and the International Trade Union Confederation at the Rio Conference is calling for implementation of the Social Protection Floor nationally by 2020.  Ensuring a basic income and services to all people will be one step in addressing a reason for human trafficking. 

Visit this site ‘Committee Against Human Trafficking Internet and International’  in  French only and learn more http://www.cathii.org/socle-protection-sociale.html

You can find the statement referred to in English and Spanish at Statement submitted by Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and UNANIMA International, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, E/CN.5/2012/NGO/15: 
English | Français | Español | Русский | عربي | 汉语  

For the Conference in Rio in June  see the following language sites:

English: http://campagnecathii2012.weebly.com/english.html 

French: http://campagnecathii2012.weebly.com/

Spanish: http://campagnecathii2012.weebly.com/espanol.html

Portuguese:  http://campagnecathii2012.weebly.com/portuguese.html

10 Suggested actions that you can do over the next 47 days in the run up to the Rio Conference:  

1.  Find out if your King, Queen, President or Prime Minister is attending and who else from your government is attending with him or her? 

2. What is your Governments position on Sustainable Development?

3. Are there NGO’s from your country attending the Conference in Rio?  Do you have contact with them?  

4.  What are the issues they are presenting on?   

5.  What are the concerns of Good Shepherd in your country around sustainable development?  Does your Government share your concerns?   

6.  Have you looked at the document ‘ The Future We Want’  http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/mgzerodraft.html  

7. Use the Internet to express your ideas and those of your community and ministry.   ”What do you dream of for your community? What would life look like if you could design it? We all have dreams and ideas to make the world better. We believe there is enormous power in the sharing of those ideas. The Future We Want is a global conversation to build the future through a positive vision for tomorrow”    http://futurewewant.org/   

8.  Communicate with our Good Shepherd team who will be present in Rio on behalf of us all - see the next blog entry for information.  

9.  Use your Facebook to create awareness. Invite your friends to become interested in the World Conference on Sustainable Development.  If you have a Twitter account tweet it!   Click  ‘Like this’

10.  Write a comments below

Interactive Dialogue on ‘Fighting Human Trafficking’ at the UN on April 3. 2012

View the webcast – it’s the same as being present at the debate:  Post your comments below.  What question are you left with?  What questions would you want to ask? 

 Opening session of Interactive Dialogue on “Fighting Human Trafficking: Partnership and Innovation to End Violence against Women and Children” – General Assembly
03 April 2012      http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/04/general-assembly-interactive-dialogue-on-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women-and-children-english-2.html

(Part 2) Interactive Dialogue on “Fighting Human Trafficking: Partnership and Innovation to End Violence against Women and Children” 03 April 2012       http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/04/general-assembly-interactive-dialogue-on-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women-and-children-english-2.html 

In the afternoon the following member states spoke – Qatar, Bahrain, Australia, Malta, Bangladesh, Georgia, Cambodia, USA, Japan, Thailand, Luxemburg, Vietnam, Tanzania, Albania, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Mexico, Kurdistan and Argentina. 

The President of the General Assembly H.E. Mr Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nassir and his wife contributed 10,000 dollars from their personal funds to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking while  Australia announced that they would contributed 200,000 dollars. 

The address of Michelle Bachelet is on the UN Women Website in three languages

English:   http://www.unwomen.org/2012/04/remarks-of-michellebachelet-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women/                   Spanish:   http://www.unwomen.org/es/2012/04/remarks-of-michellebachelet-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women/         French:  http://www.unwomen.org/fr/2012/04/remarks-of-michellebachelet-fighting-human-trafficking-partnership-and-innovation-to-end-violence-against-women/

Madam Bachelet emphasised four points:  

  • Put human rights and justice for victims at the centre of efforts
  • Place more focus on prevention, gender equality and women’s empowrnment, and zero tolerance for violence against women, including trafficking.
  • Make the links between migration and trafficking. 
  • Support trafficking suvivors to be at the policy table so that they can testify and claim their rights and entitlements, and policy makers can listen and learn what needs to be done.

List to survivors tell their stories – Somaly Mam, President and Co-founder, Somaly Mam Foundation.  Somaly was born in Cambodia and sold into a life of sexual slatery many times by a man who posed to be her grandfather.  Rani Kong, Co-Founder, Tronie foundtion was also present. 

The UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children  Dr Joy Ngozi Ezeilo also address participants.