The Good Shepherd Statement to the Commission on the Status of Women (with the main focus on Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action), has been published in the 6 languages of the United Nations.  The following NGO’s at the UN supported the statement –  Dominican Leadership Conference, International Federation of Women in Legal Careers, International Federation of Women Lawyers, International Presentation Association of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Passionists International, Religious of the Sacred Heart Mary, Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries,  Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and UNANIMA International.

“Today, the various Good Shepherd grass-roots services work with women and girls in 72 countries who are constrained by situations that are the same, or often worse, than those that existed in 1995. Under the current model of economic globalization, women and girls who are living in extreme poverty and denied access to basic services are highly susceptible to forces of irregular migration, prostitution, and trafficking for sexual and /or labour exploitation.

“Prostitution is a violence of human rights and constitutes violence against the person prostituted.”

To read the Statement go to the link: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/CN.6/2015/NGO/25

Good Shepherd organizes a parallel event during CSW 59 with the theme: “Advocacy and Networking Strategies for Legislative Reform: Ending Prostitution and Human Trafficking”

We are particularly happy that the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations supports the event and that Ireland’s Minister of State for Justice and Equality, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin will be present.  He may not be able to stay for the whole event but we look forward to welcoming and hearing from him. See the flyer for information.

Quote from our Statement to CSW 59: 

​”We applaud the Member States that have ratified and begun to adopt these international laws at the national level.

We acknowledge and appreciate the many regional mechanisms and agreements that are in place.  But only when each country has integrated the international laws into national laws and collaborates across borders to ensure the human rights of every person will change be seen.

We acknowledge and appreciate the work and achievements of Sweden, Norway, and more recently France, Canada and Northern Ireland in addressing the human rights violations caused by prostitution.  Using a legislative basis, they have criminalized not only traffickers, but also the purchasers of sex and sexual services, insightfully defining the multiple layers of human rights violations in prostitution. We encourage all member states to do the same.  The debates engaged in during the legislative process bring complex gender consciousness to the public forum.”