Pontifical Council Announces International Day of Prayer Against Trafficking Will Be Celebrated Feb. 8, Feast of St. Josephine Bakhita Josephine Margaret Bakhita, F.D.C.C., was a Sudanese-born former slave who became a Canossian Religious Sister in Italy, living and working there for 45 years. In 2000 she was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She was born in about 1869 in the western Sudanese region of Darfur; in the village of Olgossa, west of Nyala and close to Mount … [Read more...]
Child Rights for 25 years, ‘better or worse’ today?
Kurdish refugee children from the Syrian town of Kobani in a makeshift classroom at a refugee camp in the border town of Suruc on November 18, 2014. OSMAN ORSAL/REUTERS Twenty-five years since the United Nations ratified its Convention on the Rights of the Child, have the lives of the world’s children improved? A new report tried to answer that question and found some gains among ongoing and long-standing challenges. Examining the quality of life for children in 190 countries, the report … [Read more...]
How Safe Are Your Children from Human Trafficking?
Warning: This post is one of the most important we’ve ever featured, but it isn’t the easiest to read. Anti-human trafficking advocate, Deirdre Flynn, interviewed Holly Smith, a survivor and author, about her experience as a victim of the sex industry. The story is below. Envy is often what makes our children vulnerable to predators. Pimps and slavers promote discontent. They fill immature minds with dreams of the exciting and glamorous life others are living. A life that has been out of … [Read more...]
What is ‘Human Trafficking’ ?
Human Trafficking Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. UNODC, as guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto, assists States in their … [Read more...]
Global Human Trafficking, a Modern form of Slavery
Steve McQueen, director of this year’s Oscar winner for best film “12 Years A Slave,” mentioned in his acceptance speech last month that 21 million people are living in slavery today. That quoted figure comes from the 2012 report issued by the United Nation’s International Labor Organization (ILO) that has been attempting to gather international data for over a decade now. In the Asia-Pacific region where most of the world’s forced laborers come from at 56%, an estimated 11.7 million people, … [Read more...]
Trafficking of children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo
Special Rapporteur Joy Ngozi Ezeilo. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré July 2013 – Trafficking of children and the issue of defining trafficking topped the agenda today at a first of its kind meeting between an independent United Nations human rights expert and a group of European practitioners working to end this form of modern-day slavery. Speaking at a special meeting organized in Strasbourg, France, by the Council of Europe's Groups of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings … [Read more...]
Take Action – Bride trafficking to China from Southeast Asian grows!
PHNOM PENH, March 2013 (IRIN) - Bride trafficking to China from Southeast Asian countries which do not border on that country looks set to grow, says the UN, with the first reported cases from Cambodia in 2012. Most cases go unreported. “The numbers of identified cases are still small, but this number could rise given the social demographics in play,” Lisa Rende Taylor, chief technical adviser for the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), told IRIN, noting that in the past … [Read more...]
Avaaz, Stop Child Labor NOW, a slave at five
India is stalling the toughest child labour law in its history... because politicians say it’s not a ‘priority’! But the majority of MPs support it and all they need is a massive public push to bring it to a vote. Let´s raise our voices for India´s children. Sign Now The Indian Parliament is closing without passing the toughest child labor law in its history. Worse, the bill is supported by the majority of MPs, but it was ignored for weeks, because they felt it was not a … [Read more...]
Worldwide 215 million children engaged in child labour, Take Action!
Preventing hazardous child labour in agriculture Worldwide 215 million children are engaged in child labour, and of these 115 million are involved in what is considered to be hazardous work. Agriculture is the sector where the largest share of child labourers is found - a staggering 60 percent of boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 17. Today, much of our food and drink, as well as the raw material we use to make other products, are produced by child labour. Child labour in … [Read more...]