Accion Social CONFER, Spain- Liturgy in honour of the 8th February, International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Trafficking in Persons.
JORNADA INTERNACIONAL DE ORACIÓN
“Enciende una luz contra la Trata”
8 de febrero 2017, Santa Josefina Bakhita
Following the RENATE 2nd European Assembly, RENATE members in France have created their own website http://renatefrance.wordpress.com
Log in to access information, read about all the activities underway and lend your support.
Prepared by Anne Kelleher, RENATE Communications.
Continuing the series of reflections by the RENATE Core Group following their recent Strategic Planning meetings, read firsthand of the grassroots work in anti-trafficking, being achieved by RENATE member Sr. Valeria Gandini and her colleagues in Palermo, Sicily. Please click here to read the full report.
In preparation for St. Bakhita Day, 8th February, 2017, the Anonymous Ways Foundation, based in Hungary, are re-launching the song ‘’Stay,’’ sung by David Henderson. The lyrics convey love and hope for those who are the victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
Tune in to hear the song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZwVsa5w-r4
Prepared by Anne Kelleher, RENATE Communications Person.
Creative thinking contributes to possible activities in helping combat human trafficking. This has been proven true by Kimberly Ritter, a corporate executive who credits Religious sisters (the Foundation of Sisters of St. Joseph) with heightening her awareness about Human Trafficking and motivating her to take preventative action.
Realising hotel rooms can be easily identified by their décor, Ritter and her colleagues at Nix Conference and Meeting Management in St. Louis, USA, devised an ‘’Exchange Initiative’’ whereby Washington University researches created the TraffickCam app, which ‘’allows smartphone users to take photographs of their hotel rooms and add it to a photo database… The database of photographs collected on the TraffickCam app can be used by law enforcement officials to pinpoint the hotel and locate victims of trafficking.’’
For more, information please see:
http://globalsistersreport.org/column/q/trafficking/q-kimberly-ritter-fighting-human-trafficking-smartphone-app-44401
Prepared by Anne Kelleher, RENATE Communications Person.
RENATE Core Group members and staff working on the RENATE Strategic Plan recently visited a ‘Primary Centre’ near Palermo, Sicily, which provides shelter and support to minors.
The centre, which is categorised as a ‘’Primary Centre,’’ is housed in a property owned by a doctor & leased to a local social co-operative. A non-profit venture, the centre offers shelter and support to minors. Currently the centre is home to fifty youths, who hail from the countries on the African continent, in addition to Syria and Bangladesh.
Each of the teenagers has arrived alone and frightened on the shores of Sicily, having survived perilous land and sea journeys, with memories of experiences and encounters that no human being should ever have to endure.
Some come to Europe looking for their families; some in search of a better life with money and work. Others come with the intention of tracing their family members who have moved on to other EU countries.
Please click here read the full report: Perspectives on a recent visit by RENATE to a Primary Centre for migrants, near Palermo, Sicily.
On the 3rd of January, 2017, the outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on all countries to investigate and prosecute cases of human trafficking and said the most vulnerable victims are women, children and refugees caught up in conflict areas around the globe.
The Secretary General, addressing the 15-member Security Council during an open debate on human trafficking in conflict zones, said extremist groups from the Islamic State to Boko Haram and al-Shabab traffic in persons, especially women and girls, as a weapon of terror and source of revenue.
“We have to fight trafficking for the sake of the victims,” Mr. Ki-Moon said. “When we do, we will also decrease funding for terrorists — and make everyone safer.”
Mr. Ki-Moon, whose term as top U.N. official ended on the 31st of December, 2016, spoke the same day the Security Council unanimously approved its first-ever draft resolution on human trafficking in conflict situations. (See RENATE website, 6th January, 2017). The resolution seeks to strengthen the United Nation’s ability to counter the phenomenon and bolster the international community’s ability to respond to it.
Yuri Fedotov, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said the building blocks for fighting international human trafficking can be found in the United Nations’ Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocol on the practice, which was adopted by the General Assembly and went into effect in 2003.
He said trafficking victims have been detected in 106 different countries and territories worldwide. The good news, he said, is that 158 countries have criminalized most forms of the practice in line with the protocol.
To read the full story by Dave Bryan of the Associated Press on ABC News: Click Here
Adapted by Anne Kelleher, RENATE Communications.
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