The Drum Beat 365 - Human Trafficking
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This issue of The Drum Beat looks at advocacy and communication strategies, actions, and resources that address the development issue of trafficking in humans. We have collected here a selection of projects, articles, manuals, books, and websites that address trafficking of both women and children.
Please send your communication for development projects, articles, publications, awards, events, etc. to Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
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ADVOCACY & ACTION ADDRESSING HUMAN TRAFFICKING
1.Cesiri Tono (All the Rewards of Courage and Hard Work) - Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast & Mali
This is a radio soap opera aimed at combating child trafficking. Written by local scriptwriters and cast with local actors, the drama is recorded in the Dioula language, a market version of Bambara, and addresses issues related to child trafficking and exploitation in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. Research by the implementing organisation, Population Media Centre (PMC), found that the children who are trafficked are generally not kidnapped by malevolent strangers. In the majority of cases, parents "give" their children to distant relatives or people with connections to their village, in the hopes of providing them a better life. They are often unaware of the harsh working conditions that their children will face. Cesiri Tono uses an entertainment-education approach to raise awareness among listeners about child trafficking issues, demonstrating that unplanned childbearing can lead to poverty and, in turn, to the exploitation of children. The programme describes in graphic detail the harsh reality of the working conditions to which children are subjected. It shows how family planning can help families break the cycle of poverty that can lead to the exploitation of children.
Contact Kriss Barker krissbarker@populationmedia.org OR pmc@populationmedia.org
2.Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC) - Cambodia
Established in March 1997 by a group of women who perceived that levels of violence against women and children were severe and that assistance services were lacking, CWCC encourages women who have been victims of gender-based abuse and their children to help themselves through providing crisis intervention services. CWCC also aims to reduce violence against women through training, media campaigns, community organising, and legal advocacy. Communication services and activities provided by CWCC include: a drop-in centre, a confidential crisis shelter, a counseling programme, services for children and youth, community organising, advocacy, community networking, and capacity building.
Contact cwccct@forum.org.kh
3.Polaris Project Fellowship
This fellowship programme offers the opportunity for a wide range of individuals in the United States, ranging from undergraduate and graduate students to attorneys and staff from the Department of State, to work on projects and programmes to combat human trafficking and modern-day slavery. All positions are unpaid. The application process is rolling.
4.Alertos da Vida - South Africa and Mozambique
This is a participatory media group working to raise awareness around HIV/AIDS and human rights to Mozambicans living in the Johannesburg, South Africa. Working in Portuguese and Xhangana, the group uses edutainment including live theatre, radio (dramas and spots), and music to provide this information. Projects have included "Tenho dos Factos Antes de Ir" (Get the Facts Before you Go!) - a series of short radio spots on human trafficking awareness for The International Organization for Migration. As of August 2006, the group is working on a second theatre production with the IOM, focusing on women's rights and human trafficking. The play will be workshopped with the actors and key stakeholders to ensure the issues and situations are accurate and will use a combination of Portuguese, English and Xhangana. It will be performed during the 16 Days of Activism at community venues in areas of Johannesburg and surrounds where there is a high Mozambican population.
Contact Tonya Graham tonya@cmfd.org
5.Separated Children in Europe Programme - Europe
Separated children may be seeking asylum because of fear of persecution or lack of protection due to human rights violations, armed conflict or disturbances in their own country. They may be victims of trafficking for sexual or other exploitation, or they may have travelled to Europe to escape conditions of serious deprivation. Launched in 1997 as a response to the increasing numbers of separated children arriving in European countries, this programme aims to promote a greater recognition and realisation of the rights of separated children and to support the raising of standards in all policies, practices and services that impact upon them. The programme has employed a number of strategies: development of a statement of good practice; establishment of a pan-European Programme network; conducting national assessments of the policies and practices; advocacy; training seminars; and conferences and seminars.
Contact Malika Floor floor@unhcr.org
Also see:
6.Mobile Education by Boat - Dhaka, Bangladesh
7.Survivor Advisory Caucus - United States
8.Tingog sa Kabataan - Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, Philippines
9.Society of Underprivileged People (SOUP) - India
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CALL FOR POETRY ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Agenda, a women's rights and gender publication based in Durban, South Africa, is calling for poetry contributions that explore the crime of human trafficking, especially as it affects women and girl-children. According to Agenda, about 300,000 African women are trafficked every year.
Contributions will be considered for publication in issue 60 of Agenda with the working title "Human Trafficking".
Deadline for submissions: October 5 2006.
To send your submissions and for more information, contact Kristin Palitza editor@agenda.org.za
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GUIDES & MANUALS
11.Introduction to the Human Trafficking Assessment Tool
This tool was developed to help measure countries' compliance with the United Nations' Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children that supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. It analyses national anti-trafficking laws and government efforts to combat trafficking against the obligations set forth in the Protocol and its host Convention. This Introduction to the tool contains some of the components which are designed to equip a team of assessors to conduct a thorough assessment of a country's compliance with the Trafficking Protocol and with certain provisions of the Transnational Organized Crime Convention.
12.Resource Book for Working Against Trafficking in Human Beings in the CIS and the Baltic Sea Region: Safe Return and Recovery
The book provides an overview of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Russian Federation NGOs offering support to victims of trafficking, a list of relevant government contacts within the Russian Federation, an overview of Swedish NGOs offering support to victims of trafficking, and a list of relevant government contacts within Sweden.
13.Kids as Commodities? Child Trafficking and What To Do About It
by Mike Dottridge
This study describes the business of taking children away from their homes and families and then transporting them elsewhere, often across frontiers and even to other continents, to be put to use by others, usually to make money. The first part of the study (Chapters 2 to 6) explains what child trafficking involves and why it occurs. The second part (Chapters 7 to 18) focuses on what can be done - both to stop trafficking and to protect its victims.
14.WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked Women
by Cathy Zimmerman
This guidebook acknowledges an increase in trafficking of women and girls into forced prostitution and other slavery-like or exploitative conditions. In response to this situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) seeks to provide information on trafficking to policy-makers, donors, service providers and the media through this guidebook. It includes information on the complex circumstances of women who have been trafficked, and outlines ten principles designed to foster the ethical and safe conduct of interviews with these women.
15.Annotated Guide to the Complete UN Trafficking Protocol
This guide is meant to assist advocates in the development of laws and policies for a United States anti-trafficking in persons' human rights framework. It combines the Trafficking Protocol and relevant portions of the Convention and the Interpretative Notes into one document. It also provides guidance on the key sections of the complete Trafficking Protocol.
16.Crime Reduction Toolkit
Put together by the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) to increase awareness amongst the agencies responsible for tackling the crime of human trafficking and amongst the Crime and Disorder Partnerships that are setting the local priorities for crime reduction in the UK, this toolkit aims to help those who deal with illegal immigrants and trafficking victims - including cases of sexual offences, prostitution, child abuse and labour exploitation - to distinguish victims in genuine need and to deal with them appropriately.
17.Anti-Trafficking Awareness Toolkit
This toolkit was developed by the Vital Voices Global Partnership to help raise awareness about human trafficking in the United States. It was designed for distribution primarily to professionals, such as local law enforcement, health care workers, social service providers, or faith-based organisations, who may encounter trafficking victims in the course of their work, and may be able to help them.
18.Semantics or Substance? Towards a Shared Understanding of Terminology Referring to the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children
This publication aims to "highlight the confusion around" terms used in discussion of child abuse and exploitation. The 14 terms discussed in this publication were selected by the subgroup as the "most commonly used and often misunderstood". Terms discussed include: child prostitution; child sex tourism; child marriage; child pornography; trafficking in children; child sexual abuse; paedophilia; commercial sexual exploitation of children; who is a child?; worst forms of child labour; forced marriage; incest; adoption; and female genital mutilation.
19.New Software Provides Secure Worldwide Tracking and Documentation of Human Rights Abuses
This article discusses an open source technology tool designed to assist human rights organisations in collecting, safeguarding, organising, and disseminating information about human rights abuses. Currently, according to organisers, much of the violation and abuse information gathered by grassroots human rights groups is lost to confiscation, destruction, or neglect, making it difficult for prosecutors, truth commissions, and others to use the information as evidence to hold the perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable for many of their crimes. The Martus software is designed to enable grassroots NGOs to securely store their records on off-site servers with easy-to-use software, preserving crucial evidence for research, investigation, and prosecutions.
Also see:
20.The Martus Human Rights Bulletin System - Global
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CALL FOR ARTICLES
for the July 2007 issue of Gender and Development journal, which will look at the role gender research methodologies can play in the design and implementation of development policies and programmes that are effective in promoting gender equality.
Articles in this issue could address:
- Choosing the right research method for policy and programme needs;
- Using qualitative and quantitative research methods in gender-sensitive research;
- Researching on sensitive issues, e.g., violence within the family, labour relations;
- Participatory methods: do they always support gender equality? Case study examples of research projects that have used participatory methods;
- Using feminist research methodologies in development;
- Participant observation: is it possible to be a neutral observer?;
- Teaching research methodologies for development: course profiles;
- The ethics of research: what responsibilities does the researcher hold towards the subject of her/his research? What influence do the power dynamics of gender, race, and class (amongst others) play in the relationship between the researcher and the subject of her/his research?;
- Carrying out research without a trained researcher;
- Gender-disaggregated data: why is it so important? Which statistics bureaux are able to supply it? Why is there so little of it?;
- Using the gender analysis matrix to conduct research into long-term change in gender relations and gender roles.
Contact Joanna Hoare jhoare@oxfam.org.uk with a short paragraph outlining your initial idea, before October 2 2006.
Click here for more information on the Gender and Development journal.
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OTHER INFORMATION RESOURCES
21.Stop Violence Against Women (STOPVAW)
This website provides online information - in English and in Russian - focussed on ending domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and trafficking in women in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
22.HumanTrafficking.org
An interactive website aiming to bring NGOs and governments together to cooperate and learn from each other's experiences in their efforts to combat human trafficking, particularly in East Asia & the Pacific and the United States.
23.Angel Coalition
A consortium of NGOs in the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States focused solely on the issue of trafficking of human beings from the former Soviet Union.
24. Child Trafficking
A searchable digital library that shares information on all forms of trafficking, with a focus on child trafficking within the South Asia context and beyond.
25.Human Trafficking Search
A searchable web portal providing access to resources on issues related to human trafficking and modern-day slavery from around the world.
26.Rescue & Restore Campaign
This website provides information about the issue of human trafficking, information about the campaign to identify and assist victims of human trafficking in the United States, and resources for health care providers, social service providers and law enforcement officers.
Also see:
27.Comparative Study of Women Trafficked in the Migration Process
28.Picturing a Life Free of Violence: Media and Communications Strategies to End Violence Against Women
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