UN Council Hails Bahrain Human Rights Actions

By Sandeep Singh Grewal

From All Headline News:

GENEVA, Switzerland- Bahrain made gender equality, women's empowerment and protection of migrant workers its main bragging points Monday as the country became the first to come under the scanner of the UN Human Rights Council here.

The three-hour interactive Universal Periodic Process session, shown live on the Web, was led by Dr. Nizar Al Baharna, minister of state for foreign affairs, who headed the Bahrain delegation. He was accompanied by lawmakers and senior government officials.

Bahrain is the first country whose human rights record will be reviewed at the Council. Forty-eight countries are scheduled to undergo the UPR process.

Representatives of member states praised Bahrain's report and said it was a model for other countries to follow.Women's empowerment was one of the main issues raised by member states.

Sameera Rajab, member of the Bahrain Shura (Consultative) Council said, "There is a law enacted which provides maternity leave for women. We will also continue to amend legislations which discriminate women."

Bahrain's only women parliamentarian, Lathifa Al Gaoud, added that "The parliament is studying a bill which enables women to work from their home. The MP's also voted unanimously for setting up a National Human Rights Commission."

Al Baharna revealed that the Commission was approved by the Bahrain cabinet and would be set up this year.

The minister also spoke about the new press law and freedom of expression and association. He added that Bahrain was considering a law to give more rights and privileges to female domestic workers.

Bahrain's report was also praised by the representative from the United States, who said the kingdom had made efforts to integrate Shias in the community and to protect expatriate workers.

However it was not all praise. Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab, who attended the session, told AHN on Monday, "It is a great disappointment that Arab countries hijacked the process by consuming time praising the report rather than raising key issues. I am also not happy with the response from Indian and Bangladeshi representatives who only praised and did not speak about protection of migrant workers," he said.

The UPR process calls for all UN member states to be reviewed over the next four years.

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More Korean International Marriage Woes

From the Korea Times:

South Korea has increasingly come under attack for the abuse and exploitation of foreign wives, especially those from Southeast Asian countries. The plight of Vietnamese wives married to Koreans has already invited international criticism over rights abuses and human trafficking. It is heart-wrenching to read frequent stories that Vietnamese spouses were beaten to death or committed suicide ― far from realizing their ``Korean dream.''

What's more worrisome is that such a story does not stop with the ill-fated Vietnamese. The problem is now spreading to Cambodia. The Cambodian government has recently suspended processing all documents for marriages of its citizens with foreigners as a measure to minimize the possibility of human trafficking. You Ay, Cambodia's deputy minister of women's affairs, said April 3 that the suspension was prompted by concerns about exploitation and trafficking amid a surge in the number of Cambodian women marrying South Koreans.

She said the suspension affects all foreigners, not just South Koreans. But it is apparent that the measure was closely related to soaring cases of abuse of foreign wives in South Korea. She was quoted as saying that seven Cambodian women recently returned to their country because they could not endure pain from their married life with their Korean husbands. However, the official said the country has yet to uncover systematic exploitation.

The Cambodian move came after the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) disclosed a report that thousands of South Korean men went to the Southeast Asian country to marry Cambodian women through brokers. The report featured the plight of a rising number of Cambodian brides migrating to South Korea in marriages hastily arranged by brokers who make huge profits.

A revised interracial marriage brokerage law is to go into effect in June in a bid to crack down on brokers for human trafficking-style methods. And a multicultural family support law is scheduled to take effect in September. It is urgent for the country to establish a firmer system to embrace foreign wives as well as migrant workers as indispensable members of our society. Interracial marriages now account for 10 percent of total marriages. Therefore, we have to roll up our sleeves to ensure human rights and equal opportunity for brides and workers from other countries.

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Recount of Trafficking Victims in Canada

From the Canadian Press:

The sex-slave market in Canada is feared to be much larger than existing official estimates, which has prompted authorities to recount the number of victims in the country.

Joy Smith, the Conservative vice-chair of the parliamentary committee on the status of women, said several analysts have been assigned to the RCMP's human trafficking unit to go over their figures.

The RCMP believes 800 to 1,200 people in Canada have been victims of human trafficking but some activists peg the figure as high as 15,000.

"There's a big gap in those numbers," Smith told The Canadian Press. "This needs-assessment is critical to finding out exactly what we're facing and exactly what we have to deal with here in Canada."

Smith pointed out that the RCMP's figures come mainly from arrest reports, which can provide a misleading snapshot of the situation.

"When the NGOs are saying 15,000, these are the people that take care of the victims," she said.United Nations tallies suggest 2.5 million people worldwide, including some 1.2 million children, are involved in forced labour through global trafficking.

The RCMP has noted several cases where Canadian girls have been taken abroad and sold.

One activist, who says he spent the past two years interviewing victims and pimps, says there is a particular demand for Quebecers. "They have a reputation for being good in bed," said Lawrence-Thierry Bernard, a former candidate for the provincial Action democratique du Quebec. "They created a demand so recruiters began to recruit in Montreal."

According to Bernard, many street gangs have taken to luring local women into prostitution rings by posting ads for overseas work on the Internet.

"The street gangs can recruit but they need contacts with larger organized crime networks to sell the girls," he said.

The Mounties acknowledge they have had difficulty putting a number to the amount of trafficking victims in Canada.

"In the beginning we didn't know if we had cases here," said Const. Magdala Turpin, a human trafficking investigator based in Montreal. "We didn't know what the problem was.

"She said measuring trafficking in Canada is further complicated by victims who are unaware of their rights and are often leery of police.

But with authorities in Canada and the U.S. slow to get a handle on the situation, criminal networks have a void they are keen to exploit.

"It's the crime of choice for criminal networks and enterprises because it's high-profit and low risk," said Laura Lederer, senior director for global projects at the U.S. State Department's office for human trafficking.

"So many countries have been focusing on drug trafficking... so traffickers have been moving over into this area where there are few laws and they're poorly enforced."

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Somaly Mam Benefit in New York

From Superior Pics Celebrity Forums

From the Somaly Mam Foundation:

The Somaly Mam Foundation held a fund raising event in New York last Tuesday that attracted super model Petra Nemcova and Bar Rafaeli, Leonardo DiCaprio's girlfriend.

At the event, The Somaly Mam Foundation held 2 sold out viewings of the movie Holly.

Major sponsors included Diane von Furstenberg, Glamour Magazine, LexisNexis, and Joseph Abboud.

Hosting the event and speakers for the evening included Petra Nemcova; Abigail Disney; Glamour Editor-in-Chief, Cindi Leive, and LexisNexis Global CEO, Andy Prozes. The evening began with a red carpet entrance where media such as Dateline, People Magazine, OK, US Weekly, and a local New York news channel interviewed the special guests.

Update

From One India:

Witnessing human trafficking first-hand during a recent visit to Cambodia left supermodel-turned-humanitarian Petra Nemcova totally shaken and horrified. Nemcova was so shocked by the experience that she teamed up with Southeast Asian-based charity the Somaly Mam Foundation in an effort to raise awareness for the devastating crimes.

"It makes me so angry. Girls and boys get sold as young as four-years-old and are put in animal cages. Some of them never see the light anymore," Contactmusic quoted her as saying. "We met this girl who was 13 and a pimp made her lose her right eye. The words 'pimp' and 'child' should never be in the same sentence," she added.

The Czech Republic-born model was very much moved by the foundation and its work, with its main purpose being to seek and rescue women and girls from the horrors of a life in brothels or on the streets. Nemcova displayed her support by wearing a dress hand-sewn by women rescued by the group, to a recent charity gala.

Freeze!

Great idea, it's about time someone adapted this concept to social issues.

Thanks Helen!

More info

Global Online Competition to End Human Slavery

From Ashoka's Changemakers:

Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes Leading the Way

Join Humanity United and Ashoka's Changemakers in a global online competition to identify innovative approaches to exposing, confronting and ending modern-day slavery.

We believe in the value of human dignity. At Humanity United, we recognize that the most powerful solutions spring from building coalitions of dedicated individuals, which is why we have joined with Ashoka, a leading innovator for social change, to launch "Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes Leading the Way".

Since its inception, Humanity United has invested in the power of ideas and individuals, bringing together the best in research, policy, and public pressure to activate local and global solutions to modern-day slavery. We are now proud to partner with Ashoka and use its unique Changemakers platform to cast a wider net in the community of innovators.

Ashoka is a non-profit support network for social entrepreneurs – people around the world who develop innovative solutions to the social problems that most urgently demand them. To further this goal, Ashoka’s Changemakers.net website provides an online, interactive forum that encourages collaboration and discussion, along with competition, to draw out the most effective ideas.

Humanity United and Changemakers are launching a global online competition to identify innovative approaches to exposing, confronting and ending modern-day slavery. We hope you will join us. Between April 2nd and July 14th, 2008, we invite you to propose ways to end this worldwide crisis and create a universal standard of human dignity.

You don't need to submit a proposal to join the dialogue. Visit the online Changemakers community to make suggestions and recommend resources that will help refine and strengthen the strategies presented by competition entrants. Tell us what surprises you, how you view the field, and where you imagine the challenges and opportunities lie.

We’ll need your input again in July 2008 to vote for three winners from the 12 finalists who will be selected by our panel of judges – a group of influential leaders in the field of solutions to modern-day slavery.

With your help, we have the potential to shape holistic solutions to one of the fastest-growing and most obscured social problems in the world. We encourage you to invite others to the competition as well, so together we may make good on our shared responsibility to respect and protect the value of human lives.

Click here for the entry form and the tips for success:

• Read the guidelines and criteria before sharing your innovation; this will help you to define your ideas and work.
• Be as detailed as possible in explaining your innovation.
• Add videos and documents to your blueprint at the bottom of the page. Bring your story to life!
• Invite your network to provide feedback on your blueprint and then revise and refine your blueprint with the feedback you receive.
• Remember that the Changemaker's unique open source format makes your blueprint viewable online by the entire community and public.

The sooner you share your innovation the more exposure and insight you gain through the community!

Comments on Sex Trafficking in the UK

By Louise Ellman MP

From LX News:

Dr Martin Luther King Junior once said that “an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

One of the glaring injustices that still blights our world today is the trafficking of women The International Labour Organisation has stated that 2.4 million people each year are victims of trafficking, generating profits of over $30 billion. But what about human trafficking into the United Kingdom? A modern form of sex slavery is in fact flourishing here too.

Ten years ago 85% of UK sex workers were native born. Today, 85% of these come from abroad in the new international slave trade. Many women are promised regular jobs in this country.

The reality, as the Crown Prosecution Service has discovered, is that many of these women are traded at “slave auctions” on the concourse of British airports. £4000 buys a woman, who will then have her passport confiscated and will be forced to work as a prostitute. There was a horrific case in 2006 of a 14 year old Lithuanian girl being sold for £8000 because she was a virgin.

The Home Office estimates that 4000 women are being exploited in this way in the United Kingdom, though this is clearly an underestimate giving the underreporting by victims.

In Sweden, human trafficking has been significantly reduced by criminalising the traffickers and pimps instead of the women themselves. Currently there are discussions amongst senior government figures, including the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on this issue.

The Association of Police Officers has called for the help of men who use prostitutes to report instances where sex workers cannot speak English, or where there are signs of coercion. The Government has taken firm action. It has set up in Sheffield the UK trafficking centre which deals with traffickers and victims, as well as looking at enforcement and intelligence. It has signed the European Convention on Human Trafficking.

Home Office officials will be given special training to assist them in identifying traffickers. The Poppy Project has provided safe houses for victims.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said: “Contemporary forms of slavery-from bonded labour to human trafficking are flourishing as a result of discrimination, social exclusion and vulnerability exacerbated by poverty.

We need a new concerted effort to end a scandal that disgraces both the world and our country.