Tufts University has launched a new podcast series. Views on News, The Fletcher School's first podcast series, explores current international issues and events with student and faculty experts. Right now you can listen to Fletcher student, former program director of AASG, Liora Kasten discuss issues surrounding human trafficking.
In this podcast, Liora Kasten discusses her recent book, Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery, and discusses the issue of human trafficking in general. If you would like to listen to this episode please click here.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
New Movie Draws Attention to the Issue of Slavery
Amazing Grace, recently opened in theaters accross the United States, and is drawing the nations' eyes to the issue of slavery, both in the past and today. It is the story of Will Wilburforce, a young man in the British Parliament who leads the fight to abolish slavery in the late 18th century.
Along with witnessing this passionate and pivitol struggle, viewers are asked to join in the fight to end modern day slavery. The producers of the film, Bristol Bay Productions, have set up a website at www.amazingchange.com, where interested individuals can learn about the 27 million people who are still enslaved around the world, and how to help.
The CNN article about the film and Britol Bay Productions' efforts also includes information offered by the American Anti-Slavery Group. Check out this article, and learn where you can watch the film and get more involved in the anti-slavery movement.
Along with witnessing this passionate and pivitol struggle, viewers are asked to join in the fight to end modern day slavery. The producers of the film, Bristol Bay Productions, have set up a website at www.amazingchange.com, where interested individuals can learn about the 27 million people who are still enslaved around the world, and how to help.
The CNN article about the film and Britol Bay Productions' efforts also includes information offered by the American Anti-Slavery Group. Check out this article, and learn where you can watch the film and get more involved in the anti-slavery movement.
Simon Speaks at Wake Forest University
Deng’s speech increases awareness of Darfur
By Will Burke
Staff writer
February 22, 2007
Annenberg Forum was literally overflowing with students listening to Simon Deng speak Feb. 20.
Every seat and both the aisles were occupied with students attending to hear Deng’s speech on the evils being perpetrated in his home country, Sudan.
Deng opened with his own personal story of experiencing the horrors of slavery as a child.
At the age of nine he was taken from his home during a raid and sold into slavery in northern Sudan. He escaped and went on to become an American citizen and has spent his life protesting the Sudanese government and the atrocities committed there.
The greatest crime carried out by the Sudanese government, according to Deng, has been its program of genocide.
The Sudanese government uses Islamic law to reign over the country and therefore only Muslims are considered to be citizens.
However, the majority of the population in Sudan is made up of non-Islamic Africans, while it is the minority Arab population that controls the government. The country has been involved in civil wars since its creation in the early 1970s ringing up a death toll in the millions.
Deng argued in his speech, “The government has been using the war as an umbrella to cover up the genocide taking place there.”
He also said the Sudanese government has gotten away with its crimes unscathed.
Deng has brought the plight of the Sudanese people to the United Nations only to have his cries fall on deaf ears. “I am very, very pessimistic when it comes to the UN,” he said, “A lot is being said, but not done.”
Deng believes the government of Sudan should be held responsible and put on trial for crimes against humanity. In contrast, Deng praised the influence and action undertaken by students and youth around America for social issues.
“Whenever I go to a rally or event, the majority of activists are always students like you,” he said.
“You have the power because you are free citizens living in a free nation. You have the power to speak up because you are tomorrow’s leaders.”
For Deng, the greatest challenge in drawing attention to Sudan has been the unwillingness of leaders to act on their words. But when students speak up ,the governments listen and respond, he said.
Junior Katie Kokkinos described Deng’s speech as “eye opening.” “It’s one of those subjects that you hear about abstractly, and he really personalized it for a lot of students. It touches your heart.”
Junior Martha Caffrey said she was also impressed. “It was very interesting to hear his criticism of the UN. Often in the US we don’t have a clear picture of what is actually happening, and what these organizations we rely on are actually accomplishing. It’s important for us to allow ourselves to honestly look and see what we are doing to help, and what still needs to be done.”
Amnesty International considered it to be a great success.
Senior Kate Profumo, who orchestrated the event, praised it as a first step towards increasing social awareness of major issues on campus. The club is planning on a follow-up event called “Darfur Diaries” for the near future, which will deal with the latest Sudan violence in the region of Darfur.
article first posted at: http://ogb.wfu.edu
The Student Newspaper of Wake Forest
By Will Burke
Staff writer
February 22, 2007
Annenberg Forum was literally overflowing with students listening to Simon Deng speak Feb. 20.
Every seat and both the aisles were occupied with students attending to hear Deng’s speech on the evils being perpetrated in his home country, Sudan.
Deng opened with his own personal story of experiencing the horrors of slavery as a child.
At the age of nine he was taken from his home during a raid and sold into slavery in northern Sudan. He escaped and went on to become an American citizen and has spent his life protesting the Sudanese government and the atrocities committed there.
The greatest crime carried out by the Sudanese government, according to Deng, has been its program of genocide.
The Sudanese government uses Islamic law to reign over the country and therefore only Muslims are considered to be citizens.
However, the majority of the population in Sudan is made up of non-Islamic Africans, while it is the minority Arab population that controls the government. The country has been involved in civil wars since its creation in the early 1970s ringing up a death toll in the millions.
Deng argued in his speech, “The government has been using the war as an umbrella to cover up the genocide taking place there.”
He also said the Sudanese government has gotten away with its crimes unscathed.
Deng has brought the plight of the Sudanese people to the United Nations only to have his cries fall on deaf ears. “I am very, very pessimistic when it comes to the UN,” he said, “A lot is being said, but not done.”
Deng believes the government of Sudan should be held responsible and put on trial for crimes against humanity. In contrast, Deng praised the influence and action undertaken by students and youth around America for social issues.
“Whenever I go to a rally or event, the majority of activists are always students like you,” he said.
“You have the power because you are free citizens living in a free nation. You have the power to speak up because you are tomorrow’s leaders.”
For Deng, the greatest challenge in drawing attention to Sudan has been the unwillingness of leaders to act on their words. But when students speak up ,the governments listen and respond, he said.
Junior Katie Kokkinos described Deng’s speech as “eye opening.” “It’s one of those subjects that you hear about abstractly, and he really personalized it for a lot of students. It touches your heart.”
Junior Martha Caffrey said she was also impressed. “It was very interesting to hear his criticism of the UN. Often in the US we don’t have a clear picture of what is actually happening, and what these organizations we rely on are actually accomplishing. It’s important for us to allow ourselves to honestly look and see what we are doing to help, and what still needs to be done.”
Amnesty International considered it to be a great success.
Senior Kate Profumo, who orchestrated the event, praised it as a first step towards increasing social awareness of major issues on campus. The club is planning on a follow-up event called “Darfur Diaries” for the near future, which will deal with the latest Sudan violence in the region of Darfur.
article first posted at: http://ogb.wfu.edu
The Student Newspaper of Wake Forest
Friday, February 16, 2007
Speak Out!
University of Massachusetts Daily Collegiate journalist Debbie Friedman recently wrote an article detailing the realities behind modern day slavery. Friedman found out about the anti-slavery movement through her cousin Joe Romano, who is an American Anti-Slavery Group associate. Her work explains the different types of slavery that exist, and the effects that these atrocities have on individuals and societies.
Friedman describes her previous notions of "slavery", and how those have been altered, writing, "History books taught me that slavery had vanished from the world decades ago, barring some minor exceptions in dark corners of the globe. I assumed modern day slavery referred to the kinds of atrocities that occur in sweatshops, where workers are paid pennies to perform grueling labor in poor conditions. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong in my assumptions."
There are over 27 million people enslaved around the world. The term "slavery" implies more than just work without compensation; slaves are treated as sub-human, stripped of their human rights and their dignity.
To learn more about slavery and the different forms in which it exists read the full article here.
Friedman describes her previous notions of "slavery", and how those have been altered, writing, "History books taught me that slavery had vanished from the world decades ago, barring some minor exceptions in dark corners of the globe. I assumed modern day slavery referred to the kinds of atrocities that occur in sweatshops, where workers are paid pennies to perform grueling labor in poor conditions. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong in my assumptions."
There are over 27 million people enslaved around the world. The term "slavery" implies more than just work without compensation; slaves are treated as sub-human, stripped of their human rights and their dignity.
To learn more about slavery and the different forms in which it exists read the full article here.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Bought and Sold into Slavery in the UK
According to the Times Online: Tanya was smuggled into the UK in the back of a lorry, crammed into a box hidden in a cargo of tyres. She had been promised a job as a waitress at a casino in Bosnia but, once in the hands of the traffickers, she was bought and sold six times on the journey across Europe.
Terrified, unable to speak English and not sure where she was, she was dropped off with her Albanian trafficker in a forest where they were picked up by a minicab and taken to Birmingham. For the next few months, she was forced to work as a prostitute in a sauna there and then in London. Her captors told her she would be jailed if she went to the authorities and threatened to harm her children in Ukraine. “They said you have a daughter, she will be grown up soon,” remembers Tanya (not her real name) bleakly.
With a bond of several thousands of pounds hanging over her — “I knew they would never let me go, even if I paid it” — she escaped thanks to friends. She hid, working in a charity shop and studying English, too frightened to tell anyone what had happened to her. After nine months, she was persuaded to go to the police to claim asylum. She was referred to the Poppy Project, the Home Office-funded initiative that provides support and housing to women trafficked into prostitution.
Tanya was identified by project workers as a trafficking victim but the Home Office refused to accept her credibility. After an 18-month legal battle, an immigration appeal tribunal granted her asylum. It accepted that Tanya, who was represented by Hammersmith Law Centre, was a victim of trafficking and that she would be at risk of serious harm from her trafficker if she was returned home, as well as being at risk of being trafficked again.
Read the full article here.
Terrified, unable to speak English and not sure where she was, she was dropped off with her Albanian trafficker in a forest where they were picked up by a minicab and taken to Birmingham. For the next few months, she was forced to work as a prostitute in a sauna there and then in London. Her captors told her she would be jailed if she went to the authorities and threatened to harm her children in Ukraine. “They said you have a daughter, she will be grown up soon,” remembers Tanya (not her real name) bleakly.
With a bond of several thousands of pounds hanging over her — “I knew they would never let me go, even if I paid it” — she escaped thanks to friends. She hid, working in a charity shop and studying English, too frightened to tell anyone what had happened to her. After nine months, she was persuaded to go to the police to claim asylum. She was referred to the Poppy Project, the Home Office-funded initiative that provides support and housing to women trafficked into prostitution.
Tanya was identified by project workers as a trafficking victim but the Home Office refused to accept her credibility. After an 18-month legal battle, an immigration appeal tribunal granted her asylum. It accepted that Tanya, who was represented by Hammersmith Law Centre, was a victim of trafficking and that she would be at risk of serious harm from her trafficker if she was returned home, as well as being at risk of being trafficked again.
Read the full article here.
Approved Ban on Investments in Sudan
According to the Associated Press: Denver, Colorado lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday barring state pension funds from investing in companies that do business in Sudan, a move sponsors say is the strongest of its kind taken by a U.S. state has taken against Sudanese leaders.
The measure now must be approved in the state Senate.
"This is the strongest action that any state has ever taken against the Sudanese government," House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, a Democrat, said.
"We are sending the message that we will not give a dime to the murder, rape, and torture of innocent people."
More than 200,000 people have been killed in a four-year conflict in Sudan. The White House has labeled the Khartoum government's brutal counterinsurgency tactics as genocide, a claim the government denies.
You can find the article here.
The measure now must be approved in the state Senate.
"This is the strongest action that any state has ever taken against the Sudanese government," House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, a Democrat, said.
"We are sending the message that we will not give a dime to the murder, rape, and torture of innocent people."
More than 200,000 people have been killed in a four-year conflict in Sudan. The White House has labeled the Khartoum government's brutal counterinsurgency tactics as genocide, a claim the government denies.
You can find the article here.
Friday, February 02, 2007
End Recruitment of Child Soldiers Now
According to the UN News Service: The United Nations envoy on children and armed conflict and the deputy head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) have urged all parties in Sudan to commit to ending child recruitment and to immediately release any children associated with their forces.
Wrapping up a week-long visit to Sudan, including to strife-torn Darfur, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah called for increased resources to help former child combatants reintegrate into their communities.
"Children should be seen as a bridge-head in the dialogue for peace," Ms. Coomaraswamy said. "Protecting them is crucial to building a durable peace in this country."
Ms. Salah reiterated UNICEF's commitment to supporting national authorities in protecting all children, noting that they "dream of being free from a culture of war and fear, and we are ready to walk hand in hand with the people of Sudan to achieve this goal."
Read the full article here.
Wrapping up a week-long visit to Sudan, including to strife-torn Darfur, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah called for increased resources to help former child combatants reintegrate into their communities.
"Children should be seen as a bridge-head in the dialogue for peace," Ms. Coomaraswamy said. "Protecting them is crucial to building a durable peace in this country."
Ms. Salah reiterated UNICEF's commitment to supporting national authorities in protecting all children, noting that they "dream of being free from a culture of war and fear, and we are ready to walk hand in hand with the people of Sudan to achieve this goal."
Read the full article here.
End Recruitment of Child Soldiers Now
According to the UN News Service: The United Nations envoy on children and armed conflict and the deputy head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) have urged all parties in Sudan to commit to ending child recruitment and to immediately release any children associated with their forces.
Wrapping up a week-long visit to Sudan, including to strife-torn Darfur, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah called for increased resources to help former child combatants reintegrate into their communities.
"Children should be seen as a bridge-head in the dialogue for peace," Ms. Coomaraswamy said. "Protecting them is crucial to building a durable peace in this country."
Ms. Salah reiterated UNICEF's commitment to supporting national authorities in protecting all children, noting that they "dream of being free from a culture of war and fear, and we are ready to walk hand in hand with the people of Sudan to achieve this goal."
The Special Rapporteur and Ms. Salah also welcomed a series of commitments by the Government and armed groups to reinforce child protection.
The Government of National Unity has pledged to adopt and implement national legislation to criminalize recruitment of child soldiers and also to set up a joint task force with the UN on sexual violence and abuse against children.
The Government of Southern Sudan will undertake an audit of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and allied forces, in collaboration with the UN, to identify and release any associated children. It will also increase spending on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of children.
Rebel groups and non-signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), struck in May last year, have promised to cooperate with the UN on action plans to identify and release children associated with their forces and to set up a monitoring and verification system.
Ms. Coomaraswamy and Ms. Salah also urged national authorities to accelerate the adoption of critical child protection legislation such as the Child Rights Bill and the Armed Forces Act, and to undertake rigorous investigation and prosecution for crimes against children, especially rape and other grave sexual violence against girls.
Recent allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of children by UN peacekeepers were also addressed during the visit, with the delegation reiterating that such abuses are unacceptable and calling for the Secretary-General's "zero tolerance" policy to be vigorously enforced.
Wrapping up a week-long visit to Sudan, including to strife-torn Darfur, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah called for increased resources to help former child combatants reintegrate into their communities.
"Children should be seen as a bridge-head in the dialogue for peace," Ms. Coomaraswamy said. "Protecting them is crucial to building a durable peace in this country."
Ms. Salah reiterated UNICEF's commitment to supporting national authorities in protecting all children, noting that they "dream of being free from a culture of war and fear, and we are ready to walk hand in hand with the people of Sudan to achieve this goal."
The Special Rapporteur and Ms. Salah also welcomed a series of commitments by the Government and armed groups to reinforce child protection.
The Government of National Unity has pledged to adopt and implement national legislation to criminalize recruitment of child soldiers and also to set up a joint task force with the UN on sexual violence and abuse against children.
The Government of Southern Sudan will undertake an audit of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and allied forces, in collaboration with the UN, to identify and release any associated children. It will also increase spending on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of children.
Rebel groups and non-signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), struck in May last year, have promised to cooperate with the UN on action plans to identify and release children associated with their forces and to set up a monitoring and verification system.
Ms. Coomaraswamy and Ms. Salah also urged national authorities to accelerate the adoption of critical child protection legislation such as the Child Rights Bill and the Armed Forces Act, and to undertake rigorous investigation and prosecution for crimes against children, especially rape and other grave sexual violence against girls.
Recent allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of children by UN peacekeepers were also addressed during the visit, with the delegation reiterating that such abuses are unacceptable and calling for the Secretary-General's "zero tolerance" policy to be vigorously enforced.
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