Free and Equal: a new global public education campaign against homophobia and transphobia See the article here
World Day Against Child Labor: Each year since 2002, the international community has come together on June 12 to mark World Day Against Child Labor. According to estimates of the International Labor Organization (ILO), over 215 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor. This year, we call particular attention to the plight of those children – mostly girls – who are engaged in domestic work.
Democracy and Human Rights Stories: The latest news from the official website blog of the US Department of State, covering many regions and topics
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking. It is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. Government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue. It represents an updated, global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it. The U.S. Government uses the TIP Report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programs. Worldwide, the report is used by international organizations, foreign governments, and nongovernmental organizations alike as a tool to examine where resources are most needed. Freeing victims, preventing trafficking, and bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate goals of the report and of the U.S Government's anti-human trafficking policy.
More than 100 teens rescued in weekend sex-trafficking raids: More than 100 teenagers — many of them children from broken homes — were rescued over the weekend in a sex-trafficking crackdown that swept more than 70 cities, the FBI said.
International Religious Freedom Reports describe the status of religious freedom, government policies violating religious belief and practices of groups, religious denominations and individuals, and U.S. policies promoting religious freedom. From the US Dept of State.
The annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report – describes the status of religious freedom in every country. The report covers government policies violating religious belief and practices of groups, religious denominations and individuals, and U.S. policies to promote religious freedom around the world. The U.S. Department of State submits the reports in accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
Recent international news posts from the Not For Sale campaign to support modern solutions to modern-day slavery.
“We see it as fundamental to our own interests to support a just peace around the world—one in which individuals, and not just nations, are granted the fundamental rights that they deserve.” – May 2010 National Security Strategy
The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974.
Local woman helps fight human trafficking: Sarah Symons, 48, and her husband, John Berger, 46, founded and operate Made By Survivors, a nonprofit group that offers survivors of trafficking the education and training to restart and improve their lives.
Modern-day slavery: a global forum. Announcing the launch of a project on modern-day slavery, investigating root causes and potential solutions. Over the next twelve months, the Guardian, in partnership with Humanity United, a US-based foundation dedicated to building peace and advancing freedom, will shine a light on the phenomenon of modern-day slavery.
Why Slave Labor Still Plagues The Global Food System. When the State Department released its annual report on human trafficking Wednesday, we got a chilling reminder that even in 2013, slave labor is still embedded in the global food system.
As many as 27 million men, women and children are estimated to be trafficking victims at any given time, according to the report. And some of those victims, the State Department says, are later forced to work in agriculture and food processing (though no one has a good idea how many).
Hawaii Gov. Abercrombie Signs Human Trafficking Bills: three new bills combating human trafficking in Hawaii and increasing services for victims.
The most important of these measures is SB 192, which mints the offense of solicitation of a minor (a person under the age of eighteen) for prostitution, graded as a class C felony that carries a minimum $2,000 fine, while extending the civil statute of limitations for coerced prostitution to six years, expanding asset forfeiture laws to cover an increased range of solicitation offenses, and adding solicitation of a minor to the state's list of crimes subject to the sex offender registry.
SUCCESS STORIES: Around the world, Human Rights First seeks to protect human rights defenders, all too often both the champions of progress as well as the victims of repression.
Following the principle set forth in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels,” human rights defenders are individuals and groups that non-violently promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. They may include lawyers, judges, journalists, bloggers, students, religious leaders, trade unionists, and any others who work to promote human rights and combat violations.
As I looked around the South Auditorium in the Old Executive Office Building during the White House's Forum to Combat Human Trafficking, I felt a surge of hope in a field that could use so much more. Members of the Obama administration joined with many of the nation's leading abolitionists to take stock of the nation's effort to end the scourge of human trafficking and share information to bolster the fight yet ahead of us.
Too often, those of us who fight against human slavery beat our heads against the walls of misinformation and prejudice.
No, we have to explain, trafficking victims aren't just those vulnerable people who are smuggled in from other countries so their labor and bodies can be exploited -- 80 percent of sex trafficking victims are U.S. citizens, mostly homeless, abused, and impoverished young people who see no other options.
Cambridge – HREA announces the release of Human Total: A Violence Prevention Learning Resource, a new manual created by HREA, the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) and the Instituto Mexicano de Investigación Familia y de Población (IMIFAP)
"Adolescence is an ideal time to promote attitudes and behaviours that prevent interpersonal violence. Human Total is the first resource to blend life skills with human rights education" says HREA's Founder and Senior Advisor, Felisa Tibbitts, who helped prepare the pilot draft of the manual.
Human Total will be a vital resource for students, educators and parents. Targeted towards young people between the ages of 10 and 14, the manual helps learners understand attitudes that promote violent behaviour (often brought about by the misuse of alcohol) by males and cultivates methods to minimise these behaviours’ harms and prevent their perpetuation.
Human Total contains 32 adaptable lesson plans, including ways to recognise and understand violence in social contexts and techniques for minimising violence through education about human rights and active participation in the community. The manual also features a note for facilitators on how to use it, tools for outreach to parents and guardians, recommendations for additional resources, and eight annexes with supplemental information. The resource was piloted in El Salvador and Kenya.
Youth leaders participate in AFSC Human Rights Summit: Youth leaders from St. Louis; New Orleans; Greensboro, N.C.: Washington, D.C.; and Logan, W.Va., were hosted by the D.C. Peace and Economic Justice Program for a weeklong Human Rights Summit in Washington in June 2013.
As part of Human Rights Summit hosted by the American Friends Service Committee last week in Washington, D.C., Logan High Seniors Ciara Campbell and Jimetta Early met with Senator Manchin, Congressman Rahall, and staff with Senator Rockefeller to discuss real solutions to teen pregnancy.
Campbell and Early are spokeswomen for the Believing All is Possible or (BAPS) Youth Leadership Group.
View the full article on www.wvowradio.com
DC kicks off year of human rights learning: This year, the city council kicked off “DC Year of Human Rights Learning” on Dec. 10, calling on the American Friends Service Committee and the Washington, D.C. public schools to continue to promote the importance of educated residents about human rights.
Since passing its Human Rights City resolution, Washington has been able to reach out to more than 150 students each year through AFSC, which focuses on peace and economic justice through its Washington program.
Jean-Louis Peta Ikambana, the program’s director, explains that students involved with the program get “more than just a human rights class.”
“The project strives to achieve universal commitment to the dignity and worth of each human person by working with D.C. Public Schools students to increase their knowledge and understanding of human rights, as a way to create a culture of long lasting peace in D.C.,” he says.
The project’s main goals are to increase human rights knowledge, to foster critical thinking, and to empower youth to become agents for peace and social change.
The curriculum uses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a foundation. A survey of 89 students from seven public and private schools in 2008 found that only two had even heard of the universal declaration, but every respondent indicated interest in learning more about human rights.
Walmart Accepted Clothing from Banned Bangladesh Factories The world’s largest retailer last month released a list of more than 200 factories it said it had barred from producing its merchandise because of serious or repeated safety problems, labor violations or unauthorized subcontracting.
But at least two of the factories on the list have continued to send massive shipments of sports bras and girls' dresses to Walmart stores in recent months, according to interviews and U.S. customs records.
In June 2011, Walmart said, it banned the Bangladeshi garment factory Mars Apparels from producing goods for the retail giant. But over the last year, Mars has repeatedly shipped tons of sports bras to Walmart, according to U.S. customs records and Mars owners. The most recent shipment was in late May, almost two years after Walmart claims it stopped doing business with the Bangladeshi firm.
WASHINGTON -- Sex trafficking is a crime that happens under the radar, but it's happening in our own backyard, says Virginia Del. Tim Hugo, R-Fairfax.
"You think that sex trafficking only happens overseas," Hugo says. "It's happening right here in Fairfax County, Arlington and Alexandria -- some of the most affluent jurisdictions in America."