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March 2010 |
The monthly newsletter detailing Non-Governmental Organization events at the UN | ||||
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In This Issue · Update: 2010 DPI NGO Conference · Justice and Peace Commission Agenda · Featured Briefing: Trafficking · Trafficking Resources · 2010 Calendar · More UN Links of Interest Augustinian Links of Interest Augustinian.org Haitian Relief Efforts United Nations World Food Program UN refugee agency Central Emergency Response Fund, sponsored by United Nations Haiti Relief and Development Re-building in Haiti
Contact Us Jack Deegan
Brian Roe
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Welcome!In the interest of making the activities of the Order's team at the United Nations more known, we have begun an online newsletter. We hope that it will be helpful to you and result in more interest and participation in the United Nations and local NGOs sponsored by the Augustinians. We intend to bring you information from the weekly briefings on a number of critical issues being discussed by the leaders at the United Nations as well as pointing out resources and links that may help you in your ministry to the poor and needy of the world. We also would like to hear from you as you confront the issues of hunger, poverty, human rights and the progress being made on the Millennium Development Goals. We would like to be able to help you where and with what we can. Thank you for your interest and support.
John Deegan, O.S.A.
Update: 63rd Annual DPI-NGO Conference
On February 25, DPI-NGO held a town hall meeting to discuss the planning process of this year's conference. Fr. Jack Deegan has been in contact with the Australian Augustinians to consider a place for the Augustinian course to be held in conjunction with the DPI-NGO conference. The conference's convener, Dr. Phil Batterham of the University of Melbourne, flew in to attend the meeting. He expressed the excitement of the entire Australian NGO community for the opportunity to host the event. He fielded questions from various NGO representatives about how the topic of global health will be discussed. The Conference will be chaired by Dr. Mary E. Norton, Associate Dean and Professor, Global Academic Initiatives at Felician College in Lodi, NJ. More information will be released shortly by the Department of Public Information and provided in future newsletters.
Justice and Peace Commission to Meet in Rome
The Justice and Peace Commission for the Order will meet in Rome on March 10-11. The agenda will include a discussion of the steps to be taken for achieving ECOSOC status, and an updating of the NGO by-laws and statutes. As announced in our previous newsletter, the Augustinian NGO will seek to achieve ECOSOC status in the coming year. A full listing of the necessary components to apply for ECOSOC status can be found here. Additionally, the Commission will begin the planning process for the Augustinian course, held annually in conjunction with the annual DPI/NGO Conference. The conference will discuss the potential role of the Augustinian NGO, as well as our partner NGO's, in the global health discussion. DPI/NGO Communications Workshop: Haiti On February 24, DPI-NGO invited the NGO community to gather for the year's first communications workshop. Typically, DPI periodically conducts these workshops as an opportunity for NGO's to get together and discuss their modes of communication both within their NGO and among the greater NGO community. The workshops provide an opportunity for NGO's to collaborate about the best possible ways to disseminate information. The recent devastating earthquake in Haiti provided the NGO community with an opportunity for DPI-NGO to discuss communication and mobilization efforts in the context of an issue that is both current and pressing. The earthquake in Haiti was a disaster of epic proportions for Haiti, the United Nations community, and, indeed, humanity as a whole. The quake destroyed the United Nations headquarters building, making it the single deadliest incident in UN peacekeeping history. On a greater scale, the quake affected over 3 million people in Haiti, including 222,000 confirmed dead, 300,000 wounded, and over 600,000 displaced. The workshop included a presentation by Jean-Wesley Cazeau, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Mission of Haiti to the UN, who described the current situation in Port-au-Prince as he sees it. Mr. Cazeau said that he has received an outpouring of support from the international NGO community and has continually been asked how one might be able to help. He wanted to stress that the mission of Haiti is open and receptive to outside help, especially in terms of rebuilding the country's infrastructure. Patrick McCormick, Senior Emergencies Communications Specialist for UNICEF, was a little more poignant with what UNICEF sees as the start to a remedy in Haiti. Haiti has seen its already ailing infrastructure further devastated by the earthquake. In the face of disaster, the usual relief mantra is "build back better". Mr. McCormick pointed out rightfully that the case of Haiti is actually very much a case of "build". The next few months are a big opportunity for Haiti, which will never again have so much attention, human resources, and global goodwill directed at it for such a sustained period. The important thing is having the right leadership. We don't need so many voices--we just need some who have a clear vision of how to go ahead, so that Haiti has the chance to build itself into something decent and sustainable. Nicholas Reader, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was very complimentary about what the world has accomplished in the wake of this terrible disaster. These efforts have been possible because people and organizations have worked together in ways that were unimaginable a few years ago. In the coming months, Haiti will desperately need improvement in shelter, camp management, and sanitation, especially with the rainy season looming. Failures in these areas will undo progress in other sectors. It is essential for the global community to learn lessons from this experience so that they can be applied to future incidents. The workshop also included a discussion on how modern communications methods (including internet news media, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter) have become increasingly effective as ways to spread information and increase awareness. Prevention, Prosecution, and Protection: Focus on the Trafficking of Women and Girls
The exact data on global human trafficking is difficult to obtain. Global estimates on the number of people victimized annually by human trafficking range from 800,000 to 2,000,000, 80% of whom are women and girls. An important first step in determining the course of action against trafficking is agreeing on what trafficking is and what it is not. Perhaps the closest thing to a universalized definition of human trafficking was born out of the United Nations' 2003 "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children": "Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. A full copy of this most important document can be found here. Ms. Alexia Taveau, Associate Crime Prevention Expert with the Anti-Human Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling Unit of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, pointed out that the trafficking of persons is an offense that remains largely unprosecuted an unpunished worldwide. What is needed (and what the UN Protocol is only the START of) is a strengthening of the international framework to combat this crime. The "three P's" of fighting human trafficking are Prevention, Protection, and Prosecution. The thought process should be that better prevention of trafficking coupled with better protection of potential victims would improve international prosecution of the crime, as society would be more aware of the ramifications of trafficking. Ms. Maggie Lazaridis, head of a Greek NGO that deals with the issue of missing and exploited children, shared her insight into Europe's, and particularly Greece's, experience with trafficking. Ms. Lazaridis contends that the biggest problem in combating the trafficking issue in Europe is that victims remain overwhelmingly unidentified. Many victims do not even know they are being exploited themselves. In recent years, traffickers have employed "softer" methods like manipulating their victims into thinking that they are doing something wrong. Never in Greece has there been a prosecuted case of human trafficking. The highlight of the briefing was a presentation by Mr. Siddharth Kara, First Fellow on Human Trafficking with Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a founding member of Harvard's Advisory Collective on Human Rights. Mr. Kara is the author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, an incredibly well researched look into the complex world of human trafficking. A more complete summary of his presentation can be found in a forthcoming message. Mr. Kara spoke about human trafficking as being an economic crime first. Trafficking divides mainly into three subcategories: forced labor, forced begging, and sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is by far the most profitable of the three. Mr. Kara's thesis is: the enormity and pervasiveness of the global sex trafficking industry is driven by its ability to generate immense profits, at almost no real risk. His recommendations? That those in non-slave related sectors form linkages with antislavery NGOs, as slavery resides at the intersection of issues that we tackle everyday; and that those working for antislavery NGOs come together and demand more analysis and less sensationalism on this issue.
TRAFFICKING RESOURCES
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND THE ILLEGAL TRAFFICKING OF PEOPLE (FEBRUARY 2010, n. 3 ** CURIA, OSA, Frs. Michael and Alejandro
The Secretariat for Justice and Peace, committed to assist the friars of the Order in acquiring a greater awareness of the trafficking of people, which is the priority goal for the years of 2009 – 2011, offers this report.
THE ILLEGAL TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN IN HAITI 2010 Historic duplicity in the trafficking of children
“Everyone in this country knows about the trafficking of children: there are the mafias of lawyers, the leaders of churches (sects),the small, established ‘ad hoc’ power groups, the fraudulent doctors …” (Fr. Miguel Jean Baptiste)
The whole world was moved and indignant when it learned of the presumed kidnapping of 33 children during the full-blown crisis of the Haitian people (death, missing persons, loss of homes ….) caused by the powerful earthquake.
The government of Haiti, was bothered by the public media attention that this news received. Perhaps unconsciously, this governmental reaction revealed an acknowledgement of what they assume as the normal state of affairs. Why? Because as could be drawn from the comment of Fr. Miguel that we quoted above, “this is the normal state of affairs in this country”. That is to say: it is nothing new. International trafficking has been present in Haiti since the time of French colonialism… But let us not deceive ourselves. The matter is even more serious, I would say it is much more serious, because it is a reality in all those places in which poverty abounds, which disgracefully for humanity are not a few. And Haiti is a poor country.
Read more about “Restavecs: Duplicity in the Trafficking of Children”
Spring 2010 Briefings
NGO dug itself out of the snow long enough to conduct a very important briefing entitled "Prevention, Prosecution, and Protection: Focus on the Trafficking of Women and Girls". Originally scheduled for February 11, the briefing took place on February 18 in the temporary north lawn building. Upcoming briefings are listed below, and the entire listing of this winter/spring's briefings can be found here:
Periodic summaries of these briefings will once again be sent out beginning with this week's briefing. If did not receive these summaries in 2009 and would like to be added to the mailing list, please contact brian.roe@villanova.edu
Upcoming 2010 Briefings: - - - 4 March - Equal Rights Equal Opportunities -- Progress for All: Arab Women 15 Years after Beijing **(Attended by students from Villanova University) - - - 11 March - Water for Healthy World: The Challenges of Producing Clean Water **(Attended by students from Merrimack College) --- 18-19 March - Orientation Program for New NGOs - - - 25 March - Theme TBA (In Observance of International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade - - - 1 April - Girl's Education: An End to Poverty?
*** Thursday briefings can normally be seen LIVE via UN webcast, which can be seen here: http://www.un.org/webcast/
*** It should also be noted that all briefings can be heard IN THEIR ENTIRETY by visiting the audio library section of
the UN website, located here:
http://www.unmultimedia.org/
Augustinian Schools Learn about UN, NGO’s
On February 24, the Model UN group from St. Augustine Prep in Richland, NJ visited the United Nations for a tour. The group also met at the ICO on 47th street with the Augustinian NGO liaison to discuss the role of NGO's, particularly that of the Order of St. Augustine. The group was enthusiastic and active, asked good questions, and expressed interest in beginning to work on an issue frequently discussed at the United Nations. From March 1-7 and March 8-15, respectively, Villanova University and Merrimack College will send groups of students to New York as part of their spring break service programs. The groups will be serving at the worksites of the Augustinian Volunteers in the Bronx: Siena House, a women’s shelter; St. Nicholas of Tolentine School; and St. Rita’s Center for Immigrant Services. In addition, they will be learning about the United Nations, and some will attend the Thursday NGO briefings. All of these institutions have the study of the UN and NGO’s as part of their curriculum, and we are excited to have them coming to learn about our NGO’s mission!
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