June 2, 2010
Human trafficking is the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.
Smuggling migrants involves the procurement for financial or other material benefit of illegal entry of a person into a State of which that person is not a national or resident.
Virtually every country in the world is affected by these crimes. The challenge for all countries, rich and poor, is totarget the criminals who exploit desperate people and to protect and assist victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants, many of whom endure unimaginable hardships in their bid for a better life.
As the only United Nations entity focusing on the criminal justice element of these crimes, the work that UNODC does to combat human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants is underpinned by the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols on trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling.
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May 28, 2010

A poster for the awareness campaign to fight human trafficking during the June 11-July 11 World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa. (CNS/courtesy of Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference)
VATICAN CITY – An international network of women’s religious orders has launched a worldwide awareness campaign aimed at preventing human trafficking during the June 11-July 11 World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa.
The campaign titled, “2010 Should Be About the Game,” has been targeting fans, religious leaders, potential victims of trafficking and the general public — warning them about the risks and urging them to spread the word.
Using the 2010 World Cup to exploit vulnerable women, children and men for slave labor, the sex industry or the drug trade is “an outright perversion of the spirit and ethical dimension of sport as well as of the idea and dignity of the human person,” said Salesian Sister Bernadette Sangma.
Sister Sangma, who coordinates the anti-trafficking project of the International Union of Superiors General, and others spoke at a Vatican news conference May 6.
A similar anti-trafficking campaign coordinated by the superiors general and the International Organization for Migration was highly successful during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, said Stefano Volpicelli, a migration office official who has been working with the sisters…
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CatholicNews.com
Posted in Trafficking |
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February 1, 2010
National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month culminates in National Freedom Day Feb.1
National Freedom Day is an observance in the United States that honors the signing of a resolution that proposed the 13th amendment of the nation’s constitution on February 1, 1865. Abraham Lincoln, who was the president at the time, signed the resolution to outlaw slavery. This anniversary is annually observed on February 1.

National Freedom Day remembers when Abraham Lincoln (image pictured above) signed a resolution for the United States Constitution's 13th amendment in order to abolish slavery. ©iStockphoto.com/Eric Foltz
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Posted in Justice, Peace & Social Justice, Trafficking |
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