Archive for November, 2011

Thanksliving

Posted: November 28, 2011 in Updates & Personal Reflections
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This weekend, our pastor challenged us to step away from what’s “normal,” and to commit to a life of “thanksliving”: to thank God each morning for the specific blessings and challenges in our day, to resist the temptation to complain, and to let our thankfulness be revealed in our interactions and service to others.  As some of you may already know, I lost my paternal grandfather and my husband lost his paternal grandmother early this past Sunday morning.  Both had been ill, but you are never “prepared” to lose someone you love.  Today, I’m humbled and truly thankful for all of the love and support we’ve received from family and friends.

My grandfather was a kind, gentle, humble, God-fearing man, and I will truly miss him.  My grandfather understood that God had blessed him tremendously, and he let his thankfulness be evident to all.

After a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with friends, the passing of our relatives was a reminder to treasure the moments with the ones you love, and to always make the effort to connect with friends and family.  In that spirit, I’m going to step away from blogging and tweeting this week as my husband and I gather with family to celebrate the lives of our grandparents.  I hope you’ll join me in committing to live a thankful life; to exchange frustration for peace, complaints for praise, and selfishness for selflessness.

Image: http://themakersway.blogspot.com/

Make Your Purchase Your Advocacy This Holiday Season

Posted: November 23, 2011 in Human Trafficking
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With the holiday shopping season upon us, we all have an opportunity to fight slavery and injustice simply by purchasing items manufactured in slavery-free supply chains.  Recently, the Not for Sale campaign launched a consumer tool that provides transparency about the supply chains of products sold in retail stores around the world.  The “Free2Work” tool can be downloaded as an app on the Android and iPhone, and it allows consumers to learn the story behind the barcode of more than 10,000 products from more than 400 brands.  Free2Work assigns a product a grade – A to F – based on “the tangible steps that a company has taken to demonstrate that it has zero tolerance for forced labor in its supply chain. The 50 factors that go into evaluating that grade encompass protocols that pertain to transparency in a supply chain, a solid code of conduct, monitoring its implementation, and remediation when violations do occur.”

David Batstone, Founder and President of Not For Sale, told Al Jazeera,: “Every product has a story. And I know that I am not the only person who does not want to wear people’s tragedy. I do not want to trample on their dreams with the shoes that I buy. I do not want to consume their suffering with my morning cup of coffee. I would hope that everyone who touches a product that I buy had their lives enhanced by their participation in its production.”

In a recent blog post, Julie Kaszton, Outreach Coordinator at the Not for Sale Campaign, stated that the Free2Work app equips “consumers with valuable information on companies’ labor standards and production practices at the moment they need it most – while they shop…The more consumers scan products, the more they learn about the products they purchase each day. The hope is that a shift in consumer demand will have a positive ripple effect in the supply chain of companies and ultimately help raise the bar in industry standards.

You can also fight slavery by purchasing your holiday gifts from the Not for Sale Store which features items made by the Not for Sale Campaign and its partners (the partners employ survivors of human trafficking and individuals who are vulnerable to exploitation.

I hope you will be inspired by these words on the Not for Sale Store website, and choose to make your purchase your advocacy this holiday season.

The Not For Sale Store team envisions a time in the near future when a common question in North American retail stores is no longer “How much?” but “How was this made?”  The Not For Sale Store generates enterprise & employment to prevent human trafficking and create new futures for survivors.

Every purchase you make is an action to end slavery — because no one should be for sale. BUY FOR FREEDOM.

Celebrating National Adoption Month

Posted: November 22, 2011 in Adoption
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According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, there are more than 107,000 children and youth in foster care waiting for adoptive parents.  Established by former president Bill Clinton and celebrated each November, National Adoption Month brings awareness to the pressing need for loving adoptive families.  This year’s theme is Build Capacity to Make Lasting Change, and is focused on educating adoption professionals on methods to recruit and retain adoptive parents for the thousands of children and youth in foster care.

Adoption ought to be close to all of our hearts; according to a survey by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 58% percent of Americans know someone who was adopted.  A list of celebrity adoptees includes: Steve Jobs, Sarah McLachlan, Faith Hill, John Lennon, Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, John Hancock, Edgar Allen Poe, Langston Hughes, and two former presidents, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.

In a recent article, Michael Piraino, the CEO of the National CASA Association, stated:

The act of inviting an adopted child into one’s life is not made easily. About one in three Americans has considered adoption, but far fewer actually follow through and become adoptive parents. For those who are adopting children from foster care, the challenges are magnified. On my wall is a photo of me with two brothers I met at the White House during one National Adoption Month celebration. They had been hoping to be adopted, but had had several possible homes fall through. I’ll never forget how those two wonderful kids went up to everyone in the White House and explained that they could be part of their families. And when the younger one fell asleep on my shoulder during the speeches, you can bet I wanted my wife and me to be the ones to give him and his brother a permanent home.

None of these children is waiting for a castle or a mansion. All they want is another chance. All they’re waiting for is a break. It was not their choice to be unable to live with their biological parents. It was not their choice to be removed from their families and to enter the foster care system. These children deserve a second chance at a happy, healthy permanent home.

Adoption is so much more than simply providing an open room in a house. Adoption is a lifelong commitment that changes the lives of children, parents and generations to come.

Here are a few ways you can celebrate National Adoption Month:

Please follow these links for more information about adoption: AdoptUSKids, the Child Welfare Information Gateway and the Children’s Bureau.

Image: http://adoptionnetworklawcenter.net/

Forced Sterilization in Peru: Will Justice Finally be Served?

Posted: November 18, 2011 in Human Rights
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For thousands of Peruvian men and women who were forcibly sterilized during the second term of former President Alberto Fujimori’s administration (from 1990 – 2000), there’s new hope that justice may eventually be served.  On October 21, 2011, Peru’s Attorney General announced that it would reopen the investigation into these cases, and that for the first time, forced sterilization cases would be reclassified and prosecuted as crimes against humanity.

According to extra official reports, up to 300,000 women and more than 18,000 men (most of whom are indigenous and poor) were sterilized under a state policy for reproductive health.  Most of these forced sterilizations were performed under deplorable medical conditions, resulting in serious post-surgery complications, including death.

Fujimori first announced the government initiative to provide free, voluntary surgical sterilizations in 1995 as part of a government policy to eradicate poverty and control population growth.  The program initially received international support, which included a $35 million donation from USAID; however, human rights groups soon became concerned over reports that doctors were being forced to meet quotas and patients were being coerced and scammed into “consenting” to the procedure.

According to Peruvian rights groups, “The goal was to reduce poverty by lowering the birth rate among the poor, who at the time accounted for one in two Peruvians.”  Francisco Soberon, executive director of APRODEH, Peru’s leading human rights organization, stated that “It was a premeditated development policy because it was done fundamentally, in areas of extreme poverty, rural and Andean…It was also racist because it chiefly targeted indigenous Quechua speakers.”

Officials in the Fujimori administration have flatly denied that anyone was forced to undergo sterilization procedures, or that consent was obtained through deception or threats; however, human rights activists claim that Fujimori ordered the sterilizations which were carried out by three consecutive health ministers.  One health minister, Alejandro Aguinaga, has stated that “all the patients signed consent forms in order to submit to the operation.”

Human rights lawyer Silvia Romero told the GlobalPost that “[t]here was ‘direct control’ from the presidency over the sterilization program…[t]here are obviously more people involved, but we think it needs to be a very specific, concrete investigation.” The forced sterilization allegations against Fujimori are certainly not the first human rights abuse allegations against the former president, who is presently serving a 25-year jail sentence for embezzlement and authorizing death squads during his term.

The most well-known Peruvian sterilization case involved Mamerita Mestanza, a 33-year old mother of seven who died in 1996 after being pressured to undergo a tubal ligation.  According to Alejandra Cardenas of the New York based Center for Reproductive Rights, “Mestanza was told that a law had been passed and that she and her husband were going to be fined or imprisoned because they had (more than) five kids already.”  Mestanza was then coerced into signing a consent form for the surgery.  Several days after the surgery, Mestanza returned to the clinic complaining of internal bleeding and died a few days later.

In 2003, Mestanza’s family and the Peruvian state executed a Friendly Solution Agreement, wherein the Peruvian state admitted its international responsibility for the crime.  As part of that settlement, Peru agreed to: “investigate and sanction the acts against personal freedom, life, body and health; adopt preventive measures to avoid the repetition of these acts in the future and amend the existing laws on reproductive health and family planning, removing any discriminatory language and respecting women’s rights; among other important commitments, including adopting redress measures.”

Six years later in May 2009, the investigation was terminated when the chief prosecutor’s office announced that none of the 2,064 registered cases (including Mestanza’s) “constituted a severe violation of human rights.”

Victoria Vigo, a 49 year-old mother of two, told the GlobalPost that “her fallopian tubes were severed without her knowledge during a Caesarian procedure in a public hospital in the northern city of Piura in April 1996,” and that she only discovered this fact after overhearing a conversation between doctors.

She went on to state,

My daughter was premature and died a few hours after birth…I was devastated, of course, and wanted to go home. One of the doctors tried to comfort me by telling me that I was still young and could have more children. But then I overheard the doctor who carried out the operation telling him that that would not be possible, as he had sterilized me….He had even omitted it from my clinical notes. He knew what he was doing. I could have gone on trying for years and years to have another child without even knowing that I had been sterilized. I felt mutilated, completely violated. What kind of values does a person like that have?

Still in shock, Vigo left the hospital without confronting her doctor.  She eventually sued the doctor, and was awarded a $3,500 judgment in 2003; her case is one of a handful that has actually made it to trial.  During trial, her doctor argued that “he had simply been obeying orders, and that the sterilization was official policy.”

Guadalupe Marengo, Deputy Americas Program Director at Amnesty International recently stated, “We urge the Peruvian authorities to ensure a prompt, effective, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into forced sterilizations of women. All those who were forced to endure this procedure should be given full reparation – which is their entitlement under international law.”

Marengo went on to state that “Abuse of Peru’s family planning program under Fujimori seems to have violated the reproductive rights of thousands of peasant and Indigenous women with few economic resources…The victims and their families have been waiting for over a decade to know the truth about why this ever happened. Justice and reparation is the first step to ensuring that the Peru of the 21st century is serious about breaking the systematic discrimination peasant and Indigenous women have endured for decades. ”

Please follow these links for more information on this topic:

http://ijcentral.org/blog/peru_forced-_sterilization_cases_during_fujimoris_era_will_be_reopened/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/peru-forced-sterilization_n_1063771.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/111107/peru-abuse-cases-reopened

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/peru-reopen-investigation-forced-sterilizations-women-2011-10-31

FACT: THERE ARE MORE THAN 27 MILLION SLAVES IN THE WORLD TODAY, MORE THAN AT ANY OTHER POINT IN HUMAN HISTORY.

Posted: November 17, 2011 in Human Trafficking
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  • Human Trafficking is the modern-day slave trade.
  • Slaves work anywhere their owners can make a profit – ­the fields, brothels, homes, mines, restaurants…
  • We can end slavery in our lifetime. Everyone has a role to play: government, business, international organizations, consumers, and YOU.
  • National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.  Please call 1-888-3737-888 to report a tip, connect with anti-trafficking services in your area, or to request training and technical assistance.  For more information, please see the Polaris Project website.

Sources:

http://www.freetheslaves.net/Document.Doc?id=34

http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/national-human-trafficking-hotline/the-nhtrc/overview

Uganda: The Business of Human and Child Sacrifice

Posted: November 15, 2011 in Children's Rights, Human Rights
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According to a recent BBC report, Ugandan children are increasingly targeted in human sacrifice rituals believed to bring wealth, health, and prosperity.  For example, in 2008, ritual murders increased 800% from 2007, with most of the victims being children.

The Jubilee Campaign, a UK organization fighting child sacrifice in Uganda, defines child sacrifice as “the act of murdering a child by a witch-doctor or their accomplices in order to use the child’s blood, organs and/or limbs mixed with herbs and other elements in a ritual witchcraft ceremony.”  Although the Witchcraft Act of 1957 prohibits this practice, witch-doctors typically organize the abduction and perform the sacrifice in exchange for monetary payment without any threat or fear of criminal prosecution.*

In a 2011 report, the Jubilee Campaign found that:

these ritual sacrifices are offered to appease and invoke the gods or spirits or ancestors to use their supernatural abilities to carry out the wishes of the witch-doctor or his or her clients…[and] [s]ome witch-doctors believe that child sacrifice increases the power of their magic.  Their rituals use the blood of victims, along with their body parts like fingers, genitals, or the heart; these are mixed with herbs to make potions or they are used to make charms, amulets or talismans that are given to clients.

In Uganda, it’s widely believed that the shedding of some kind of blood is necessary to celebrate achievements, prevent misfortune, and to keep evil spirits at bay.  For example, it’s customary for an animal to be sacrificed when one purchases a new car or builds a home.  Despite this tradition and history of sacrifice, human and child sacrifice have no place in Uganda’s history, traditions, or use of traditional healers.  Ugandans recognize human and child sacrifice as a criminal act performed by individuals who pose as traditional healers for the purpose of exploiting Ugandan’s religious beliefs to profit financially.

In its 2010 report entitled Uganda: Child Sacrifice Not a Cultural Issue, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting stated that:

[child sacrifice] has slowly embedded itself within traditional customs, although it is not genuinely related to the local culture. The claim that it falls within Ugandan ‘cultural beliefs’ is just an excuse used by so-called traditional healers to justify their crimes, and by the Ugandan government to avoid taking action. The government tries to minimize the magnitude of the problem, as politicians are afraid of losing votes in a country where witchdoctors yield such influence as to define election results.

The Jubilee Campaign suggests that inadequate legislation and a lack of police resources have hindered efforts to eradicate child sacrifice.  For example, between 2006 and 2010, there were 135 arrests relating to human sacrifice, but only 83 cases proceeded to court and only one conviction was secured.  Most Ugandans are not even aware that the Witchcraft Act of 1957 exists, but the larger issue is that the victim’s family cannot afford (and often does not have access to a local attorney) the legal costs to prosecute the case.

To address the growing problem of human sacrifice, the Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force was established in January 2009 by the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura (under the leadership of Commissioner Moses Binoga). The Task Force’s roles include: directing, overseeing, and coordinating investigations; intelligence collection; and liaison with, and mobilization of, the general public against human sacrifice.  Since its inception, 2,000 police officers have been trained to detect and respond to human trafficking cases.  The Task Force has also identified the lack of prosecutions and convictions as two major hindrances to their work.

So what’s next?  Among its many recommendations, the Jubilee Campaign believes that new legislation on child sacrifice is paramount to eradicating this grave injustice.  According to the Jubilee Campaign, “the Penal Code, the Children’s Act, the Anti-trafficking in Person’s Act, and the Ugandan Constitution are all relevant in prosecuting acts of child sacrifice but they do so as murder. They fail to distinguish that acts of child sacrifice are different to murder in that they have processes and intentions that go beyond the act of homicide.”  Moreover, new legislation is needed to separate acts of witchcraft from acts of genuine traditional healers, because the “lack of clear policy on the conduct and operations of witchdoctors makes identifying criminal acts committed under the guise of cultural rituals difficult to categorize and prosecute.”  A new law would eliminate this confusion, and establish a clear, firm policy that is useful in securing convictions.

Additionally, the Jubilee Campaign believes that the Ugandan government should establish a new department to coordinate its efforts to combat human and child sacrifice.  Establishing this new department would give greater attention to this issue, and signal the government’s commitment to eradicating human and child sacrifice.  The Campaign also recommends that the government establish a special court to handle human and child sacrifice prosecutions in order to give special priority to these cases.

Finally, the Jubilee Campaign recommends that the Ugandan government simplify and streamline its human and child sacrifice reporting process, and establish a comprehensive National Action Plan which incorporates community education and awareness programs, and fosters cooperation between the police, the Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force, and all non-governmental organizations.

For more information, or to support the Jubilee Campaign’s work, please go to http://www.jubileecampaign.co.uk/uganda-campaign.

Here are two short videos from the BBC News report on Child Sacrifice in Uganda.  The investigation was conducted in partnership with the Jubilee Campaign, and is the result of many months of undercover work.

 

* It’s important to note that all witch-doctors are considered traditional healers, but not all traditional healers (or herbalists) are witch-doctors; many traditional healers do not perform human or child sacrifice ceremonies.

Sources:

http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=26582

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/rights-so-divine/2011/nov/2/uganda-tanzania-tanzanian-witches-influence-child-/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15255357

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3344511.htm

http://opinion.myjoyonline.com/pages/articles/201110/75459.php

http://www.jubileecampaign.co.uk/uganda-campaign

http://www.jubileecampaign.co.uk/child-sacrifice-report

Image: http://www.orijinculture.com/community/2011/africa-child-sacrifice-uganda/

Debt Bondage: When a Person Becomes Security for a Debt

Posted: November 10, 2011 in Bonded Slavery
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Debt bondage (bonded slavery) is:

-       The least well known, but most commonly used method of enslaving people.

-       Used to control victims of both labor and sex trafficking, but it’s particularly common in the exploitation of agricultural workers.

How Does Someone Become a Bonded Slave?

-       A person is considered a bonded slave when their labor is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan.

-       The person is then tricked or trapped into working (often seven days a week) for very little or no pay.

-       Most often, victims are lured by promises of economic opportunity, but soon find themselves in a migrant labor camp with no documentation, money, or means of escape.

-       The debt repayment system is designed to prevent the victim from ever repaying the debt in full, so many victims work their entire lives but never achieve freedom.

Why Isn’t the Victim Able to Pay Off the Debt?

-       The system is rigged so that victim’s initial debt, plus their cost of living ‘debt’, food, and rent, will always exceed their meager wages and the ‘debt’ will continue to increase.

-       For example, the victim may be charged an additional fee to use the restroom, for water, for transportation to the job site, or to use the very tools that are necessary for his/her job.

-       Essentially, the traffickers create an illusion that the victim is being paid a fair wage even though the victim never actually sees any of the money. Once this illusion wears off, the traffickers often rely on violence, fear, intimidation, and abuse to force compliance.

Is Debt Bondage a New Phenomenon? 

-       No, debt bondage has existed for hundreds of years in South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean South-East Asia, Pakistan, and many other countries around the world.

Why Does Debt Bondage So Prevalent in Today’s World?

-       Poverty is at the heart of all human trafficking and exploitation cases.

-       Impoverished people often do not own land, are not educated, and have no marketable skill or opportunity to earn a decent wage.  The need for money just to survive makes these people vulnerable to traffickers, and causes them to sell their labor in exchange for a lump sum of money or a loan.

Aren’t Their Laws Against this Practice?

-       Yes, but although bonded labor is illegal in most countries where it is found, governments are often unwilling or unable to enforce the laws, or to ensure that those who profit from it are punished.

What Action Can I Take To Fight Debt Bondage and Modern-Day Slavery?

Educate Yourself – Follow any of these links to learn more about debt bondage and modern day slavery:

Spread the Word – Share your knowledge with family, friends, classmates, and work colleagues, and use social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) to bring greater awareness to this issue.

Volunteer –  Offer to lend your time, talent, and services to a local, national, or international organization.

Support Your Favorite NGO – Give generously to an organization fighting bonded labor and modern day slavery. You can find a non-exhaustive list of organizations on my human trafficking links page.

Sources:

http://www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/bonded_labour.aspx

http://fightslaverynow.org/why-fight-there-are-27-million-reasons/labortrafficking/debt-bondage/

Image: http://wikis.milkenschool.org/Jewish_Studies_Wikis/In_Every_Generation_Project_(2010)/Nathan_Sabah_and_Mark_Gurman