Responding to Trafficking in Persons in the Americas

Ambassador Mark Lagon is specifying some common trends in the recent U.S. Department of State TIP reports

Around 70 international and regional representatives of faith and religious organizations, Catholic Bishops’ Conferences, civil society, and officials of US government gathered on 2-5 November, 2008, in Washington DC for the conference “Responding to Trafficking in Persons in the Americas ”.

The event, organized by CCUSA, CRS, and COATNET, focused on the extent and nature of human trafficking in the context of Western Hemisphere, highlighted case studies of Catholic and civil society response in  the Americas and other regions, and developed “next steps” for collaborations between Catholic institutions – in the efforts to address this profound violation of human rights and dignity.

Participants of the conference are listening to an intervention about trafficking realities in Latin America

The important role of Catholic Church in responding to human trafficking was emphasized by Fr. Larry Snyder, the President of Catholic Charities USA, in his welcome word to participants. Initially a Church of immigrants and the poor in the US , it has grown strong enough to assist various people to integrate into society and to offer an adequate protection to trafficked persons. Marius Wanders, the Secretary General of Caritas Europa, introduced an ecumenical network of Christian organizations fighting against human trafficking in over 30 countries of the world (COATNET). He stressed that trafficking in human beings is a global problem that requires the establishment of strong partnerships between stakeholders all around the world in order to respond adequately to traffickers’ actions.

COATNET participants, coming from Europe, Middle East and Asia, shared with the audience their regions/countries' current situation with regard to trafficking of human beings and described the added value of the network in counteracting this horrific scourge.
 
This Conference in Washington DC followed a few months after a seminar organised in August 2008 in Panama City by Catholic Church organisations from the Latin American & Caribbean region, and it was highly valuable to see many engaged anti-trafficking actors from this region, who had already participated in the Panama event, also participate in this Washington Conference and share their experiences and their assessments of the human trafficking realities in this continent. For the representatives of the COATNET network, this provided an important opportunity to network with our Latin American colleagues and to foster partnership and cooperation.

The Conference in Washington also benefited from important contributions and keynote addresses delivered by external guests and representatives of US government and international bodies. Most notable was the intervention by Ambassador Mark Lagon, the Head of the Trafficking in Persons unit of the US State Department, under whose leadership this unit designs and implements the programs to address human trafficking of the US government. This unit also produces the annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report, which is a valuable source of information about human trafficking on a global scale.

Finally, the Conference coincided with a historic political event: The date of the elections of a new US President and new members of the Senate and the House of Representatives coincided with the dates of this Conference, so that the international audience could benefit from being in the US capital city on the evening of what has the hallmarks of being a historic election.

Download presentations and interventions of this Conference from our extranet.

People who do not have access to our extranet but who are interested to receive one or more presentations/interventions can approach Natalia Kovaliv by e-mail natalia@caritas-ua.org with a request for this.