A Human Rights Approach to Human Trafficking

After consulting with partner organizations from across Ontario, we urge the Provincial Government to implement a human rights approach and to include 5 points in the human trafficking strategy.

Provincial Human Trafficking Strategy Creates Unjust Competition for Resources and Divides Survivors as Deserving and Undeserving.  

Recently, the Government of Ontario announced a five-year strategy to address human trafficking and promised investments up to $307 million to raise awareness, protect victims, intervene early, support survivors, and hold offenders accountable.[1]

While the government’s efforts are commendable, particularly its commitment to funding peer and survivor-led work, the strategy and the call for applications focuses exclusively on child and youth sexual exploitation. "Human trafficking is fundamentally a human rights issue.  Experience tells us that people become vulnerable to being trafficked when they're experiencing isolation, social exclusion, homelessness, poverty, gender inequality, racism, and colonialism. This is the most effective level at which to address exploitation and human trafficking in all its forms. It requires us to change as a society; to create good job opportunities and strong social protections for all, regardless of immigration status" says Sue Wilson, the Director of the Office for Systemic Justice.   

The Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, after consulting with partner organizations from across Ontario, released a statement urging the Provincial Government to implement a human rights approach and to include the following points in the human trafficking strategy:

• Address the root causes of human trafficking by creating easy access to sufficient levels of social assistance, comprehensive health care including mental health services, gender parity in wages, and good jobs that pay a living wage.  All persons need easy access to social protections, regardless of immigration status.

• Prioritize funding for educational programs (led by grassroots community organizations) which are focused on preventing human trafficking by advancing equity and addressing root causes such as gender inequality, systemic racism, colonialism, ableism, rape culture, and more.

• Raise awareness of current forms of labour trafficking in Ontario, highlighting aspects of structural racism and economic exploitation.

• Increase labour inspections for the protection of all workers in Ontario, especially migrant workers.

• License and regulate contractors and recruiters of migrant workers.

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For more information, contact:

Sue Wilson, CSJ, Office for Systemic Justice

[1] https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2020/03/ontarios-new-anti-human-trafficking-strategy.html

SOMBRE ANNIVERSARY CALLS FOR BETTER CHOICES

It’s estimated the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 people. Photo from Wikipedia

This year marks the sombre 75th anniversary of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.  Throughout the nuclear era, Canada has participated heavily in the global nuclear cycle, in part by selling radioactive uranium internationally.  Both nuclear-generated electricity and nuclear weapons rely on uranium as fuel.     

The Catholic Church condemns the possession and use of nuclear weapons.  While Canada does not possess such weapons, it still has not signed the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  As a NATO member, Canada claims it needs the protection of the huge nuclear arsenal of the United States.

Pope Francis, however, has condemned the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.  This refers to building and possessing nuclear weapons to deter other states from using theirs.  Addressing a Vatican conference on nuclear disarmament in November 2017, the pope said both the threat of the use of nuclear weapons, “as well as their very possession, are to be firmly condemned" (National Catholic Reporter, Nov. 10/17).

Japan’s Catholic bishops have gone further to call for an end to nuclear power.  In 2011, their country was ravaged by an earthquake which triggered a tsunami and nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima.  Japanese people and their environment have known extreme suffering and destruction from two atomic bombs and a major nuclear accident. 

Photo from Unsplash

Pope Francis publicly highlighted the Japanese bishops’ call to ban nuclear energy during his visit to Japan in November 2019.  According to Reuters news agency, after his visit, he also told reporters, “In my personal opinion, I would not use nuclear energy until there is total security.  There is not enough security to guarantee that there will not be a disaster.”     

Now, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Saskatchewan are using public funds to help finance a costly new generation of nuclear reactors which will take at least 10 years to build and operate.  The nuclear industry promises carbon-free electricity generation to address climate change from these so-called small modular nuclear reactors.  The Canadian federal government is also enthusiastically in favour of such nuclear expansion. 

However, proponents of nuclear-free renewable energy emphasize the urgent need for climate action now – not 10 or more years from now when the new reactors might be ready.  They call for increased energy efficiency and investment in energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and small hydro. 

Highlighting advantages to human health and the environment from renewables, they also note that jobs and other economic benefits will flow to rural as well as urban communities from renewable energy.  They point out that no safe solution has been found for the permanent storage of nuclear waste, which remains dangerously radioactive for countless generations.

Two nuclear technology companies from the United Kingdom and the U.S. have established offices in Saint John, N.B.  They each received millions of dollars in public funds to develop prototypes of next-generation nuclear reactors which may be mass-produced and sold worldwide. 

Canada would be an initial testing ground for this unproven and unnecessary technology.  Instead, investment in renewables is a far better choice to create jobs, while safely and efficiently meeting present and future energy needs. 

Remembering bitter lessons of history, Canada needs to show courageous leadership by signing the vital UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons.  It also needs to avoid nuclear energy expansion for the sake of present and future generations of humanity and all creation. 

Advocating in this way, people of faith can join other caring global citizens to promote peace and respect the earth, our common home.

                                                                                    ~ Roma De Robertis, SCIC

                                                                                                Saint John, N.B.

Roma is a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception who participates with CRED-NB:  Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (https://crednb.ca).  During sabbatical, she lived at the Sisters of St. Joseph London residence for six months in 2019.

Building the World After Covid-19 With Women And Girls

It has been more than 200 days since the outbreak of COVID-19 in December and every community around the world has been impacted. Our lives have changed.  And we are learning new ways of supporting one another as economies slowly reopen.

In Africa, the number of cases has now surpassed 500,000. Since March, the virus has claimed 11 959 lives, overtaking the 11 308 lives lost in the world’s worst Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. And if these numbers are low compared to other countries, the impact of the lockdown and curfews on the livelihoods of local communities including vulnerable women in rural and remote areas has been devastating.

There is a mounting food security crisis due to lockdowns and curfews, which have restricted mobility and disrupted markets to grow, buy, and sell food. One partner in Senegal noted “If COVID does not kill us, hunger will,” says Ousmane Sarr, Communications Officer at RESOPP. In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that the world could see famines of “biblical proportions” if no action is taken. More than 60% of employed women in sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture yet will most likely suffer from hunger if they are not protected from this potential threat.

Crossroads is mounting a COVID response with local partners to respond to urgent food security needs in vulnerable communities providing emergency food and sanitary supplies (soap, rice, grains, pulses, etc.) with education critical for prevention; as well as new support to women and girls at risk of gender-based violence.  Women and girls make up the largest group of people exposed to contagion because of their role as caregivers. They are at the frontlines of the pandemic, bearing most of the responsibility for caring for the sick and elderly in their homes and communities. There is a real and present risk of high fatality rates from the disease in developing countries where health and sanitation systems are weak if contagion cannot be prevented. Now is the time to act.

Many of Crossroads partners are reporting increased incidence of violence and abuse of girls, with some countries reporting a surge in teen pregnancies. According to the UN, there has been a ‘horrifying global surge’ in domestic violence towards women and girls, linked to COVID-19 lockdowns. Women are experiencing a heightened risk of gender-based violence from abusive partners and increased isolation, separating them from the people and resources that can best help them.

School closures due to the lockdowns have also increased the risks for girls to be sexually exploited or forced out of school forever because of unintended teen pregnancies and early marriages. There is a need to act now to ensure specific protections for the rights of girls and young women. Cuts to education budgets and rising poverty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could force at least 9.7 million children out of school forever by the end of this year, with millions more falling behind in learning. And girls are more likely to be more affected than boys, with many being forced out of school, into the labour market -- as is already reported in Burkina Faso where we work -- or into early marriage.

Crossroads International with the support of its funding partners is mobilizing resources to help partners re-tool in the face of new challenges.  Direct support for things like access to telecommunications can support the provision of essential services to local communities and help kickstart local economies. As information services move to digital platforms to accommodate physical distancing, our partners in remote areas need help to adapt and provide emergency outreach and counselling over the phone or online. As resilient leaders, farmers, caretakers, and business owners, women can help solve these problems: we need to invest in supporting them. Only by working together, by putting resources in women’s hands can we come out of this pandemic stronger than before.

-Wanjiro Ndungu, Manager Philanthropy, Crossroads International

One River, Two Futures - Reflections on Water

Meet some of our Blue Community Steering Committee and join the conversation about water.