Youth Democracy Group Spreads All Over the World with its Work Against Human-Trafficking, USA August 3

http://www.prlog.org/10026087-youth-democracy-group-spreads-all-over-the-world-with-its-work-against-human-trafficking.html

Youth Democracy Group Spreads All Over the World with its Work Against Human-Trafficking

International Youth Democracy Group Highlights Year of Growth, Cites Anti-Trafficking Successes, Expansion of Leadership Development Initiatives in its 2006-2007 Annual Report
Source: Student World Assembly Aug 03, 2007

(PRLog.Org) – NEW YORK, New York (August 3, 2007) – The Student World Assembly (SWA) has announced the release of its 2006-2007 Annual Report. The report highlights the organization’s grassroots efforts across the globe to combat its yearlong campaign to eradicate human trafficking.

“Our members have made 2006-2007 SWA’s strongest year yet,” says Executive Director, Shahram Hashemi. “By partnering with anti-trafficking practitioners around the world, we’ve found students to be passionate advocates for victims of modern-day slavery.” A member of the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, the New York-based group joined in celebrating the passage of the strongest anti-trafficking legislation in the U.S, in part from lobbying from SWA students in the tri-state area. Other success abroad included a five day convention on modern-day slavery in Accra, Ghana, and dozens of student-organized anti-trafficking events in cities like Montreal, Abuja, and Peshawar.

The report includes a financial summary, event information, and a message from the founder Paul Raynault to members, supporters, and donors regarding SWA’s progress in the year March 2006 to March 2007. Members of the group, from the deserts of Arizona to the mountains of Peshawar are quickly growing a network of young leaders, change-makers and social entrepreneurs, using the Internet to exchange ideas.

With its increasing growth and achievements, SWA needs the continued support of its members and donors. In order to continue to thrive and accomplish its goals, further participation and contributions is essential.

The Annual Report is available in English , French, and Spanish.

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The Student World Assembly's representative democracy offers a powerful instrument for addressing vital social and political issues. The informed wishes of the people, conveyed through the collective of a democratic assembly, need to be heard in the decision-making processes. By giving students from the most remote to the more accessible institutions an equal voice, we are enabling all students to educate, participate, and take action, to become global citizens.

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Shared Hope International Launches Public Awareness Effort

Shared Hope International Launches Public Awareness Effort to Combat Sex Trafficking of Minors in America: Ground-Breaking New Video and Educational Materials Available

WASHINGTON, July 19 /Standard Newswire/-- Shared Hope International, a leader in the worldwide effort to prevent and eradicate sex trafficking, is distributing a ground-breaking new video featuring never before seen footage of child sex trafficking in the United States.

Through extensive undercover research and on-camera interviews with pimps, sex trafficking survivors, members of law enforcement and social service providers, the video "Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: How to Identify America’s Trafficked Youth" provides an in-depth look at the buying and selling of America's children.

In 2005, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was reauthorized with amendments identifying all minors under the age of 18 as sex trafficking victims when engaged in a commercial sex act such as prostitution and pornography.

"The best data suggests that at least 100,000 American kids a year are victimized through the practice of child prostitution," said Ernie Allen, President and CEO of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "These kids literally become 21st century slaves."

Other research has shown up to 300,000 American children are at-risk of being exploited through the commercial sex industry in the U.S. every year. The average age of coercion and recruitment into prostitution is 12 and some victims report being forced to service 10 to 15 buyers each night.

"To a trafficker, a child is low-risk, high-profit and easy to move about," said Linda Smith, founder and President of Shared Hope International.

To combat this crisis, Shared Hope International (SHI) is distributing their ground-breaking new video and other educational materials to first responders across the nation including Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) task forces, social service providers, and juvenile detention facilities. The goal of these materials is to provide a baseline understanding of domestic minor sex trafficking, redefine "child prostitutes" as trafficking victims, improve prosecution of traffickers, and increase victim identification and access to protective and restorative services. SHI is pleased to provide:

• "Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: How to Identify America's Trafficked Youth" (25-minute video, DVD format)
• Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Educational Power Point Presentation

These materials are available for download at www.sharedhope.org

Death sentence over China slave scandal, July 17, 2007

Jul 17 07:54 AM US/Eastern


One man in China was sentenced to death and 28 people were handed jail terms in the first convictions over a huge slavery scandal that shocked the nation, a judge said Tuesday.

Zhao Yanbing, a brickyard employee who confessed last month in footage broadcast on national television to killing a mentally handicapped slave, was given the death penalty, High Court judge Liu Jimin said.

The other defendants got prison terms ranging from two years to life.

"These cases have had a vile effect both domestically and overseas and can only be handled... in the most severe fashion," Liu said as he delivered his ruling, which was broadcast live on state television.

"Only with a fast verdict can we deter these crimes and safeguard citizens' lives."

However, human rights groups and some ordinary Chinese citizens on the Internet said those convicted could just be scapegoats, and accused the ruling Communist Party of trying to ensure that corrupt officials were not implicated.

The scandal surfaced last month after about 400 distraught parents posted a plea on the Internet about their children who had been sold into slavery in China's northern Shanxi province and neighbouring Henan.

They made their case public after police and local authorities refused to help find their children.

After the Internet postings prompted action from police and attention from the state-run press, disturbing images were broadcast of abused and emaciated workers being freed from brick kilns, with some young men too weak to stand.

Officials say 576 enslaved workers have since been rescued, but the true number of victims is widely believed to be far higher.

Parents initially said up to 1,000 youths had been working as slaves, but only 41 of those people officially rescued are children.

Zhao and the others who received the harshest penalties were involved in running what the state-run media has turned into the most infamous of the Shanxi brickyards.

The foreman, Heng Tinghan, was condemned to life in jail, while owner Wang Bingbing was given a nine-year sentence.

The kiln was located in a courtyard belonging to Wang's father, a local Communist Party village chief, but there has been no word on any punishment for the official.

After his arrest, Heng shocked the nation with his lack of remorse when he said: "I thought it was a fairly small thing to do."

Zhao, the man sentenced to death, was similarly placed in front of news cameras on June 15 and described in a matter-of-fact manner how he beat to death a mentally handicapped man, aged "57 or 58", for not working hard enough.

"His performance was bad, so I thought that I would frighten him a bit, " Zhao said.

"When I raised the shovel over him I never thought that he would get up and confront me, so I slammed the shovel down on his head."

Zhao was found guilty of illegal detention and intentionally causing harm.

Reaction on the Internet to Tuesday's ruling was swift, with many Chinese netizens calling for stiffer penalties.

"The verdicts are too light. At least the owner of the illegal brick factory and his father, who was also the party chief, should be sentenced to death too," said one post on popular portal Sohu.com.

China also announced on Monday that 95 Communist Party officials in Shanxi had been punished, but most just escaped with warnings.

Only six of them were senior officials in local governments. There has been no report on any punishments being doled out in Henan province.

"It's outrageous," Robin Munro, research director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, said of this week's punishments.

"Clearly there is one law for ordinary citizens and another for entrepreneurs and party officials."