MECPATHS (Mercy Efforts to Counter Child Prositution and Trafficking in the Hospitality Sector)
November 29, 2014
Mercy Global Action update prepared by Ruth Kilcullen - MECPATH Campaign Manager
The MECPATHS campaign to raise awareness of child sex trafficking in Irish hotels has made good progress in recent months. The following are key developments in the campaign since our last update:
Partnership with the Irish Hotels Federation
The new President of the IHF has officially lent his support to the campaign and will circulate a letter of endoresment to all members of the IHF.
MECPATHS has been invited to give presentations at three regional IHF meetings of hotel managers and human resources managers to raise awareness of our campaign.
Awareness-raising tool kit
After consultation with the IHF, and feedback from individual hotels, we have decided to support hotels in raising awareness of this issue themselves.
We are designing a tool kit for hotel human resources managers to deliver to their own staff. This resource is based on the Protocol of Best Practices in Suspected Cases of Child Trafficking, which was drawn up by MECPATHS in conjunction with a group of key stakeholders including police, NGOs, the Minisry of Justice and the state agency for children's welfare. This tool kit is being developed with input from the agency for children and the police. The MECPATHS team's focus going forward will be to train HR management in using this tool kit and providing support where necessary to hotels when they are training their staff. We are in the process of identifying hotels around the country in which to pilot the training, and already have one signed up.
Team meetings
The MECPATHS team continues to meet every few months to share information and give updates on our progress and on the other anti-trafficking work the team members are engaged in. The most recent was in mid-October. The team continues to liaise with hotels but now that we are shifting our approach from talking to staff in general to specificially dealing with human resources, the team has generally reduced their number of hotel visits until the new tool kit is complete and they can begin to promote it.
Vatican Youth Symposium
I represented MECPATHS at the recent symposium in the Vatican of young people working in the field of anti-trafficking. I presented a paper on the progress of the campaign to date, and made recommendations for the reduction of trafficking in Ireland. There was a lot of interest and support for our campaign, and this gathering of young activists provided very valuable networking
- Further information about the Vatican Youth Symposium can be read here
- Ruth's report on her presentation at the conference can be read here
- The outcome document from the conference can be read here
