On June 15, 2016, at the 32nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Angela Reed RSM delivered a joint statement by Sisters of Mercy and the Good Shepherd Sisters. The oral intervention was in response to reports by the Special Rapporteurs on Health and Human Trafficking respectively.

The statement affirmed the health report highlighting the need to recognise and respond to risk factors early in life in order to impact life trajectories. The Trafficking report was also affirmed for recognising root causes and vulnerabilities to human trafficking. Calling for a preventative, human rights, Life Course Approach to addressing human trafficking, Sr Angela informed the Council that narratives shared by survivors pointed to areas of vulnerability to trafficking. Survivors highlighted the interplay between personal life circumstances and the economic and social environments and structures that render them vulnerable to exploitation in the form of human trafficking. Specifically, these include cumulative disadvantage from childhood to adolescence to early adulthood in the form of gender discrimination, displacement, stigmatization, racism, global inequalities and commodification of the body. The statement concluded with the following recommendations to global policy makers of the need for:

1. a reframing of trafficking as a ‘random act of victimization’ to a ‘sustained exploitation of vulnerability over the life course’;
2. addressing structural causes that impact the life course, including dismantling of power based structures that subjugate women and girls;
3. prioritizing qualitative data on trafficking across the life course.

To READ the intervention, click here (PDF)

The VIDEO of the intervention can be viewed here.  Scroll down to #75: The Sisters of Mercy, Angela Reed

Messages to:
Angela Reed rsm - Resident, MGA at UN
Áine O’Connor rsm - MGA Coordinator at the UN
 

Image: Screenshot, UN Web TV