The International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation, in partnership with Medecins Du Monde-Greece are implementing in Turkey the project “Raising Public Awareness about Woman Trafficking in Turkey: Anti-Trafficking Fora and Creation of a Civil Society Network” , which has been funded by the Representation of the European Commission to Turkey under the Turkish-Greek Civic Dialogue Micro-Project Programme. The overall objective of this project is to fight trafficking in women and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation by raising public awareness on the issue. The project aims to present and make known the human rights violations endemic to the trafficking industry to the widest possible audience and to sensitise the opinion leaders in Turkey to the plight of women forced into prostitution. The project is working towards the initiation of an Anti-Trafficking Network, under the realisation that to counter trafficking, collaboration is essential at all levels. The aim is to reinforce the knowledge and debate regarding the issue of trafficking as well as to stimulate members of the civil society to play an active role against it. |
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Experts and academicians from international organizations and universities submitted their reports about Women Trafficking issue. |
Representatives of different Turkish and international organizations attended the conference |
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As a part of this effort, an International Conference was held in Istanbul on the 21 st and the 22 nd of May under the title: ‘Trafficking in Women: A Major Human Rights Violation.' In the Conference, which was opened by the Vice-Governor of Istanbul, major national and international anti-trafficking experts participated as speakers, including government officials, representatives of international and of non-governmental organizations, academics, lawyers and journalists. This event was followed by a second Anti-Trafficking Conference in Trabzon on the 4 th and the 5 th of June. Apart from dealing with the national and international dimensions of the issue of trafficking in women, this event also dealt with the issue in the context of the Trabzon community. |
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Both Conferences were stemmed with success with a very high level of participation, including representatives of Embassies-Consulates, government officials, major civil society actors, academics and students. One of the most significant achievements of the events was that it managed to bring together individuals from a variety of backgrounds and institutions, which expressed the interest in joining their efforts and expertise towards future counter trafficking activities. Both Conferences were extensively covered by the media, by all major TV channels and newspapers in Turkey . The Conferences' publication , which contains all the speeches realized in both Conferences is currently being prepared and will soon be available on line in PDF Format. |
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Added: 15/07/2005 |
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