[violence] trafficking

Marking International Women’s Month and 8 years since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq (March 2003), the UK based group of Iraqi and non-Iraqi women Act Together - Women’s Action for Iraq held a talk on 22 March at SOAS on women and violence in Iraq today. Professor Nadje Al-Ali and Dr Nicola Pratt presented some of the latest research findings on gender-based violence and the issues women are facing in Iraq at present. With the numbers of civilians who have lost their lives since the war begun still being contested, they both feel the need to draw attention to the human side of the story behind these numbers, especially when it comes to women’s experiences and ordeals, nowadays seldom reported and studied.

On November 2, 2010, The Protection Project will host the Fifth Annual Symposium on “The US Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the UN Trafficking Protocol: Ten years Later” at The Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington, D.C., USA. The Protection Project is now calling for scholarly papers describing and analyzing the lessons learned in the legal, political, cultural, social, or economic fields since the enactment of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children in the year 2000. Scholars and professionals are encouraged to apply. The authors of the selected papers will be invited to present the findings of their study at The Protection Project Fifth Annual Symposium. Following the Symposium, selected papers will be published in The Protection Project Journal of Human Rights and Civil Society, 4th ed.