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YouTube1st World Day Against Trafficking in Persons is marked by mobilization week in Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, 30 July 2014 - The Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, the esplanade of ministries in Brasília and Curitiba's Botanical Garden are some of the monuments, sights and postcards around Brazil that were lit in blue in honor of the Blue Heart Campaign to mark the 1st World Day Against Trafficking in Persons today, 30 July.
The Christ the Redeemer was the first monument to receive special lighting on Monday evening, when it hosted the opening of the National Week of Mobilization for Combating Trafficking in Persons. After a ceremony held by the archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Dom Orani Tempesta, the Minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo, and the Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Brazil, Rafael Franzini, presented a new report with brand new data about the crime in the country.
To demonstrate support for victims and promote awareness about the crime in the 1st World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the Blue Heart Campaign is calling for people around the world to post a picture on social networks making a heart with their hands and using the hashtag #igivehope.
Besides the Minister of Justice, the National Secretary of Justice, Paulo Abrão, and representatives of the State Secretariat of Social Welfare and Human Rights, the City Hall and the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, and the Blue Heart Social Committee-RJ also attended the launch of the National Week of Mobilization for Combating Trafficking in Persons National.
2nd National Report on Trafficking in Persons in Brazil
A product of the partnership between the UNODC Liaison and Partnership Office in Brazil and the National Secretariat of Justice (SNJ), of the Ministry of Justice, the 2nd National Report on Trafficking in Persons in Brazil brings consolidated data for the year 2012 from various bodies of attention, public safety and criminal justice. The document has data from four more institutions than the previous one, which compiled information between 2005 and 2011. Figures from almost all of the institutions show a greater reporting of the crime in 2012.
"Step by step, we are reducing the invisibility of victims and the underreporting of the crime. The society is increasingly aware. This is the educational role of the Blue Heart campaign", said the National Secretary of Justice, Paulo Abrão.
The Ministry of Labor found 46 foreigners - 41 Bolivians and 5 Paraguayans - among the 2,771 victims of the crime of labor similar to slavery, which is considered human trafficking by the National Policy to Combat Trafficking in Persons and by the Palermo Protocol.
The number of human trafficking cases notified by the Federal Police Department in 2012 is six times the average of the previous seven years. The Federal Highway Police detected in its operations 547 victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor.
Although they cannot be added, the figures reveal an increase in individual records compared to previous years. The Ministry of Health recorded that 130 victims received treatment, a figure 2.5 times higher than reported by its data collection system since records started in 2010. The Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger registered 292 victims of human trafficking and related crimes nationwide (nearly 2.5 times more compared to 2010).
The Blue Heart
Coordinated by UNODC and the federal government, the Blue Heart Campaign was reinforced this year by the 1st World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, 30 July, a date that was adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 2013. Several awareness activities are happening around Brazil during this week, carried out by SNJ together with the network of Centers to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Outposts of Humanized Care for Migrants, the Blue Heart Social Committees and organizations from the National Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons (Conatrap).
The blue heart is the symbol of the UNODC's global campaign to combat trafficking in persons, which was launched in Brazil in May 2013. Throughout the past year, SNJ has held a series of events, lectures, seminars and workshops, promoting debate around this topic in many states and municipalities around the country. The Ministry of Justice and the National Secretariat of Public Policies for Women offer two free telephone numbers to receive reports of trafficking in persons: dial 100 and dial 180.
* With information from the Ministry of Justice
Follow the Blue Heart Campaign on social networks:
Twitter: @BlueHeartHT
Related information:
2nd National Report on Trafficking in Persons in Brazil
Message of the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon ( English, Spanish and Portuguese)
Statement of the UNODC Executive Director, Yury Fedotov ( English, Spanish and Portuguese)
Global campaign website #IGiveHope