Past Event – February 25th, 2013

Symposium: Trafficking in Human Beings
Co-Sponsored with the Center for International Human Rights, John Jay College (CUNY)

When:  Monday, February 25th, 2013, 6:00-8:30p.m.
Where: John Jay College – The New Building, Conference Room 9.64 (Ninth Floor)
             524 West 59th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
             New York, NY 10019

Program:

UNICEF film: Not My Life (30 min.)

Panelists:

  • George Andreopoulos, Professor of Political Science and Criminal Justice, CUNY; Director, Center for International Human Rights, John Jay College (CUNY)
  • Jennifer Chan, M.Ed., Program Officer, End Trafficking, US Fund for UNICEF
  • Dorota Gierycz, Ph.D. Human rights scholar, Ludwig Boltzman Institute of Human Rights, University of Vienna; Webster University (Vienna) and European Peace University (EPU); Schlaining, Austria; Center for International Human Rights, John Jay College

Moderator:

  • Katerina Stefanatou, UNICEF Global Citizenship fellow at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Topics to be covered:

Prof. George Andreopoulos –
Strategies Against Human Trafficking
This presentation will critically examine the different approaches that have been advanced to combat human trafficking (law enforcement, human rights, migration and economic) and assess their respective strengths and weaknesses, as well as the potential/actual intersections and tensions among them. It will focus primarily on the experience drawn from local and transnational initiatives in the Balkan region and place emphasis on the role of the key actors and processes associated with their development and implementation.

Jennifer Chan –
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works in 190 countries and territories to save and improve children’s lives by providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more. In partnership with development partners, governments and NGOs, UNICEF works on all aspects of anti-trafficking responses including prevention, protection, and prosecution. Children worldwide suffer from abhorrent acts of violence, exploitation and abuse—horrors no child should ever know or experience. Over 300 million of them are subjected to hazardous physical labor, commercial sex exploitation and child trafficking.
The End Trafficking project is the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s initiative to raise awareness about child trafficking and mobilize communities to take meaningful action to help protect children. In partnership with concerned individuals and groups, the End Trafficking project aims to bring us all closer to a day when there are zero exploited children.
Through her presentation, Jennifer Chan will give an overview of UNICEF’s work in Child Protection and provide ways to take action to raise awareness to combat human trafficking.

Dr. Dorota Gierycz –
Trafficking in Human Beings (THB): How to address it from the rights-based perspective
The presentation will start with the clarification of what is THB and how it differs from other criminal activities, such as smuggling in persons, or illegal migration. It will further address the international legal framework (focusing on the Palermo Protocol) aimed at combating THB and the difficulties in its implementation. Finally, it will elaborate on the human rights approach to THB as the best long-term way forward and obligations it puts on the state and criminal justice authorities at national and international level.

To download the flyer of the event, please click here

A wine and cheese reception will follow the discussion.

This is a complimentary event, but RSVP is required. Please RSVP here (you will be redirected to the Eventbrite secure connection).

Bios:

George Andreopoulos is Professor of Political Science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Professor Andreopoulos studied history, law, and international relations at the Universities of Chicago and Cambridge. Before coming to CUNY, he taught for several years at Yale University, where he was the founding Associate Director of the Orville Schell Center for International Human Rights. He has written extensively on international security, international human rights, and international humanitarian law issues. His recent publications include Non-State Actors in the Human Rights Universe (with Zehra Arat and Peter Juviler) Kumarian Press, Concepts and Strategies in International Human Rights (ed.) (Peter Lang);The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World (with Sir Michael Howard and Mark Shulman, Yale University Press); and Human Rights Education for the Twenty-First Century (with Richard Pierre Claude, University of Pennsylvania Press). The Human Rights Education book has appeared in a Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese translations and has been nominated for the Grawemeyer Award in Education. Professor Andreopoulos is currently completing a book on Humanitarian Intervention for Yale University Press and serves on the Editorial Board of Human Rights Review. Over the years, he has participated in several human rights missions, most recently in Sierra Leone to study and prepare recommendations on accountability mechanisms in that country. Professor Andreopoulos was President of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association from 2003 to 2004. For further information please visit: http://johnjayresearch.org/cihr/director-and-assistant-director.

Jennifer Chan serves as the Program Officer for the End Trafficking project at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. In this role, she speaks regularly on UNICEF’s Child Protection work around the world, and leads workshops and discussions on the issue of human trafficking for student leaders, volunteers and educators across the country. Prior to her role at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Jennifer executed multiple leader training events, launched educational initiatives and oversaw community building efforts at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Jennifer also spent nearly two years as the Communications & Capacity Building Officer for Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization in Mwanza, Tanzania. Her experience with leadership mobilization includes training youth with the Boston Youth Organizing Project as well as in Shanghai, China. Jennifer holds a Master of Education, International Education Policy from Harvard University and earned her B.S., Biology and Political Science from the University of Toronto.

Dorota Gierycz holds an MA in law (international public law) and a Ph.D. in political science (international relations) from Warsaw University, Poland. She further studied at the Academy on International Law (The Hague), and Georgetown and Columbia Universities in the USA. During her UN career (1981-2007), she worked at Headquarters both at Vienna and New York, in various fields ranging from gender equality, development, IDPs/refugees and human rights to peacekeeping, peace-making and conflict resolution. She was the first Head of the Gender Analysis Section, established after the 4th UN World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995) and in this capacity she pioneered the work on Women and Peace in the UN Secretariat, building basis for the future resolution 1325. Her other assignments included management, coordination of police reform and police-civilian work (as Acting Head of Civil Affairs, UNMIBH, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2001-2003); work on the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict as a political analyst, adviser and negotiator, also dealing with assistance to internally displaced persons (as Senior Political Adviser to the SRSG, UNOMIG, Sukhumi and Tbilisi, 2003-2004), and protection and promotion of human rights (as Director of the Human Rights and Protection Section, UNMIL, and Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Liberia, 2004-2007). She also gained extensive experience of interagency cooperation and work with UN country teams (including in Georgia, Liberia) and gender equality and mainstreaming. Parallel to her work at the United Nations, Dr. Gierycz continued her academic involvement, inter alia, as a convener of the European Peace University (Schlaining, Austria); lecturer at the University of Vienna, Columbia University (New York), Yale Law School and Watson Institute of International Affairs at Brown University (USA), and the University of Ghana. Since her departure from the UN in the autumn of 2007, she has been working as a senior research fellow at the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC, Venice) and Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI, Oslo) on the issues of Transitional Justice and Responsibility to Protect. She is currently associated with the Ludwig Boltzman Institute of Human Rights, University of Vienna, Webster University (Vienna) and European Peace University (EPU), Schlaining, Austria. Dr. Gierycz authored numerous publications on the responsibility to protect (R2P), United Nations and gender equality. She is also the author of the book The Mysteries of the Caucasus, which tells the stories of people in Abkhazia and Georgia proper. Her research at the John Jay College will focus on the Rule of Law in the context of UN peace-keeping which is recognized as the weakest point in the ongoing efforts towards post-conflict stability and peace-building. To know more about Dorota Gierycz read her curriculum vitae.

Katerina Stefanatou holds a B.S. in Economics with a concentration on Socio-Economic Development from Sorbonne University in Paris, France and a Certificate in Global Affairs from NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Ms. Stefanatou currently holds the position of UNICEF Global Citizenship fellow at the U.S Fund for UNICEF where she focuses on raising awareness about UNICEF’s work and building global citizenship and youth leadership. Prior to that, she served with the Volunteer and Community Partnerships at the US Fund for UNICEF and was instrumental in launching and developing the UNICEF High School Club program through the creation of innovative initiatives and resources. From supporting and engaging students by providing them with unique opportunities to inspiring change and mobilization in America’s high schools and communities, during that time, Ms. Stefanatou sought to energize and empower youth which would grow into lifelong UNICEF supporters. While pursuing her studies in Paris, Ms. Stefanatou was the co-founder of ETU.HELL.A (Etudiants Hellénes Association) a student run association aiming to foster a platform of support among students of Greek decent studying in Paris by hosting inter-cultural events, providing volunteer opportunities and overall administrative support to new students. During her studies Ms. Stefanatou spent two summers interning for the Department of Urban and Regional Development of Panteion University, Athens under the auspices of Professor Constantine Athanassopoulos where she conducted a social research study on Decentralization, Local self-Government and Economic Regional Growth in Greece. Ms. Stefanatou is the sole recipient of the Honorary President’s Call to Service Award in 2011 and was one of the 97 volunteers nationwide to receive the Gold President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2010, the President’s honor offered in recognition of volunteer service. She is also the recipient of the Olympic Certificate of Appreciation by the Olympic International Committee for her role of Accommodations Coordinator where she managed the accommodation of over 500 International Olympic Referees during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

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