Dear Member of the Global Coalition,
It has been a while since I have been in touch with you. It is time that I inform you about an initiative that our President, Her Excellency Suzanne Mubarak has launched, namely the Athens Roundtable of Business Community against the Trafficking of Human Beings on 23 January 2006.
You will recall that at the International Conference Women Defending Peace, 2004 co-sponsored by the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, we agreed that one of the three main priorities of the Global Coalition would be to fight the illegal trafficking of women and children, especially in crisis situations. We had also decided that the Coalition would build on existing initiatives, identifying gaps that need to be addressed and thus carry the agenda forward without any duplication.
I am very pleased to inform you that Her Excellency Suzanne Mubarak with the support of the Board of the Movement reflected on the issue of the illegal trafficking of people and held a wide range of consultations with entities working actively in one way or another in this field. The area requiring further action identified together with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), UNIFEM, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) has been the mobilisation of the business community to fight human trafficking, especially women and children.
We were particularly grateful to have an offer by Mrs. Marianna Vardinoyannis, a Member of the SMWIPM Board of Directors, to host in Athens a roundtable to elaborate further the initiative. It is this offer that enabled us to now organise the roundtable in Athens in cooperation with some of the above institutions, representatives of CEOs from the private sector and a select number of NGOs in this field. Our aim is for the business community to launch a set of ethical principles to fight human trafficking, in particular that of women and children.
It is envisaged that some of the CEOs present and attending the forthcoming annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos which starts on 25 January 2006 will share the outcome of our meeting, namely the ethical principles, as an essential means of alerting the global business community.
As this initiative has been a work in progress with one success enabling us to move on to the second phase, your support and feedback for its positive outcome is essential. Due to the unavailability of resources the roundtable has been limited to the CEO and a limited audience that will cover their own cost of participation. Should you decide to attend, we would of course be delighted to welcome you. Kindly let us know. We are enclosing for your information a draft booklet on the roundtable.
In the coming weeks, we will be launching a website with further information on the upcoming event.
At this year-end, please receive my warmest season’s greetings.
Counting on your continuing support and with kindest regards,
Dr. Aleya Hammad
Co-Founder and Member of the Board, The Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement,
Secretary General, Steering Committee of the Global Coalition