WUCWO European Assembly - Let’s Set Women Free from Trafficking

The World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO) is an International Catholic Organisation and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which gathers Women’s Catholic Organisations worldwide and which has consultative status in the United Nations, Council of Europe, UNESCO and FAO.

WUCWO was founded in 1910 and since then its purpose has always been to promote education, joint responsibility and the participation of catholic women in the Church and in society thus promoting the growth of women.

At present more than a hundred organisations from every continent are members of WUCWO. 

Delegates from different countries took turns in preparing Mass each day which was celebrated in the chapel

From 3rd - 7th September 2008 WUCWO organised a European Conference, held in Verona, with the theme `Let’s free women from Trafficking`, a theme identified as an important priority in the actual European situation.


WUCWO World President, Karen Hurley speaking with
Sr Eugenia Bonetti MC

The Conference adopted the following final document addressed to the European Parliament, to the different Governments and to Social and Ecclesiastical institutions:

The Conference asks all Governments, and in particular the European Parliament, mindful that Europe is the Cradle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,that they commit themselves with a real political will to fight trafficking which affects  many victims and is allied to other clandestine trade, i.e. drugs, weapons  and human beings -  phenomena, which enrich criminal transnational groups.

 The complexity of this trafficking, that has spread worldwide, calls for a political integrated engagement arranged at a European Level in different sectors: social protection, repression and judicial action. Indeed, no action can be successful if it does not involve together the countries of origin, transit and destination and if it does not include co-operation of agencies in the single states from where the criminal groups come.

This can only be possible with a centralized exchange of information, which allows the different European countries to have shared vision, method and plans to fight and defeat trafficking, and by implementing all measures which are deemed necessary to harm the ‘clients’.

Moreover,  the participants at the Conference wish that the European Parliament will do its utmost to ensure that

-         Every young girl receives an education necessary for her future

-       Every woman may enjoy the fundamental rights: to live a healthy life from conception to natural death, to receive education, to work and to have a home

•  Every woman is respected as a human being, can choose her state of life and contribute to the well being of her family
• Every woman is set free from the yoke of male domination bound to ancestral traditions
• The fight against women’s trafficking is an inalienable engagement for those countries that wish to join the European Union

The members of WUCWO intend to put under pressure their Governments and to encourage their supporters:

- to intervene on those Governments, who have not yet done so, that they ratify the Convention of the Council of Europe on Human Trafficking 

-to commit themselves directly to political life to promote the improvement of laws

-to increase awareness in social organisations, especially the mass media, so that they can operate respecting each other with the awareness of their equal dignity

-to act so that all those who, animated by the faith in God and supported by the experience of God’s mercy, learn to live out and convey the spirit of the Gospel to every woman, in respect of her convictions, and all that in a context of closeness, help and active participation aimed at a cohabitation based on the respect for human rights.

-to share information, experiences and strategies aimed at implementing increasingly co-ordinated actions to effectively fight human trafficking and all its painful consequences The Participants at the Conference, conscious of this difficult and serious situation and of the painful suffering that it creates, engage themselves, in the name of the supporters of their associations, to do their best in this difficult task putting their actions under the Patron Saints of Europe so that strength, intelligence, dedication and tenacity can always support the journey of every woman to freedom. 

Mrs Doreen Pooley, National President CWL with some of the
party from England

Prayer

God, our words cannot express
What our minds can barely comprehend
And our hearts feel
When we hear of women and children deceived
And transported to unknown places
For purposes of sexual exploitation and abuse
Because of human greed and profit
At this time in our world.
Our hearts are saddened and our spirits angry
That their dignity and rights are being
Transgressed through threats/deception and force.
We cry out against the degrading practice of
Trafficking and pray for it to end.
Strengthen the fragile-spirited
And broken-hearted
Make real your promises
To fill these our sisters with a love
That is tender and good
And send the exploiters away empty-handed.
Give us the wisdom and courage
To stand in solidarity with them
That together we will find ways
To the freedom that is your gift to all of us.
School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND),

Trafficking Reflection Booklet, Canadian Province, p.10