Human rights
Around the world millions are exploited and oppressed, often for political or religious reasons. Torture, rape and murder are not uncommon in more extreme cases of human rights abuse.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights charter was drawn up to protect people but is frequently abused and ignored by countries and regimes.
There are many expressions of concern and calls for the support for the defence of human rights made within the context of the Christian faith.
In the Diocese, these can range from the week by week prayer offered in the parish churches to high matters of state debated in the House of Lords by our Diocesan Bishop, Bishop Michael. In addition, there are many individual projects and initiatives funded or otherwise supported by parishioners and through diocesan contacts which seek to protect the vulnerable and to highlight areas where human rights are being challenged.
Whilst the church should not become involved in the narrow arguments of party politics, it must through its God-given mandate speak up for the needs of the poor and the oppressed and those living in unjust circumstances. This is all the more important when we live in a relatively prosperous and free society ourselves.
Human trafficking
Josephine Butler, who spent much of her life in the Diocese of Winchester, campaigned against the trafficking of women and children for prostitution during the Victorian period.
The Dioceses of Winchester and Newcastle in 2007 published a book 'Beating the Traffic' to highlight the work of Josephine Butler and to mark the work that still needed to be done in the area of human rights a 100 years from her death. The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, encourages the reading of this book and calls on the public to be aware of the human rights abuses that occur both in this country and abroad. Bishop Michael said: "In the of the nine essays in the book, Revd Canon David Scott, from the Diocese of Winchester, explores Josephine's own motivation and achievements in the context of her times, and then the shocking and challenging extent to which the questions that she struggled to draw to her contemporaries’ attention which are still live and urgent today – from the trafficking of women for 'sex-work' into Southampton and every other British city, now from around the world, to the language used in the media as four women were murdered in and around Ipswich in 2007."
Statistics:
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a minimum of 2.4 million people globally have been trafficked at any one time, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
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half of these trafficked are children - 1.2 million annually (according to the United Nations)
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the estimated annual profit from human trafficking was $7billion in 1999 (United Nations 1999)
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upto 1,420 women per year are trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation (Home Office 2000, Kelly and Regan)
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the majority of trafficking is driven by the commercial sex trade. Other forms of workplace slavery persist. The legal abolition of slavery was achieved in Parliament in the UK more than 200 years ago, the battle to defeat all forms of it continues today.
More information
Details of how to obtain a copy of the 'Beating the Traffic - Josephine Butler and Anglican Social Action on Prostitution Today', Edited by Alison Milbank are available from the Discipleship Department at frances.terhaar@winchester.anglican.org
> CHASTE
Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking across Europe
> UNICEF campaigns
http://www.unicef.org.uk/campaigns
> Not for Sale campaign
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/Default.aspx