At Unicamp's Basic Cycle, right in front of the entrance to the University Restaurant (RU), a huge banner draws attention to the “Week Against Human Trafficking”. It says “freedom cannot be bought, dignity cannot be sold”. The action is part of the campaign “We are free; all against human trafficking”, promoted by the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT) and the representation of the United Nations (UN) in Brazil, together with partners such as Unicamp, which is engaging for the first time. The initiative is supported by the Executive Directorate of Human Rights, Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair, and the “Elza Berquó” Population Studies Center (Nepo).
Activities are scheduled until Friday (2), with the distribution of promotional material, stickers and posts on social networks with the hashtags #TodosContraOTraficoDePessoas and #SomosLivres. The University concentrated actions this week on July 30th, World Day against Trafficking in Persons. Five thousand stickers will be distributed at Unicamp, this Thursday and Friday, August 1st and 2nd, with the slogan “fighting human trafficking” and the two numbers for reporting: 100 and 180.
Unicamp has a cooperation agreement with the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT) and one of the areas of action is the fight against human trafficking, according to the executive director of Human Rights at Unicamp, Néri de Barros Almeida. “Human trafficking is something that is increasing across the planet, especially with the crisis affecting the world of work. As precariousness is a gateway to slave labor, we can already assume that there is a context that allows the growth of this social problem,” she stated.
The campaign is an example of how it is possible to establish an effective relationship between the university and the defense of human rights, highlighted the director. The objective of the actions at Unicamp is to raise awareness among the academic community so that everyone is clear about what human trafficking is, how it is characterized and what to do in suspected cases or when it is confirmed. “We can often experience signs that it is a situation of slavery and have no information on how to react,” she highlighted.
Néri recalled the importance of the studies developed by Nepo, especially in the area of human mobility, which are also responsible for bringing the University closer to the Public Ministry. And also the work of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair with actions aimed at refugees. “Forced immigration puts people in transit around the world, often undocumented and without resources. These people arrive in certain places where they do not feel safe, or are already co-opted in their own displacement and are taken to environments where they will be isolated, trapped in a situation in which they become vulnerable to people with the aim of enslaving them”, he added.
Data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that human trafficking affects more than 25 thousand people each year. In Brazil, the most recent data shows that the majority of people are victims of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation or slave labor, the majority of whom are women and girls. The blue heart symbol represents the sadness of victims of human trafficking and the callousness of those who buy and sell other human beings, as well as demonstrating the blue commitment of the United Nations
Access the campaign material: flyer e notebook About the subject
