UWC President Speaks on Human Trafficking

On October 15, 2008, the Ukrainian Women’s Organization of Canada (Olha Basarab) Montreal Branch and the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada, Daughters of Ukraine hosted a luncheon at the Montreal Council of Women monthly meeting. Mrs. Olga Wysoczanskyj who was the Convener, introduced the Guest Speaker Maitre Eugene Czolij, who spoke on the timely topic of “Trafficking of Women and Children”.

Mrs. Bonnnie Destounis, President of the Montreal Council of Women summarized this event as follows: The MCW was honoured and privileged for the opportunity of having Maitre Eugene Czolij address its membership and guests. Maitre Czolij is a senior partner at Lavery, de Billy Law Firm. He is former National President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and presently President of the Ukrainian World Congress. Maitre Czolij’s address focused on the disturbing issues concerning the Trafficking of Women and Children. The statistics show that there were between 600,000-800,000 women in Canada and an additional 1.5 million women who passed through Canada to the United States. Human trafficking is a serious issue worldwide that urgently needs attention. The United Nations reports that human trafficking has reached epidemic proportions.

The Government of Canada has made only limited progress toward implementing strategies for combating human trafficking. The Government acknowledges that there is a significant problem. In order to combat this problem, the United Nations calls for governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to develop partnerships to combat human trafficking. The United Nations has developed a Toolkit for the purpose of the prevention, suppression and punishment of people involved in the trafficking of women and children. The purpose of this Toolkit is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information among policymakers, governments and NGOs. Maitre Czolij is calling on NGO’s to advocate for the governments of all nations to work in a concerted effort to pursue initiatives that will result in reducing and stamping out the exploitation of innocent women and children. Maitre Czolij has portrayed to the MCW a universal problem that governments have difficulty in conquering because of the lack of circumstantial evidence.

During question period, it was clear that the message had been very well received by the attendees. Many expressed interest in obtaining the Toolkit, sharing its information with others in their resolve to do something about this problem. The Toolkit is available at www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/HT_Toolkit08_English.pdf