From http://cidh.org/Prensa/periodosesionesENGL.htm

Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS and the Sex Sector
Presented by
American University Washington College of Law and
The Center for Gender Health and Equity
March 18, 2009
9:00 am – 2:30 pm

American University Washington College of Law
4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Room 603, Washington, DC

Human trafficking and forced labor are global human rights abuses. Over the past eight years, the United States has supported some excellent programs but it has also adopted an ideological driven approach to the sex sector that harms women and their families, increases the vulnerability of people in the sex sector to violence, trafficking and HIV infection, prevents health care workers from accessing sex workers and does nothing to prevent trafficking. Sex workers who do not
want to be ‘saved’ are being subjected to violent raids and rescues and some of them are being arrested, abused and deprived of their livelihood. Recipients of U.S. funding must sign a pledge that undermines their ability to work nonjudgmentally and collaboratively with sex workers to stop trafficking, child prostitution and violence, and fight HIV/AIDS.

This symposium brings together international and U.S. experts to share experiences and discuss the ways in which the Obama Administration can create new U.S. policies on human trafficking and HIV/AIDS that are consistent with international human rights standards, best practices in public health, and grounded in reality.

9:00 – 9:15 Welcome

Ann Jordan, Director, Program on Human Trafficking and Forced Labor, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Serra Sippel, Executive Director, Center for Gender Health and Equity
9:15 – 10:30 Anti?Prostitution Policies and Human Rights

• Human Rights Framework: Serra Sippel
• Legal framework and U.S. policy: Ann Jordan
• Legal challenges to U.S. anti?prostitution policy: Zoe Hudson, Open Society Institute

Moderator: Martina Vandenberg, Jenner and Block

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break
• Video: Cambodia?s new anti?trafficking law: Sex Workers speak out

10:45 – 11:30 The Impact of Anti?Trafficking and Anti?Prostitution Campaigns on Sex Workers in Cambodia
• Sara Bradford, Asia Pacific Network of Sex Work Projects
Moderator: Christina Arnold, Executive Director, Prevent Human Trafficking
2009 FOUNDERS’ CELEBRATION

11:30 – 12:15 Sanghamitra: A Journey Towards Social and Economic Empowerment
• Dr. Shilpa Merchant, Population Services International and the Sanghamitra Project
Moderator: Sneha Barot, Senior Public Policy Associate, Guttmacher Institute

12:15 – 1:00 Lunch
• Video: Taking the Pledge
• Video: Compelled To Act: The Theatre of Sex Workers in Mali

1:00 – 1:45 Danaya So: Bringing Hope to Women and their Families
• Sylvia Mollet, DANAYA SO
Moderator: Pauline Muchina, Ph.D., Senior Partnership Advisor, UNAIDS

1:45 – 2:30 The Government of Brazil and Sex Workers Collaborate to Address HIV/AIDs
• Gabriela Leite, President, Davida
Moderator: TBA

General Registration – no charge, but required.

To register, please go to www.wcl.american.edu/secle/registration

For further information about registration, please contact:
Office of Special Events & Continuing Legal Education,
American University Washington College of Law
202.274.4075 or secle@wcl.american.edu

DATE:Wednesday, March 18, 2009

TIME:10:00 a.m.

SUBJECT:Striking the Appropriate Balance: The Defense Department's Expanding Role in Foreign Assistance

WITNESSES:General Michael W. Hagee,
USMC, Retired
(Former Commandant of the Marine Corps)

Ms. Nancy Lindborg
President
Mercy Corps

*** Reuben Brigety, Ph.D.
Director of the Sustainable Security Program
Center for American Progress Action Fund

The Honorable Philip L. Christenson
(Former Assistant Administrator, United States Agency for International
Development)

***NOTE: Witness affiliation has been updated

NOTE: Witnesses may be added.

The Washington Office on Latin America
is pleased to invite you to a seminar

New Trends in Human Rights Violations:A Challenge to Peace for Colombia

featuring

Fr. Mauricio García-Durán
Director of Colombian organization Fundación CINEP (Center for Investigation and Popular Education)

Wednesday, March 18, 200911:30 am – 12:30 pm
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
1666 Connecticut Ave. 4th floor
Washington, DC

Fr. García-Durán will be speaking as the director of CINEP, a non-profit organization with the mission of working for development of a more peaceful and humane society through integrated and sustainable development schemes. Founded in 1972, CINEP also mediates social conflicts in Colombia in an attempt to bolster sectors of the population that are discriminated against or excluded from institutional peace processes and promote their participation in the advancement of the country.

Please join us for this discussion on the roots of the Colombian conflict, the various peace initiatives operating within the Colombian domestic context, and their potential for achieving progress within the Colombian peace process.

Mauricio García-Durán is a Jesuit priest with a Bachelor’s of the Arts in Political Science and a Doctorate in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, UK. He has spent the last 18 years researching political processes and social mobilization programs that aim at achieving peace in Colombia. In addition, he has worked on displaced persons programs for CINEP and the Jesuit Refugee Service. His most recent publication is entitled “Peace Movements in Colombia, 1978-2003” (Bogotá: CINEP, 2006).

Fr. García-Durán’s remarks will be in Spanish, with interpretation into English available.

To RSVP, please email Rachel Robb at rrobb@wola.org or call (202) 797-2171 by March 17th.

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING NOTICE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20515

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Chairman

March 11, 2009

TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

You are respectfully requested to attend the following OPEN hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, to be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building:

DATE: Wednesday, March 18, 2009

TIME: 2:00 p.m.

SUBJECT: Guns, Drugs and Violence: The Merida Initiative and the Challenge in Mexico

WITNESSES:
Panel I
The Honorable David Johnson
Assistant Secretary of State
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
U.S. Department of State

Ms. Roberta S. Jacobson
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
U.S. Department of State

Panel II
Ms. M. Kristen Rand
Legislative Director
Violence Policy Center

Andrew Selee, Ph.D.
Director
Mexico Institute
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

***Mr. Michael A. Braun
Managing Partner
Spectre Group International, LLC

***NOTE: Witnesses may be added.
By Direction of the Chairman

Thirty Fourth Lecture - OAS Lecture Series of the Americas
"The Universality of Human Rights and the Work of the Council of Europe"

Terry Davis
Secretary General of the Council of Europe

3:00pm
Welcome by OAS Assistant Secretary General, Ambassador Albert Ramdin

3:05pm
Presentation of Mr. Terry Davis by Ambassador Osmar Chohfi, Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Brazil to the OAS.

3:10pm
Presentation by Mr. Terry Davis.

3:40pm
Question and answer session
Moderator: Irene Klinger, Director, Department of International Affairs and Coordinator of the Lecture Series

The Lecture Series of the Americas is disseminated throughout the Americas by satellite and high-quality webcast. Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, Inc. (HITN-TV) in the United States, EDUSAT in Mexico, The Voice of America, Venevisión Continental, and several other TV and radio networks carry the broadcast in the OAS Member States. The Lecture Series is transmitted live on the web at www.oas.org.

* Headsets are available in the rear of the Hall of the Americas for simultaneous interpretation into English and Spanish.