BODY SHOP AND ECPAT LAUNCH GLOBAL PETITION IN INDIA TO STOP SEX TRAFFICKING

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Parent Category: News and Stories

Posted in: Beauty n Fitness on Friday, 03 September 2010 00:00

The Body Shop and ECPAT launched the much - anticipated Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People Petition in INDIA.

The national activity culminated in a high profile “Big Stop” at Select City Walk Mall, Saket, New Delhi where up to 150 participants alongwith Cristina Albertin (UNODC- Regional Representative) and celebrities like actress & social worker Nafisa Ali and Chitrangda Singh showed their support.

The celebrities also flagged off the petition launch by signing the Stop Sex Trafficking Petition at the event & by drawing or painting around their hand on the petition wall to support the campaign.

Huge number of celebrities & eminent personalities from various fields approached to support the campaign by signing the petition and giving a sketch of their handprints. Globally celebrities like Sir Ben Kingsley, Robert Pattinson, Katie Melua, Yoko Ono & Joanna Lumley have shown their support by signing petitions and drawing their handprints.

In India, celebrities like social worker Ms. Ambika Shukla, designers Arujn Kapoor, Anjali Kapoor, Leena, Samant Chauhan, Nida Mehmood, Photographer Rohit Chawla and Model Meher Bhasin have signed the petition and sent their handprints in support of the campaign.

Taking place in some 66 countries around the world, the fifth Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York, hosted by Former US President Bill Clinton cited this campaign as ‘an exemplary approach to addressing a specific global challenge’.

Commenting on the scale of the problem at hand, Cristina Albertin from UNODC stresses the need to adopt a comprehensive approach to anti-human trafficking, promote better international cooperation and mutual legal assistance between countries and ensure the safety, rights and protection of victims in line with the provisions laid down in the Protocol to “Prevent, Suppress and Punish trafficking in persons, especially Women and Children” which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC)- a global legally binding instrument to promote cooperation to prevent and combat transnational organized crime more effectively.

Highlighting why The Body Shop is supporting this campaign, Sameer Prasad from The Body Shop India said, “The Body Shop has never shied away from tackling controversial issues and causes that others would avoid. Indeed it was one of the dying wishes of our late founder, Dame Anita Roddick that this, the “modern-day slave trade” - human trafficking - be brought to an end. Because we believe that collectively a lot more can be done to address this problem, we have joined forces with ECPAT globally to launch a petition which aims at strengthening the legislation and protection measures and in doing so, stamp out this terrible violation of children’s rights."

To put a “Big Stop” to Sex Trafficking, The Body Shop and ECPAT International are asking customers and supporters to go to their local The Body Shop store to sign The Stop Sex Trafficking Petition in a personalised way - by drawing or painting around their hand. Alternatively they can sign up online at www.thebodyshop.in