The University’s Amnesty International Club supports the name and mission of its larger international branch: fighting for human rights where they are deprived. Amnesty International was previously a small club on campus; however, Mary Egan, the group’s new president, hopes to increase the size and range of the club’s efforts monumentally. This semester, the club’s focus is on the issue of human trafficking.
Egan hopes to spread awareness of the reality of human trafficking to the Hopkins campus.
“Many people believe that it is an issue that they do not have to worry about, and that they do not have to help,” Egan wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “However, America is a serious offender of labor and sex trafficking and exploitation of children.”
Many Homewood students may find the facts behind human trafficking become considerably closer and more tangible from Amnesty International’s mission to spread awareness.
“The United States is the number one consumer for human trafficking. To put the issue into perspective, sources estimate that 294,000 American teenagers are at risk of being trafficked right now,” Egan wrote.
And that’s just in the United States. Amnesty International also hopes to put these numbers on a global scale. In just a year, 1.2 million children are subject to human trafficking practices according to Egan — almost 27 million slaves exist in the world today.
“That’s more than there were during the entire span of the trans-Atlantic slave trade,” Egan wrote.
Amnesty International is looking beyond the campus borders to address this issue on a grander scale by partnering with multiple other organizations from all around Baltimore.
They are working closely with Maryland Rescue and Restore Coalition — a Baltimore based group fighting against human trafficking. This group not only works to raise awareness of the issue and help prevent human trafficking, but also to provide intervention and care for victims.
“The Maryland Coalition is located on the largest urban farm in Baltimore, and allows for many unique experiences for Amnesty International to partner,” Egan wrote.
Amnesty International is also creating international partnerships by teaming with the Somaly Mam Foundation of Cambodia. This organization officially launched in 2007 with the help of a woman named Somaly Mam who had been abused, sold into sex-slavery and prostituted for most of her youth. After her escape, she dedicated much of her life to helping Cambodian girls in similar situations, expanding her purposes into a nonprofit organization in the United States which supports anti-trafficking groups and women’s rights activism against sexual slavery.
“The [Somaly Mam] Foundation supports rescue operations, shelter services and rehabilitation programs in Southeast Asia, where the trafficking of women and young girls is widespread,” Egan wrote.
These organizations will help Amnesty International work for human rights on a larger scale, which is important to Egan and her fellow members.
In terms of past initiatives Amnesty International has pursued on Homewood campus, Egan highlighted petition signings, food and supply drives as well as a movie screening of the documentary “Half the Sky.”
Egan made clear that Amnesty International is going to continue working on previous initiatives in addition to starting on new pursuits.
“We have a lot of exciting plans for this year!” Egan wrote. “We want to continue the petition signing and supply drives, but also focus on larger advocacy.”
A current effort being undertaken by Amnesty International is a petition signing against the conviction of a woman named Amira Osman Hamed, who is a Sudanese women’s rights activist.
“She was arrested in August and charged with ‘indecent dress’ for refusing to wear her headscarf,” Egan wrote.
Her trial is set for Nov. 4.
“If convicted, she risks receiving up to 40 lashes,” Egan wrote.
Amnesty International hopes that their petition will help prevent this kind of injustice from happening, in Sudan and in other countries where women’s rights abuses and human trafficking are real, dangerous and very challenging issues.
Though the club has a worldly focus, Egan claims that their purpose and true place on Homewood campus is a simple one.
“Our slogan is ‘do you care about human rights?’” Egan wrote. “It’s easy to laugh about but holds a lot of weight. Even the smallest of efforts on the part of college students can make sustaining change. Yes, we realize it is unrealistic to say we are going to stop human trafficking, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to raise awareness and use everything in our power to mobilize change.”
The club meets every Wednesday for an hour and has recently created a Facebook page to raise awareness for the club. At these meetings, members help plan and organize future events as well as openly discuss issues of human rights that they feel strongly about. New members are strongly encouraged to drop by and attend meetings whenever they can.
“It is important to feel responsible for human suffering and not turn a blind eye,” Egan wrote.
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