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>View discussions about this entry Country: Switzerland
Organization: Euro 08 Campaign Against Trafficking in Women
Sector Focus - Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2007
YouTube Upload - Place your video embed code here from YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing websites. How to embed a video from YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0UM9NSmLaQ
Project URL: http://www.stop-trafficking.ch
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - During the European soccer championship we inform a huge audience on trafficking in women, amongst them a lot of men, f.e. clients of prostitutes.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - - The campaign aims at reaching a large population and making trafficking in women a public issue. The giant event of the soccer championship is a great opportunity: with a spot at the public events and on television we are able to reach a huge audience, the majority of them men.
- A specific target population of the campaign is the male population who can contribute to act against trafficking in women. F.e. clients of prostitutes can contribute to a better protection of victims if they are aware of trafficking and act in a responsible way (i.e. enable contact with a counseling place). For their information we started a specific website. (http://www.verantwortlicherfreier.ch) - To improve the situation of victims we mobilize a large population with an awareness campaign fostering that people who get in touch with victims enable contact with a counseling centre. - A petition demands improvements on a political scale, i.e. a better protection for victims. Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - - since the start of the European soccer championship our spot is shown in the stadiums before the soccer games, on the giant screens of at least 17 towns and cities, at other events and on television.
- a specific homepage provides information for clients of prostitutes. - our main homepage provides background information on trafficking in women in Switzerland. - media work and lots of different events helped us to make trafficking a public issue. - we launched a petition for more rights and a better protection of victims which we will hand in September. How do you plan to grow your innovation? - Our campaign will finish in autumn 2008. From then on, the coalition members and other partners will continue the work against trafficking in women, f.e. the specific work in the cantons to improve the situation of victims. This means, while we are carrying one big common campaign at the moment, the work will go on on a decentralized level afterwards. This is also important as the situation in the cantons is very different and very specific work will have to be done to achieve improvements for victims there. One of our main coalition members is the FIZ Makasi, a specialized counseling center for victims of trafficking, that offers professional assistance to victims. The FIZ Makasi is also the telephone number to be contacted by clients of prostitutes who get in touch with a victim of trafficking.
Our homepages will continue after the campaign. Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - Our campaign was launched by 25 organizations. Another 31 organizations are collective members of our campaign. Many more organizations – f.e. churches, grass groot organizations etc. – have supported our campaign with donations, with events (f.e. exhibitions etc.) on the issue of trafficking in women and with their concrete work supporting our activities.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - People are aware of human trafficking and are able to put victims in touch with a specialized center. More victims are identified, their protection is improved. (mid and long term impact)
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - Our campaign wants to reach as many people as possible to make them aware of trafficking in Switzerland. The target group will be reached indirectly: through the awareness of a large population, specifically men – among them clients of prostitutes – and through a change in Swiss legislation in favour of victims, more victims of human trafficking will be identified and have access to professional accompaniment and protection.
With our spot, our events, media work and our homepage we reach a big part of the Swiss adult population.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - This field has not been completed. (83 words or less)
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - The beneficiaries are victims of trafficking. Through the awareness of a large population, specifically men – among them clients of prostitutes – and through a change in Swiss legislation in favour of victims, more victims of human trafficking will be identified and will have access to professional accompaniment and protection.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - We spent a lot of time raising money for the campaign: We got support from NGO, churches, foundations; donations; support from the Swiss Federation, some cantons and towns.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: • Budget of the whole campaign: 900’000.- CHF • Guaranteed: 820’000.- CHF • Number of staff: one person employed (80%). The members of the committee do a lot of work for the campaign, volunteers helped a lot especially for the activities on the 8th march. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - The necessity is shown in the fact that before the campaign, the majority of the Swiss population did not know about trafficking in women. Trafficking in women is a serious human rights violation that takes place also in Switzerland, but only very few victims get professional support. To act against human trafficking also means to improve the protection of victims.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - The campaign will end in September. From then on, the members of the coalition and other partners will carry on the work, i.e. the work will be financed by them.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - Prior and during the World soccer championship in Germany in 2006 there were fears of an increase in forced prostitution in Germany. This also lead to discussions in Switzerland: women’s and men’s associations, counseling centers, human rights organizations and charities joined to discuss the issue of trafficking in women and possible links to the giant soccer event of the European championship to be held in June 08. In January 2007 the association “Euro 08 Campaign Against Trafficking in Women and Forced Prostitution” was founded, a coordinator was employed to start the concrete work. The coalition was expanded, the campaign was prepared with the focus, however, not on a direct link between human trafficking and the European soccer championship, but on trafficking in women that happens every day and the lack of protection for victims. The Euro 08 was seen as a great opportunity to reach a large audience, among them a lot of men. Based on the experience of the specialized counseling place FIZ Makasi, we decided to focus on potential clients of sex workers as one target group: clients of prostitutes have enabled contact between victims and the FIZ Makasi on several occasions. This has to be fostered, as clients in many cases are the only people having (a regular) contact with victims.
A petition was defined as another pillar of the campaign: protection of victims requires some change in Swiss legislation and in the practices of Swiss authorities. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - (Our Campaign is not based on a person. Instead it is a project carried by a large number of organizations. At the center is the committee and, as the only employee, a coordinator.)
Contact Information:
Yvonne Zimmermann
coordinator of the campaign Euro 08 Campaign Against Trafficking in Women (association of 25 organizations, mainly NGO) kampagne-em08@fiz-info.ch Kampagne Euro 08 gegen Frauenhandel, Badenerstrasse 134, 8004 Zürich, Switzerland Switzerland Tel: 0041 79 598 80 51 Website: http://www.frauenhandeleuro08.ch/en/home/ Discussions about this entry |
Euro 08 Campaign Against Trafficking in Women
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Hi Yvonne,
great project. I think it´s brave and necessary to point to some of the darker aspects of big international sports events, especially since here in Germany I got the feeling that politicians and sports officials didn´t want any discussion to spoil the image of a family friendly squeaky-clean event, be it racism or anti-semitism in soccer, homophobia or prostitution around the Euro. I like that your spots are being shown on the big screens and place the issue right in front of the audience. Also, it´s a good thing that your initiative isn´t over when the Euro is over. The networking with authorities and the cantons looks great. Another great aspect is that you address the potential clients, rather than putting the blame on the prostitutes. Since the Euro is now over, can you tell us a little about how it went and whether the first phase worked out the way you planned it?
All the best,
Jasper
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Jasper Nicolaisen
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Dear Laura
Thanks for your comment. To inform (potential) clients of prostitutes we opened a website: www.verantwortlicherfreier.ch (in four languages, among them English). There they find information on how to see if a sex worker might be a victim of trafficking, what to do in such a case and what not to do. The most important is to enable contact with a specialised counseling place for victims of trafficking (f.e. giving the girl a lend of his mobile phone, so she can talk to the counseling place directly) and not to do anything she does not agree to.
Clients of prostitutes can ring the FIZ Makasi (the only specialised counseling place for victims of trafficking in Switzerland) anonymously if they wish. Information on clients is treated confidentially. This might help them to get in touch with the counselling place.
All the best!
Yvonne Zimmermann, coordinator of the Euro 08 Campaign Against Trafficking in Women
PS: The campaign takes place in Switzerland, not Sweden. (This is an important difference, because in Sweden the situation around prostitution is entirely different: In Switzerland prostitution is legal whereas in Sweden it is forbidden to by sexual services, i.e. clients of prostitutes are fined.)
Dear Yvonne Zimmermann;
The work that the Euro 08 Campaign Against Trafficking in Women is doing is very interesting. Capitalizing on the large numbers of people who attended the European Soccer Championship gives an impressive breadth to your outreach and awareness efforts. Targeting potential clients of sex workers and trying to engage them as partners in the fight to prevent trafficking for sexual exploitation and to surface girls who have been trafficking into Sweden is a very interesting idea. It would be great to hear a bit more about what types of messages you are sending these men in so far as how they can identify girls who may be trafficked and what information you give them as to how they can act to help girls they may believe have been trafficked. Also- you mention that stigma around admitting to using sex workers is a barrier to successfully partnering with clients of sex workers. What are you doing to break down this barrier?
I am looking forward to hearing more!
Laura Cardinal
Public Health and Human Trafficking Specialist