Brazil has launched a new public awareness campaign featuring singer and UNODC Goodwill Ambassador Ivete Sangalo. The country joined the Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking earlier this month.
With the slogan "Freedom can't be bought. Dignity can't be sold. Denounce trafficking in persons", the campaign adds Brazil to the international advocacy movement against this crime.
As part of the campaign, a website site was created and flyers, posters and pins will be distributed in centers and offices for combating trafficking in persons all over the country, in addition to the new awareness raising video. The Secretariat for Human Rights, the Secretariat for Women's Policies and television giant Globo TV are also partners.
Implemented by UNODC in 10 countries, the Blue Heart Campaign seeks to encourage involvement and inspire action to help to stop the crime of human trafficking. It allows people to show solidarity with the victims of such trafficking by wearing the Blue Heart, an international symbol against human trafficking.
Trafficking in persons is a crime that ruthlessly exploits women, children and men for countless reasons, including forced labor and sex.
In Brazil, between 2005 and 2011, 514 denunciations of human trafficking were investigated. Two thirds - 344 - of the enquiries were related to forced labour. The other 157 are for international trafficking and 13 are for internal trafficking - a form of human trafficking in which the number of denunciations is quite low. One of the aims of the campaign is also to mobilize society to denounce human trafficking via hotlines established in key regions.
