CCA’s Asia Regional consultation on human trafficking emphasizes ecumenical engagement in anti-trafficking advocacy

Programme Review and Programme Direction

Two key deliberative sessions during the 15th CCA General Assembly are the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions.

The Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions will both be conducted in three groups relating to the CCA’s programme areas, namely, (i) General Secretariat (GS), (ii) Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF); and (iii) Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia (PD).

Assembly participants will have the option to join one of three groups for both the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions. For the sake of coherence, the assigned group will remain the same for both sessions.

General Secretariat

The General Secretariat oversees the coordination of programmatic, administrative, and financial activities of the organization. The GS comprises various departments such as church and ecumenical relations, relations with ecumenical partners, finance, administration, and communications, which provide crucial support and services for the implementation of programs and contribute to the overall functioning of the CCA.

Programmes: Relations with member churches and councils, ecumenical partners; advocacy at the United Nations; ecumenical responses to emerging issues in solidarity; income development and finance; and communications.

Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF)

Under the MU programme area, the CCA accompanies Asian churches to strengthen their mission and witness in multi-religious contexts, revitalise and nurture church unity and the Asian ecumenical movement, and develop contextual theological foundations.

Programmes: Asian Movement for Christian Unity (AMCU); Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS); Asian women doing theology in the context of wider ecumenism; contextualisation of theology in Asia and ecumenical theological education.

The EF programme area focuses on nurturing and developing ecumenical leaders in Asia. The programme aims to enhance spiritual formation and theological understanding, enabling people to actively engage in ecumenical dialogue and collaboration.

Programmes: Ecumenical Enablers’ Training in Asia (EETA); Asian Ecumenical Institute (AEI); Youth and Women Leadership Development; Ecumenical Spirituality and Nurturing of Contextual Liturgical Traditions; Asia Sunday

Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia and Advocacy (PD)

The BP programme area is dedicated to promoting peace, justice, and reconciliation in Asia’s diverse contexts. Through training, advocacy, and dialogue, the programme addresses the root causes of conflicts, empowers communities, and fosters sustainable peacebuilding initiatives.

Programmes: Pastoral Solidarity Visits; Churches in Action for Moving Beyond Conflict and Resolution; Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA); Ecumenical Women’s Action Against Violence (EWAAV); Eco-Justice for Sustainable Peace in the Oikos.

The PD programme area focuses on promoting justice, human rights, and social transformation in Asia. Through advocacy, capacity-building, and raising awareness, the programme addresses systemic injustice, empowers marginalised communities, and advocates for prophetic actions and meaningful change.

Programmes: Human Rights advocacy; Migration, Statelessness, and Trafficking in Persons; Asian Ecumenical Disability Advocacy Network; Asian Advocacy Network on the Dignity and Rights of Children (AANDRoC); Ecumenical Solidarity Accompaniment and Diakonia in Asia (ESADA); Health and Healing; Good Governance; Action Together to Combat HIV and AIDS in Asia (ATCHAA).

No preference updated.

14 November 2016

gp-1Participants of the Asia Regional consultation on human trafficking in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Human trafficking has been unfortunately thriving in many parts of the world. The magnitude of this heinous crime remains underestimated owing to its insidious and complex nature.

The most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation, with women making up the largest proportion of traffickers in Asia. The second most common form of human trafficking is forced labour, while almost 20 per cent of all trafficking victims are children.

The Asia Regional consultation by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), being held from 14 to 17 November 2016 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, emphasizes coordinated ecumenical advocacy to combat human trafficking.

“Today, when human trafficking poses an increasingly serious challenge to humanity, churches in many Asian countries do not provide the attention and resources needed to effectively address the plight of trafficked persons. The ecumenical movement, on the basis of Christian values, needs to demonstrate solidarity with vulnerable survivors by responding to our prophetic call, and being involved in issues of forced migration, statelessness, and human trafficking,” the General Secretary of the CCA, Dr. Mathews George Chunakara said in a thematic presentation during the opening session on ‘Human Trafficking, a Modern Slavery: Towards an Ecumenical Advocacy’.

CCA General Secretary outlined the link between human trafficking and the migration nexus, with a focus on the causes of the trafficking of women and children. He further elaborated on the international law on trafficking and its lack of effectiveness in practical application to combating human trafficking in many contexts in Asia.

“The impacts of human trafficking on human rights are multifaceted; today, it is everyone’s problem and requires a collective effort for abolition,” Dr, Mathews George Chunakara added.

Calling for a concerted action by the ecumenical family to combat this modern form of slavery, which is fast becoming one of the most profitable criminal activities worldwide, Dr. Mathews George Chunakara further said, “The situation of the trafficked people is replete with injustices. Our biblical and theological teachings mandate us to express solidarity with them and remind us that religion is pure and undefiled before God to be with them in their affliction.”

In a second thematic address delivered on the ‘Criminalization of Human Trafficking and its impact on Women and Children’, Alfie Gordo, Program Officer of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) said, “we need to be able to see how migration policies, work situations and gender norms are affecting trafficked people. The problem is deeply entrenched in our societies, so a part of the solution lies in identifying how we view women in daily life, and especially by avoiding the protectionism of women, or restricting women’s movement because some think that they are vulnerable.”

“We must embrace a human-rights based approach when advocating for the rights of trafficked persons, which includes avoiding the use of labels. Having a ‘victim’ label takes away trafficked persons’ agency,” she added.

Dr. Krisanaphong Poothakool, Associate Professor at the Royal Police Cadet Academy and Program Director at Rangsit University, in his presentation on ‘Human Trafficking and Forced Sex Workers’, provided the group with insight on the problems faced by trafficked persons owing to isolated workplaces, low wages and illegitimate documentation. He also outlined loopholes in governmental approaches taken to combat human trafficking.

“Some of the main challenges are victim identification procedures, proactive screening, insufficient interpretation services, and an uneven understanding of trafficking indicators,” Dr. Krisanaphong said.

He further added, “Key strategies for prevention of human trafficking at a local level would be to improve international collaboration, increase efforts to identify survivors, improve screening procedures and labour recruitment practices, and increase incentives for survivors to cooperate.”

In his session, ‘Human Trafficking and Forced Migration: Specific Situations in Asia’ Mr. Brahm Press, Director of the MAP Foundation, speaking on the discrimination of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand shared extensive research which focused on policies that keep migrants from fully integrating into society, which is their right.

“Migrants do dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs with no safety procedures in place and are already being paid less than what they should be; migrant women make even lesser than men. Additionally, migrants cannot form unions which results in an imbalance of power. Migrant workers also have no immediate access to health insurance and education rates among migrant children are extremely low,” Mr. Press said.

“While laws and policies are in place against the discrimination of migrants, administratively, these are not implemented,” he added.

About 40 participants, theologians, church workers, social activists, anti-trafficking advocates and representatives of ecumenical councils from different Asian countries are attending the consultation.