US embassy cable - 04VATICAN2817

Disclaimer: This site has been first put up 15 years ago. Since then I would probably do a couple things differently, but because I've noticed this site had been linked from news outlets, PhD theses and peer rewieved papers and because I really hate the concept of "digital dark age" I've decided to put it back up. There's no chance it can produce any harm now.

VATICAN TRAFFICKING DVC PRODUCES BIG RESULTS

Identifier: 04VATICAN2817
Wikileaks: View 04VATICAN2817 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Vatican
Created: 2004-07-21 04:53:00
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Tags: PREL PHUM SMIG VT Human Trafficking
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS  VATICAN 002817 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT. FOR EUR/WE: LEVIN; G/TIP: AMBASSADOR MILLER; PRM 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, SMIG, VT, Human Trafficking 
SUBJECT:  VATICAN TRAFFICKING DVC PRODUCES BIG RESULTS 
 
Ref:A) Vatican 0283; B) State 59846 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1.   A June 30 Trafficking in Persons Digital Video 
Conference (DVC) linked key Holy See contacts and media 
with G/TIP's Ambassador John Miller.  In conjunction with 
Embassy Rome, Embassy Vatican brought together three key 
elements in the fight against human trafficking: Vatican 
officials and religious personnel, faith-based 
organizations and NGOs, and media interested in raising 
awareness of this modern-day slavery.  Participants left 
the event better informed about the Department's anti-TIP 
initiatives and enthused about further efforts against 
trafficking.  Post will continue to use DVC technology to 
connect the Department with Vatican-affiliated 
organizations worldwide.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
Conference Links Department with Vatican Community 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
2.A June 30 Digital Video Conference (DVC) dedicated to 
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) linked key Holy See contacts 
and media with G/TIP's Ambassador John Miller.  In 
conjunction with Embassy Rome, Embassy Vatican brought 
together three key elements in the fight against human 
trafficking: Vatican officials and religious personnel 
involved with the Catholic Church's efforts to address TIP, 
faith-based organizations and NGOs as first responders for 
victims, and media as a strategic resource for raising 
awareness of TIP. 
 
---------------------------- 
Influential Officials Attend 
---------------------------- 
 
3.Participants included Holy See officials from the 
Secretariat of State and from the Council for Migrants and 
 
SIPDIS 
d 
Itinerant Peoples.  In addition, top officials from the 
Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and Holy Cross Fathers attended 
the session and expressed interest in becoming more 
involved in fighting TIP.  Both male religious orders have 
a significant presence on the ground in both origin and 
destination countries.  They should be instrumental in the 
expansion of Post's highly successful anti-trafficking 
training program implemented by the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) with funding from PRM (ref 
a).  An element of the program's expansion entails training 
personnel from male religious orders to confront the demand 
side of trafficking and generally raise awareness. 
 
------------------ 
Lively Interaction 
------------------ 
 
4.Ambassador Nicholson began the afternoon with an 
introduction to the issue and to the participants. 
Attendees appreciated Ambassador Miller's effort to 
summarize key findings of the 2004 Annual TIP Report, many 
of them Italy specific.  Several representatives made 
presentations and participated actively in the lively 
question and answer session.  The Italian Union of Major 
Superior's (USMI) Sister Eugenia Bonetti, a 2004 TIP Report 
"Trafficking Hero," critiqued aspects of current Italian 
laws that do little to discern between illegal immigration 
and human trafficking, and therefore limit assistance for 
those affected by the latter. 
 
------------------------ 
Extensive Media Coverage 
------------------------ 
 
5.Media coverage of the DVC was extensive and included 
reports in U.S.-based Catholic and non-Catholic print 
media.  U.S. television coverage is also expected. 
Coverage in Italy was broad and included FIDES (Vatican- 
affiliated international news agency), ANSA (Italy's 
official news agency), AGI (Italy's second largest news 
agency), and AP.com (AP-affiliated agency). 
 
-------- 
Comment: 
-------- 
 
6. Post thanks Embassy Rome and G/TIP for their work on the 
DVC and notes the positive feedback from our participants. 
We appreciate Ambassador Miller's offer to continue 
dialogue with Vatican-affiliated organizations and plan to 
organize further DVC events to that end. 
 
Nicholson 
 
 
NNNN 

 2004VATICA02817 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED 


Latest source of this page is cablebrowser-2, released 2011-10-04