Published: 12th September 2007
HUMAN trafficking, rape, and the welfare of orphans and vulnerable children were some of the topics on the agenda as the US Special Representative for Social Issues concluded a three-day visit to Bahrain yesterday.
Ambassador Grover Joseph Rees met with officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority, MPs and Non-Government Organisations, including the Migrant Workers Protection Society during his stay.
President George Bush created the post in October last year to promote the country’s multi-lateral agenda worldwide, including combating sexual violence, addressing the exploitation of women and children and enhancing maternal and child health.
Published: 12th September 2007
HUMAN trafficking, rape, and the welfare of orphans and vulnerable children were some of the topics on the agenda as the US Special Representative for Social Issues concluded a three-day visit to Bahrain yesterday.
Ambassador Grover Joseph Rees met with officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority, MPs and Non-Government Organisations, including the Migrant Workers Protection Society during his stay.
President George Bush created the post in October last year to promote the country’s multi-lateral agenda worldwide, including combating sexual violence, addressing the exploitation of women and children and enhancing maternal and child health.
Mr Rees said he had lobbied the Bahrain authorities for support on a number of key issues that will be debated at the forthcoming UN general assembly meeting, starting on September 25.
This included a resolution in the general assembly meeting to condemn the use of rape as a tool of governments, he told a Press conference held at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel, Residence and Spa.
“The buying and selling of human beings, mostly young women and children who are introduced to the sex trade and also labourers who are forced into slave-like conditions, is a trans-national problem and we need to work on it or we will not solve it,” said Mr Rees.
“We think of Bahrain as a country with a government that has an aggressive approach and commits itself openly to human rights,” he said.
© Gulf Daily News