DAWN's 10 th Anniversary

“Recognizing the Dignity and Rights of Women”

A Conference on Migration and Trafficking in Persons

Bayview park Hotel Manila
February 10, 2006

WELCOME REMARKS

  MS. WENCHI YU-PERKINS
Vital Voices Global Partnership

Good morning everyone. It is my honor to represent Vital Voices Global Partnership, to hear and to congratulate the 10 th anniversary of DAWN. For those who do not know about Vital Voices, we are a non-profit organization based in Washington , DC . For a detailed description of our work, please look at the back of your program. Initially, we were started as a State Department program in the mid-1990s to promote women's rights and women's voices and our US foreign policy within the State Department. Since the year 2000, we have been a non-profit organization and we continue to fight for human rights, particularly human trafficking issues.

We have been involved in the protocol negotiations and in the US law, particularly legislation like the recent re-authorizations and the national advocacy activities. We met with Carmelita in 2004 at a conference in Tokyo . At that time, the wife of the former US ambassador, Senator Nancy Cassbaum Baker, invited Vital Voices and the International Labor Organization to have a conference with the US embassy in Japan to address the issue of human trafficking in Japan . At this conference, we met with Carmelita and we learned about the trafficking situation between Japan and the Philippines . During the past two years we've been working with DAWN and several other organizations to promote policy and legislative changes in Japan and to monitor the grossly exploited entertainment visa system in Japan . We're happy to see the progress in this area. However, as Carmelita said, much more can be done, and should be done. That is why we are gathering here. For Vital Voices our work is really to help those local NGOs to raise their voices so they have a voice in the international community to talk about their concerns and their issues. We're happy that there's been progress but much more needs to be done and I hope that through today's program, Vital Voices can network with other organizations and help to understand and learn more about this issue. Congratulations again Carmelita and DAWN for your 10 th anniversary. I think it's a tremendous achievement for us to see the Japanese-Filipino children here with their mothers. It has been a privilege to see them here. Again congratulations!