Within the framework of the United Nations World Day against Trafficking in Persons, the #COALESCE partnership presents the Mind the Gap Reports: a needs analysis for the integration of migrant female victims of #HumanTrafficking for sexual exploitation/abuse in 6 different countries. Read the full reports here in English:
Join us once again this Thursday 17th June to hear our own Esohe Aghatise in conversation with Rachel Moran, author of Paid For: My Journey through Prostitution, executive director, feminist campaigner, founder of SPACE International and sex trade survivor, and Melissa Farley, psycologist, author, activist, founder of Prostitution Research & Education.
Their conversation will focus on:
There will also be time for audience Q&A
See you at 6pm CET/ 12pm EDT on Zoom (where Italian interpretation will be available) or on our Facebook livestream (only in English)
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ADrU6NnUS-6GrlbeHT-D7A
#DebunkingSexWork
Debunking ‘sex work’ #2 Language, Migration and Trafficking with Anna Zobnina and Marie Merklinger
We hope you all enjoyed the second instalment in our Debunking ‘sex work’ series, which saw Anna Zobnina, Policy Coordinator for the European Network of Migrant Women and member of the Executive committee of European Women’s Lobby, and Marie Merklinger, activist and member of SPACE International, in conversation with Olesia Sagaidak from Radical Girlsss.
If you missed it, you can watch it in full on our Facebook page!
Join witnesses from the global south, including our own Esohe Aghatise, 15th June 2021 at 5pm CET / 11am EST, who will detail the impact of the Canadian government’s collusion with Mindgeek/Pornhub in violating human rights.
“Women from countries of the Global South live socioeconomic injustice, armed conflicts, humanitarian emergencies. Pornography production, distribution and consumption are an abuse of power and position of vulnerability”
Esohe Aghatise (Nigeria/Italy -ENG) – jurist, women’s rights activist and United Nations Expert on Trafficking as well as Executive Director of Associazione Iroko Onlus, which provides services to victims of sexual violence and trafficking in Italy.
Read the full press release for more details!
We are so excited to have kicked off our series of online events entitled Debunking ‘Sex Work’: Conversations about Prostitution! Last week saw conversation #1 hosted by our very own Esohe Aghatise, who talked to Gail Dines, PornlandAuthor and Founder and President of Culture Reframed, on the theme of Pornogrpahy and Prostitution. You can watch the recording of the event here.
Check out our event page on Facebook for updates on all of the exciting speakers that will join us from around the world each week.
This series continues every Thursday at 12 noon EDT / 5pm UK / 6pm CET until 1st July, so follow this link to sign up to watch on Zoom (with Italian translation available) or follow the event on Facebook Live!
We were thrilled with the response to the first in our series of online events entitled Debunking ‘sex work‘!
On Thursday 20th May our founder and director, Esohe Aghatise, was joined by the brilliant Gail Dines, Pornland Author and Founder and President of Culture Reframed. Their conversation touched on:
If you missed it, you can watch the event in full on Facebook.
We are very pleased to start a new project COALESCE, which began in January 2021, funded by the AMIF Fund and led by the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS), in partnership with Cyprus Refugee Council (Cyprus), CARITAS Cyprus, IROKO Onlus (Italy), Marta Centre (Latvia), European Network of Migrant Women, Immigrant Council Ireland, Solwodi (Germany), Klapeida (Lithuania).
Coalesce is a two-year transnational project involving five European countries: Cyprus, Latvia, Italy, Lithuania, Ireland, and Germany.
Read our press release to find out exactly what the project is all about!
Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian feminist, doctor, author, activist, psychiatrist, university lecturer and so much more, died on Sunday 21st March 2021, at the age of 89. She gained international recognition for her innumerous contributions to feminist battles, her brave honesty and her unwavering conviction, which even saw her imprisoned for two months in 1981, for “attacking the ruling system”.
Our Executive Director, Esohe Aghatise shares her thoughts on this incredible feminist and women’s rights campaigner.
I met Nawal El Saadawi in London in 2015 at Housemans Bookshop in Caledonian Road, where we were both billed as speakers on female genital mutilation. I was struck at how she expressed herself so freely, without censorship and shared positions that were quite unconventional and, when considered within her own context, quite revolutionary. During the evening’s exchange, the question of male circumcision arose. She was quite firm and clear on the position that both male and female circumcision are genital mutilation of otherwise healthy body parts. She went further to express her views on regional and global political economic relations and their impact on women and girls. She held strong views on gender relations and was not at all afraid to express them.
I especially admired her fearlessness, energy and determination and would have loved to spend more time learning from her. She invited me to visit her in Cairo, and though I called her a couple of times, I never did get round to visiting. That is a huge loss I will live with forever. Her passing is a huge loss to women’s rights and to the world in general.
Child trafficking and sexual exploitation of children is on the rise in Europe. The outbreak of Covid-19 this past year, has only exacerbated the situation for these children and made many more vulnerable to abuse. Today Child10 is announcing the prominent 2021 Child10 Awarded Member organizations who are working across Europe and will now join forces to end human trafficking and sexual exploitation of girls in Europe. The organization Iroko Onlus is one of these ten organizations selected from over 90 nominations from 27 countries across the globe.
“The recognition by Child10 will ensure that we will be able to expand the impact of our work, to reach more survivors in Italy and also to reach more vulnerable women and girls in Nigeria. We very much look forward to collaborating with Child10 to expand our work and to ensure that our advocacy has the kind of impact that we hope to achieve. It is an honour to receive this award. Thank you very much”, says Esohe Aghatise, founder and executive director of Associazione Iroko.
Read the press release in full: Child10 Press Release 2021
This week, Iroko made a submission to the European Commission’s inception impact assessment proposal for a legislative initiative on preventing and combating gender-based violence and domestic violence, in the hope that the EC will take the important step of recognising sexual exploitation as a form of violence against women. We must thank our friends and colleagues at the Brussels’ Call for their support and input for this submission.
Below you can read our submission in full.
Iroko is an Italian-based NGO that has, for over 20 years, campaigned on behalf of and provided assistance to victims/survivors of domestic violence, prostitution, and sex trafficking.
As a frontline organisation we come into regular contact with predominantly migrant women, often victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, who come to us for support. These women describe violence experienced at the hands of men, especially sex buyers. This violence often corresponds to the internationally accepted definition of torture. Not surprisingly, they are often reluctant to talk about the trauma they suffered or are unable to put it into words. Our aim is to help them rebuild their lives, but we cannot do this alone. Recognition at every level of the violence and trauma they have endured strengthens their rights and status as victims of violence, in order to obtain appropriate protections as such. Legislation on all forms of VAW is needed to ensure that unacceptable behaviour is punished, and serves as a signal of what we as a society deem acceptable behaviour.