What’s coming up this year?
by Catherine MALLET
The Salvation Army EU Affairs Office will continue to focus this year on our priority issues of anti-human trafficking, Roma inclusion, migration as well as a number of other social justice issues.
As highlighted in General André Cox’s New Year message, the appalling situation of modern day slavery and human trafficking is of major concern to The Salvation Army. At EU level we will continue to be engaged in Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in human beings and contribute to the monitoring of the situation and where possible and relevant, support the new actions as laid out in the new Communication from the European Commission, which is follow-up to the EU Strategy that ended in 2016. The EU Affairs Office will also be actively involved in The Salvation Army’s Europe-wide campaign addressing the demand side of trafficking.We also look forward to welcoming a new intern in the office who will work on AHT issues in particular for the first half of the year.
The Salvation Army’s Roma Mission Network and advocacy group will also start looking into the post-2020 EU Framework for Roma inclusion, and looking to identify how The Salvation Army can contribute to the key pillars of the Framework, but how we want to see the framework improved and shaped post 2020. We will continue to increase engagement where possible in the National Platforms for Roma Integration, as well as the EU Platform and we will continue to evaluate progress made in the current National Roma Integration Strategies.
We will also be looking, together with our EU level partners into the implementation and follow up actions of the recently adopted European Pillar of Social Rights. Whilst an important political commitment has been made in the proclamation of the Pillar by all the Member States – its implementation and concrete action needs to follow if it is to bring any benefit to people experiencing poverty or social exclusion.
In terms of migration and refugees, we will continue to monitor EU level policy developments and feed into consultations when possible. We will continue to advocate for the human rights of undocumented migrants and will continue to raise awareness about the situation of refugees and migrants in vulnerable situations where The Salvation Army is particularly active in this area.
Tags: Europe