UN Member States appraise Global Action Plan to combat human trafficking. Photo: Mark Garten/UN

Interview with Heike Rabe, Policy Advisor at the German Institute for Human Rights (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte)

The UN calls for a global fight against human trafficking. In Germany, the focus lies on forced prostitution.* In an interview by Ute Welty for German news service tagesschau.de, lawyer Heike Rabe laments the lack of reliable data. She doesn’t think much of plans to tighten the prostitution law.

Please note that the copyright for this interview lies with tagesschau.de and is not licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Who falls victim to human trafficking? Is it predominantly a matter of so-called forced prostitution?

Where human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is concerned, it is noticeable that the percentage of women coming from EU countries is increasing. That’s because the EU is steadily growing. These are…

YouTube Video: Sarah Barielles BRAVE

Listen to the beautiful words and voice from Sarah Barielles.  You need to be brave to respect and understand these rights we all have but sometimes forget.  Watch the video.  I think it is very inspiring.

Today I decided to change up just a little. I normally would post an inspirational quote. Today, however, I have something special I would like to post related to an inspirational quote.

When my husband and I were in therapy my therapist gave me a list of “Basic Human Rights”. I found this list to be very helpful and encouraging to me. It helped me understand what my rights were as a woman, mother, wife and business person. I will share these right with you today.

These rights are not specific to any gender. It is the rights we all have and they are something we need to remember…

YouTube Video: Sarah Barielles BRAVE

Listen to the beautiful words and voice from Sarah Barielles.  You need to be brave to respect and understand these rights we all have but sometimes forget.  Watch the video.  I think it is very inspiring.

Today I decided to change up just a little. I normally would post an inspirational quote. Today, however, I have something special I would like to post related to an inspirational quote.

When my husband and I were in therapy my therapist gave me a list of “Basic Human Rights”. I found this list to be very helpful and encouraging to me. It helped me understand what my rights were as a woman, mother, wife and business person. I will share these right with you today.

These rights are not specific to any gender. It is the rights we all have and they are something we need to remember…

With the U.S. budget and financial issues being as dismal as they are, the Pentagon is preparing to cut billions of dollars from its budget, reducing military spending, forces and weapons program.   The cuts, according to NBC will put American military forces to its lowest level  prior to World War II.

The budget cuts will come at a price according to U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel:  “As a consequence of large budget cuts, our future force will assume additional risk in certain areas,” Hagel said, citing gaps in training and maintenance and a smaller force that would be stretched thin if major conflicts broke out in several places at once.

I thought we were already stretched pretty thin.   Talk about a nation that sacrifices for the well-being of other nations.  We give up so much that our own security is of greater risk.  This can only place…