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Briefing Paper 536 – The 2021 Report on Trafficking in Persons by Peter-John Pearson

Every year since 2000, the US State Department has issued a comprehensive analysis of the scourge of human trafficking and the attempts of various countries to combat it. The report seeks to “improve our collective efforts to comprehensively address human trafficking”. Each year the report assigns a tier ranking to various countries based on their […]

Briefing Paper 534 – The Importance of Play during COVID-19 by Lois Law

In many ways the needs of children have been overlooked during the pandemic. It is important to be mindful that children have had interrupted schooling; they have lost opportunities to play with friends; and have spent extended periods of time at home, often in difficult circumstances where they may have experienced financial hardship and hunger. […]

Briefing Paper 533 – Aligning Policies for a Low Carbon Economy: SA’s Commitment to a Just Transition by Lovedonia Mkansi

There is sufficient basis in climate science base and the supporting evidence to show that global surface and atmospheric temperatures continue to rise as a result of further warming. Although natural drivers and internal climate variability could likely have an influence over the changes observed in global temperatures, these are not enough to explain the […]

Briefing Paper 532 – Migrants, Refugees and Displaced Persons by Peter-John Pearson

The Roman Catholic Church traditionally observes the last Sunday in September as the World Day of Migrants and Refugees; 2021 marks the 107th year of this observance. It is on a different date from the United Nations Day for Refugees, which is in June, and it also parts company with its secular equivalent by deliberately […]

Briefing Paper 531 – The Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health by Lois Law

The sudden advent of COVID-19 on our shores and the realization that it was a highly infectious and potentially life-threatening virus led to the declaration of a state of disaster. The regulations thereof resulted in the imposition of the harsh Level 5 Lockdown in March last year, which required that everybody be confined to their […]

Briefing Paper 530 – The Emerging Group: Women Migrants Coming Out of the Shadows by Peter-John Pearson

In South Africa, August is observed as Women’s Month. The annual commemoration is inspired by the march in 1956 of 20 000 women, to the Union Buildings, the seat of government in Pretoria, to hand over a petition of many thousands of signatures protesting the imposition of the hated ‘pass books’ on women. It is […]

Briefing Paper 529 – The Invisible Group Child Migrants Child Labour and the 2022 Global Conference by Peter-John Pearson

“Child labour, in its intolerable forms, constitutes a kind of violence that is less obvious than others but it is not for this reason any less terrible.”1 – Compendium of Catholic Social Doctrine, 3245 BP 529 The Invisible Group Child Migrants Child Labour and the 2022 Global Conference by Peter-John Pearson