It's difficult to imagine the person next door might be a slave, maybe they were trafficked into Australia under false pretenses, maybe they're being exploited.

Human trafficking and slavery are atrocious crimes that happen every day, in every country around the world. Slavery is a $158-billion industry worldwide, with only 1 per cent of victims ever rescued.

In Australia it is believed slavery-like offences have been historically under-reported, but the numbers are increasing with the Australian Federal Police experiencing a rise in human trafficking and slavery referrals in recent years.

In the 2013-14 financial year the AFP received 70 human trafficking-related complaints, that number more than doubled by 2017-18, with 162 referrals received.

An AFP spokeswoman said one reason for the increase was human trafficking and slavery offences were strengthened in 2013 after legislative amendments were made to the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995.

The top court had on January 4, 2018 directed all the states to file their responses on the issue of setting up of human rights courts as mandated in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday slapped cost of up to Rs 1 lakh on seven states for failing to file responses on setting up human rights courts despite its direction last year.

The top court imposed cost of Rs 1 lakh each on Rajasthan and Uttarakhand while noting that neither have they filed the responses nor were their advocates present in the court during the hearing.

A bench comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and B R Gavai also slapped cost of Rs 50,000 each on Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Meghalaya and Mizoram after it was told that they have not filed their responses.

The bench said all these states can file their response within four weeks subject to payment of cost.

LUDHIANA: The adoptive parents of 10-year-old Pratigya have moved a local court for annulment of adoption

(https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/adoption), so that the girl can return to her parents. The girl had gone missing last

year and later adopted.

The first hearing would be held on August 14. Her adoptive parents said initially the authorities were not cooperating or guiding

them with the procedure to annul adoption, but they approached them after the TOI highlighted the issue.

International adoption. Eight couples sought to reopen adoptions with Cambodia

A pilot phase with Ai.Bi. - Amici dei Bambini and seven other Italian institutions authorized to operate in the Asian country

After the announcements, this time it really starts again! The Kingdom of Cambodia reopens to international adoptions with Italy. Following the recent visit of the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the CAI - International Adoption Commission, Dr. Gianni Bardini and a previous mission that saw the participation of Vice-President Laura Laera, are in fact taking up, with a pilot phase, the activity with the central Cambodian authority.

The news was given by CAI itself. "The particularities of the new procedure - explains the CAI with a note - are defined in Resolution 64/2019 / SG of May 29, 2019, with which the CAI acknowledging the findings of the meetings with the Cambodian counterpart authorities, established that, in this first phase, the eight authorized bodies that have received the crediting from the Cambodian Authority will be allowed to initially route only one couple at a time. The procedure will be carefully monitored and based on the results achieved, the Commission will be able to positively assess the request by the entity for authorization to further routes ”.

"Finally - the CAI has always specified - in spite of the impossibility of defining waiting times and outcome of the procedure, the Commission has asked the institutions to adequately inform adoptive couples, placing the obligation to have the spouses sign an explicit declaration in which they are accepted the terms and uncertainties of the pilot phase ".

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) on Wednesday said it will be formulating guidelines for children's hostels which are not registered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The guidelines will cover institutions housing children at the request of parents who are unable to take care of them and their education.

According to the Ministry, the new guidelines will prescribe the minimum standards of care that should be provided to children.

In view of the directions of the apex court, the Ministry is drafting the guidelines which will be applicable to any institution not falling under the categories mentioned in the JJ Act, the Ministry said in a statement.

"Children staying at hostels, including those attached to schools, are as vulnerable as children at any other facility like child-care institutions (CCIs) and day-care centres. Therefore, we decided to formulate a set of guidelines to ensure adequate safety, minimum standard of living conditions and periodic inspections at hostels," said Union WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi.

On 18 February, the EU announced the launch of a new initiative in Georgia aimed at reinforcing child welfare reform in the country and ensuring the provision of quality alternative care for children.

This support will be provided within a new three-year EU-funded project entitled “Reinforcing the Child Welfare and Protection System in Georgia”. It will bring together the expertise, best practices and aspirations of World Vision Georgia, which implements the project, and the Government of Georgia to address the needs of vulnerable children deprived of parental care, or at risk of being so, by ensuring appropriate and quality alternative care.

“This project follows up on this reform, with a focus on ensuring vulnerable children deprived of parental care receive appropriate and quality alternative care,” said Carl Hartzell, EU Ambassador to Georgia. “To obtain an effective and strong child-oriented system that can provide immediate and adequate responses to children in need all across the country, will only be possible if all key state and non-state actors, experts and professionals are involved. In this context, I very much welcome the interest displayed on the side of the Georgian Orthodox Church to actively participate in his project.”

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The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has signed two Memorandum of Understandings with Save the Children in Cambodia on the 22nd of February 2019. The First MoU on Family Care First and REACT (Responsive and Effective Child Welfare Systems Transformation) projects funded by USAID Cambodia and the European Union in Cambodia.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Number of children of single parent is more than double that of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children

The report by WCD ministry said single parents often send their kids to care homes to ensure safety and well-being of the child.

NEW DELHI: Of the over 3.7 lakh children lodged in homes meant for care of children in vulnerable circumstances across India

in 2016-17, over 1.2 lakh were the offspring of single parents (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/single-parents). Their

Although the law no longer discriminates against them, the agencies involved sometimes

do.

In January, Disha Parekh, a 31-year-old

single woman from Bengaluru, decided to

take a big baby step — adopt a child. The

Those who do not want to hear must feel

Recently a testimony appeared on social media about the serious mistreatment of a lesbian couple in the inner city of Groningen. A passing police car drove on at a slow pace and the abused couple was eventually brought to safety by a bystander. This crime prompted PvdA MP Ahmed Marcouch to ask parliamentary questions on the theme of "safety and discrimination of lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people" (hereafter: LGBT).

Discriminate, insult and stereotype

How could this happen in "my" city? The city where I lived for years and I never felt unsafe, because there were always people on the street: as soon as the last bars closed, the first people were already on their way to work. As a result, the feeling of social control was constantly present. These two women have been mistreated because they cannot be who they want to be from the perpetrators. In other words: not everyone accepts the propagation of a sexual identity other than the unsolicited norm of being heterosexual. This is also evident from the insulting statements made to the couple: "Flat on flat does not fill a gap", and "if you look like a guy, you must also fight like a guy".

The above not only speaks of intolerance towards lesbians, but it seems to be more the case: by explicitly referring to appearance, these women are related to stereotypical elements of how a "real" woman behaves and looks.