Human Trafficking: Images of Vulnerability
06 November 2007 - A photography exhibition providing a snapshot on human trafficking around the world was recently opened by the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Mr. Antonio Maria Costa and Mrs. Ban Soon-taek, wife of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The exhibition, called "Human Trafficking: Images of Vulnerability", features the photography of Howard G. Buffett; Academy Award nominated director Robert Bilheimer; and international photojournalist Kay Chernush. The exhibition will be on display in the Visitors Gallery at the UN headquarters in New York through 18 November.
"These pictures are a dramatic representation of a crime that shames us all - - Art is a powerful advocacy tool to motivate people to take action especially in the defense of women and children," Mr. Costa noted.
About the photographers
Howard G. Buffet currently serves on the Corporate Board of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., and has been active in business, politics, photography, agriculture, conservation, and philanthropy. He spends the majority of his time operating the Howard G. Buffett Foundation that supports humanitarian initiatives. Mr. Buffett, who has traveled extensively, and authored six books documenting wildlife and the human condition, received the Aztec Eagle Award from the President of Mexico, the highest honor bestowed on a foreign citizen, and the Will Owen Jones Distinguished Journalist of the Year Award from the University of Nebraska.
Kay Chernush is an internationally recognized photographer with more than 25 years experience in commercial and fine art photography. She has photographed more than 50 feature stories for Smithsonian Magazine and shoots for many other national publications. In 2005 she was commissioned by the U.S. State Department to document human trafficking.
Robert Bilheimer, is a director, writer, and producer with an international background in film and journalism. He received an Academy Award nomination for The Cry of Reason, a documentary focusing on the South African anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude, and is best known for A Closer Walk, the critically acclaimed documentary film about the AIDS epidemic. He is currently producing and directing Not My Life, a documentary film that comprehensively depicts the global affliction of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
About UNODC
UNODC is the lead UN agency fighting all forms of human trafficking and the guardian of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its associated Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. UNODC works with governments, the private sector, and NGOs to combat this modern form of slavery by raising public awareness, engaging in preventative activities and enhancing the capacity and skills of criminal justice professionals and policymakers.