MEDIA RELEASE
UNAA appoints Grace Forrest as Goodwill Ambassador for Anti-Slavery
CANBERRA (29 June 2018) – The United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) today announced the appointment of Grace Forrest as a Goodwill Ambassador.
UNAA National President, Major General Michael Smith AO (Ret’d) said “Grace’s appointment will greatly assist in promoting our national Human Rights and Peace Programs, and specifically the UN’s stand against slavery, a target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.” Target 8.7 is …to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
Grace Forrest is a Founding Director of the Walk Free Foundation, an international human rights group working to end modern slavery. She has worked in South East Asia and the Middle East, using photography and storytelling to share the stories of survivors of modern slavery. She regularly represents Walk Free at international forums, including the Vatican and the United Nations. Grace is a Director of the Minderoo Foundation, on the Counsel of Advocates for the Freedom Fund and recently joined the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue as a Director, for which she attended the prestigious Oslo Forum this month.
According to the Australian Government’s report, Hidden in Plain Sight: An Inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia, slavery exists across a range of industries in Australia and in the global supply chains of businesses and organisations. Walk Free estimates over 40 million people around the world, including 4,300 in Australia, are victims of modern slavery, including human trafficking, sex trafficking, forced marriage and forced labour, including child labour.
“Modern slavery is omnipresent,” Ms Forrest said. “It is often associated with centuries past, but it exists today on a totally unprecedented scale in every corner of the world and within our global economy. While Australians may feel removed from issues like slavery, we are much more connected to it than we realise. Many of us contribute to the continuation of modern slavery, potentially every day, through the food we eat or the products we use.”
“Serving as a UNAA Goodwill Ambassador is both an honour and an amazing opportunity. We all have a role in ending modern slavery and I look forward to working with the UNAA to empower more people to grasp theirs.”
Grace Forrest becomes the UNAA’s youngest Goodwill Ambassador, joining the current list of Ambassadors: the Hon. Dr. Rev. Lynn Arnold AO (SDGs), Professor Ramesh Thakur (Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament), the Hon. Dr. Robyn Layton AO QC (Human Rights), David Macintosh AM (SDG 14: Life Below Water), and Erika Feller (Global People Movement, Refugees & Asylum Seekers).
ENDS
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Grace Forrest is available for interview today. Please contact Minderoo communications manager Tess Ingram on 0448 922 364.
For further information and media inquiries, contact: National Executive Director,
Lachlan Hunter – lachlan.hunter@unaa.org.au