CYPRUS NOMINEE FOR 2010 SECRETARY OF STATE'S AWARD FOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NICOSIA 000752

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR S/GWI AND EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN KTIP PHUM PREL KAPO CY
SUBJECT: CYPRUS NOMINEE FOR 2010 SECRETARY OF STATE'S AWARD FOR
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE

REF: STATE 111471

NICOSIA 00000752 001.2 OF 002



1. Embassy Nicosia is pleased to nominate Ms. Androulla
Christofidou, a human rights activist working to combat trafficking
in women in Cyprus, for the 2010 Secretary's Award for International
Women of Courage (IWOC). Following is the information requested in
Reftel.


2. Personal and biographic information is as follows:

LEGAL NAME: Androulla Christofidou
JOB TITLE/ASSOCIATION: Human rights activist associated with STOP
International in Cyprus
DATE OF BIRTH: December 19, 1936
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Cyprus
CITIZENSHIP: Cyprus and United Kingdom
ADDRESS: Ilioupoleos 9, Nicosia, Cyprus
TELEPHONE: (+357) 22-771-063
E-MAIL: N/A
PASSPORT NO: E096732
LANGUAGES: Greek, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish


3. Embassy Nicosia's Mission Strategic Plan identifies combating
trafficking in persons (TIP),particularly the trafficking of women
to work in Cyprus's commercial sex industry, as one of its four main
priorities. Cyprus is a destination country for TIP victims from,
inter alia, the Dominican Republic, Romania, Moldova, the
Philippines, and Ukraine. Many of these victims are brought to work
in one of several dozen "cabarets" on the island for the purposes of
commercial sexual exploitation.


4. There are powerful business interests behind these lucrative
cabarets; anti-TIP activists report that cabaret owners have their
own "impresario" union to lobby against government policies that
interfere in their "business." Cabaret owners implicated in TIP
have been reported to use coercion and threats of physical violence
to scare off witnesses and their critics. One of few voices, but a
very powerful one, fighting back against cabaret owners implicated
in human trafficking in Cyprus is 73-year-old Androulla
Christofidou, known as "Mrs. Androulla" by her supporters and
associates.


5. Mrs. Androulla, a human rights activist associated with STOP
International in Cyprus, is a tireless advocate for trafficked women
in Cyprus. For years, she has pushed for long-term institutional
change by lobbying government officials at the highest levels to
take action against TIP and increase protection for trafficking
victims. To assist her in putting pressure on the government, she
has created her own network of individuals in various fields,
including the media, NGOs, the diplomatic corps, and social circles,
who also raise money for TIP victims and rescue women from the hands
of traffickers.


6. The broad anti-TIP coalition that Mrs. Androulla works with
organized a conference in Cyprus in November 2008 that brought
together the groups STOP International, L'Association Contre
L'Exploitation et L'Esclavage Sexuel ("Association Against
Exploitation and Sexual Slavery"),Friends of Humanity and the
Cyprus Anti-Trafficking Movement. It attracted speakers from the
U.S. and the EU, as well as representatives of the National Police,
the House of Representatives, the Attorney General's Office, the
Turkish-Cypriot community, several NGOs, and many journalists.


7. In addition to advocating for institutional changes, Mrs.
Androulla has generously used her personal resources to help
trafficked women who have chosen to stay in Cyprus to testify
against their traffickers. (Note: The GOC also provides some
assistance to such victims.) During a recent case involving TIP
victims from the Dominican Republic, Mrs. Androulla opened the doors
of her own home to a group of women as they prepared to testify in
court against the cabaret owners who reportedly held them captive as
sex slaves.


8. It takes a great deal of courage to speak out against the
contradictions surrounding women and sex in Cyprus, where the penal
law prohibits "living off the earnings of prostitution" and a
comprehensive anti-trafficking law exists on the books, yet where
the government licenses and regulates the "cabarets" where
prostitution and trafficking in women clearly take place. In light
of the powerful groups interested in maintaining the status quo,
only the bravest of individuals dare to stand up for the rights of
vulnerable foreign women who have been trafficked in Cyprus. For
this reason, Mrs. Androulla deserves public recognition for her
outstanding work protecting women and challenging the entrenched
culture of acquiescence in Cyprus.


9. Advocating for the rights of trafficked women is just the most
recent activity that Mrs. Androulla has undertaken to protect global
human rights. Over many decades, Mrs. Androulla, an educational
psychologist by training, has helped fight global illiteracy, helped

NICOSIA 00000752 002.2 OF 002


build schools in Guatemala, sheltered refugees fleeing the Pinochet
regime in Chile, and taken in refugees fleeing to Switzerland to
escape violence in Greece during a military coup. Notwithstanding
the outstanding work she has done in Cyprus and around the world,
her work has not yet been recognized publicly.


10. When asked why she is so passionate about helping trafficked
women in Cyprus, Mrs. Androulla simply said that all her life, she
has "sympathized with the underdogs." "The most terrible type of
exploitation," she explained, "is sexual exploitation because it
kills the soul." For her brave and selfless work challenging
established and powerful cabaret interests in Cyprus to help victims
of human trafficking, 73-year-old "Mrs. Androulla," an activist with
global vision and experience, must be honored and put forth as an
example.


11. Post has notified Ms. Christofidou of this award nomination and
if selected, she would be willing to accept the honor in order to
draw global attention to the human trafficking situation in Cyprus.


12. For further information regarding this nominee, please contact
either Poloff Jason Chue at ChueJ@state.gov/(+357) 22-393-367 or
Political Specialist Anna Maria Yiallourou at YiallourouAI@state.gov
or (+357) 22-393-363.


URBANCIC