Child rights lawyer and Griffith Law School academic Kate van Doore has been recognised at this year’s prestigious Anti-Slavery Australia Freedom Awards after more than a year working to increase awareness around the insidious problem of child trafficking through orphanages in developing countries.
Founded in 2011 and held biennially since 2013, the Freedom Awards recognise outstanding individuals and organisations working to fight against human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices.
Ms van Doore’s work has been groundbreaking in starting a global conversation about orphanage trafficking and how we can practically combat it.
She said that receiving the award was unexpected but welcome following her efforts both domestically and internationally to bring awareness to the trafficking of children into orphanages.
Ms van Doore has focused on formalising a legal definition of the practice of paper orphaning – which involves children being recruited from their families into orphanages to meet the demand of orphanage tourism and funding