Joyce welcomes Archbishop Tutu to Wales

Mid and West Wales Assembly Member Joyce Watson joined Archbishop Desmond Tutu at a recent charity dinner at Cardiff’s City Hall (24 October).
At the event to celebrate the achievements of the Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa programme, the Nobel Peace Prize winning anti-apartheid campaigner talked to the Labour AM about her work as Chair of the Assembly’s Human Trafficking group.
Speaking after the event, Joyce Watson said:
“Archbishop Tutu famously said that “None of us is truly free while others remain enslaved” – it is this value that drives everyone fighting to end the modern-day slave trade.
“He has been a world-leading advocate for human rights for decades, so it was a great honour to be able talk to him about what Wales is doing to combat human trafficking.”
During his visit to Wales last month, Archbishop Tutu met many of the people involved in the Wales for Africa programme. The initiative, which was set up in 2006, helps individuals, groups and communities across Wales create links and get involved in projects with countries in Sub Saharan Africa. It has become a beacon for Welsh efforts to help deliver the UN Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015.
According to a report written by former anti-human trafficking co-ordinator Bob Tooby, there are around 200 suspected victims of trafficking in Wales, many being used as slave labour by businesses.
Mrs Watson, who is Chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) in Wales, was invited as a guest of the Presiding Officer of the Assembly, Rosemary Butler AM.
For more information about Joyce Watson’s work, contact her office on 02920 898972 or on www.joycewatson.co.uk.