Events

MINSK, 9 November (BelTA) – The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution on “Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons” initiated by Belarus, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The resolution is aimed at improving the comprehensive approach to the policy-making in combating trafficking in persons at all levels of cooperation. The resolution reflects major recent global trends in the fight against human trafficking, including a number of regional and international initiatives, and also the new challenges faced by the international community in combating human trafficking. In particular, the resolution notes the impact of information and communication technologies and of the Internet on the proliferation of human trafficking.

The UN member states supported the initiative of the Republic of Belarus to convene a meeting of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) in view of the need for a more coherent work of the group with active involvement of all ICAT members in its activities.

The resolution calls for closer coordination of national mechanisms in combating trafficking in persons. In this regard, the resolution requests the UNODC to collect information on this issue and to make it up-to-date and available to all member states.

Seventy states from all regions of the world co-sponsored the Belarusian resolution, including Australia, Austria, China, Cuba, Japan, India, Italy, Israel, Latvia, Mexico, Philippines, Portugal, Russia and the USA.