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Belarus-sponsored resolution against human trafficking adopted by UN
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MINSK, 16 November (BelTA) - On 15 November, the Third Committee of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution “Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons” initiated by the Republic of Belarus, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The resolution was co-sponsored by 80 countries, including Australia, Austria, Germany, Georgia, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Canada, China, France, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and the United States.
“The wide range of co-sponsors of the resolution and its adoption by consensus demonstrate the high level of international support for our country’s efforts to strengthen the global partnership against human trafficking,” the ministry said.
By maintaining consistent focus on this issue at the UN, by acting as an umbrella document on international efforts to combat human trafficking, the resolution has, for the first time, brought together all the relevant initiatives promoted by the UN member states, having overcome the existing fragmentation in the organization on this matter and having created an additional platform for further strengthening the international partnership against human trafficking.
The resolution reflects the important contributions of regional organizations and mechanisms to combat human trafficking, in particular the OSCE, as one of the 2019 chairmen of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons and the EU coordinator for combating human trafficking.
The document focuses on a number of major recent global challenges that the international community continues to face in the fight against human trafficking. Among them is the predominance of women and children among victims of trafficking, the growing demand for human commodity, the active use of information technology by traffickers for criminal purposes, the increasing number of migrants among victims of trafficking for the purpose of organ removal.
In accordance with the resolution, the UN General Assembly will hold a meeting in 2021 to review the progress in the UN's Global Action Plan Against Human Trafficking, a universal document that concentrates efforts on law enforcement and human rights adopted on the initiative of Belarus in 2010.
The resolution places a special emphasis on the work of national mechanisms to combat human trafficking and invites states to hold regular meetings of such mechanisms in order to share the best practices and to overcome joint challenges.
The resolution also welcomes the first meeting of the heads of the member agencies of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons, which took place at the initiative of Belarus in 2018, and proposes to convene such meetings on a regular basis.
The resolution is one of the elements of practical implementation of the initiative of the Belarusian president to develop a global partnership to combat trafficking in human beings put forward at the UN summit in 2005.
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