Opinions & Interviews

“On behalf of the United Nations I can say that Belarus has always taken part in various initiatives aimed at combating human trafficking. The World Day against Trafficking in Persons which is marked on 30 July was initiated by the Republic of Belarus,” Alexandre Schmidt stressed.

The expert emphasized that the transnational organized crime, illegal trafficking and trade are the most difficult crimes to reveal and mitigate. There are no universal approaches for the resolution of this problem in the world. “Of course, human trafficking is the most heinous crime connected with illegal trade. We should not forget that apart from the violation of human rights this is one of the most lucrative illegal activities. The revenues from this business are often used to promote corruption, oust regimes and raise the number of other crimes,” he noted.

According to Alexandre Schmidt, to raise the efficiency of the fight against these crimes it is essential, first of all, to understand the methods of criminals and to realize the global scale of trafficking. The recent report on the victims of human trafficking which was compiled using the data from 124 countries in 2014 found out that people from 152 countries became victims of human trafficking. It means that the problem has a global scale.

The seminar in Minsk is one of the thematic events initiated by the Belarusian side to mark the World Day against Trafficking in Persons which is celebrated by the international community on 30 July and is expected to encourage the general public to pay more attention to the problem of human trafficking. The event is organized as part of the international technical aid project aimed at stepping up international efforts against human trafficking in the context of the observation of human rights. This project is implemented by the Interior Ministry Academy jointly with the Interior Ministry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, UNDP and is financed by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.