Europe Thematic Dialogue of the United Nations General Assembly on trafficking

10 May 2009 |

On the 13 May, the UN General Assembly held a thematic dialogue on human trafficking. The meeting, convened by the President of the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, looked at ways of “taking collective action to end human trafficking”, including the possibility of a establishing a Global Plan of Action to combat human trafficking. Among the speakers were UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and representatives of UNODC, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organisation for Migration, the International Labour Organisation and UNICEF Deputy Director, Programme Division Mr. Dan Rohrmann and Dr. Aleya Hammad, of the Susan Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement “End Human Trafficking Now” Initiative. Over the last few years, the General Assembly has placed high emphasis on the issue of trafficking in persons and significant efforts have been made in establishing legal and institutional mechanisms to address this crime. Major progress has been made since the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons entered into force in 2003, but many countries still lack anti-trafficking laws.

The speeches are available here