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Belarus-sponsored resolution on combating trafficking in persons adopted at the UN

16 November 2019

16-11-2019

On November 15, 2019 Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus resolution ”Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons“ initiated by Belarus.

The resolution was co-sponsored by 80 States, including Australia, Austria, Germany, Georgia, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Canada, China, France, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, the United States.

A wide range of co-sponsors of Belarus-initiated resolution and its adoption by consensus demonstrate a high level of international support of our country in strengthening the global partnership to combat trafficking in persons.

Providing consistent attention to the problems of human trafficking at the UN and being an umbrella document on international efforts to combat trafficking in persons, the resolution for the first time united all the individual thematic initiatives to combat trafficking in persons that are promoted by States at the UN, thereby overcoming the existing fragmentation in the Organization on that topic and creating an additional platform to further strengthen the international partnership against trafficking in persons.

The resolution reflects the important contribution of regional organizations and mechanisms to combat trafficking in persons, in particular of the OSCE, as one of the chairs of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons in 2019 and the EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator.

The document focuses on a number of major recent global challenges that the world community continues to face in the fight against trafficking in persons. These include, inter alia, preserving predominance of women and children among victims of trafficking, growing demand for ”human commodities“, active misuse of information technology by traffickers for criminal purposes, and increasing number of migrants among the victims of trafficking, including for the purpose of organ removal.

In accordance with the resolution, it was decided to hold a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly in 2021 to review the progress in the implementation of the UN Global Plan of Action to combat trafficking in persons – a universal document that brings together efforts in law enforcement and human rights areas, adopted on the initiative of Belarus in 2010.

The resolution places a special emphasis on the work of national mechanisms to combat trafficking in persons and invites States to hold regular meetings of such mechanisms in order to continue international dialogue and to share best practices and to overcome joint challenges.

The resolution also welcomes the first meeting of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons at the level of Principals in 2018, which took place on the initiative of Belarus, and proposes to convene such meetings on a regular basis.

The resolution is one of the elements of the practical implementation of the initiative of President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to form a global partnership against trafficking in persons, which he put forward at the UN Summit in 2005.

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