Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus A.Dapkiunas participates in the events on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly

29-09-2017

On September 28, 2017, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Andrei Dapkiunas, made a statement on behalf of the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking, coordinated by Belarus, at the thematic dialogue “Trade in Minors in the Digital Age: Waking Up the World to the Dire Need to Stop Trafficking in Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Including Via the Internet”.

The event was organized on the initiative of Belarus by the Group of Friends together with partners from international and American non-governmental organisations and was the final part of the special two-day event, which the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking held in the margins of High-level meeting of the General Assembly on the appraisal of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

In his speech, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus stressed that information technologies that give access to education, rapprochement, cooperation are often used by human traffickers and allow them to stay unpunished. As A.Dapkiunas noted, children, by virtue of their naivety and trustfulness, become the easiest victims on the Internet. As a result, an increased number of cases of child pornography and child prostitution in the Internet.

The Belarusian diplomat stressed that international efforts to combat human trafficking remain fragmented, and the fight against child prostitution and pornography remains far from adequate. The Deputy Minister called for better coordination of all partners’ activities, search for new practical ideas to combat child prostitution and pornography, including via the Internet. A.Dapkiunas reaffirmed the readiness of the Group of Friends for active joint actions with other UN Member States.

One of the moderators of the event was the former member of the US Congress M.Bachmann, and one of the panelists was the current US Congresswoman A.Wagner. The leaders of a number of prominent American non-governmental organizations involved in counteracting trafficking in children, and child pornography, and prostitution also took part in the dialogue.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus also inaugurated a documentary photo exhibition “Day-to-Dayness of Language Professionals: Bringing Nations Together” at the UN Headquarters, dedicated to the first official celebration of the International Translation Day in the United Nations.

The photo exhibition, which is organised on the initiative of Belarus, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the United Nations Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, demonstrates the daily work of the UN system translators and interpreters, as well as linguists working in high-risk settings.

UN Under-Secretary-General Catherine Pollard, President of the International Federation of Translators Kevin Quirk and the representative of the Red-T Organization Vigidis Erikssen also addressed the participants of the photo exhibition.

Background information: The decision to establish the International Translation Day in the United Nations on September 30 was adopted by the UN General Assembly on May 24, 2017 on a joint Belarus-Azerbaijan initiative.

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