CONCRETE MEASURES AND 'RENEWED SENSE OF OUTRAGE' NEEDED TO END TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS ASSEMBLY

6 December 1996

Press Release
GA/9189

CONCRETE MEASURES AND 'RENEWED SENSE OF OUTRAGE' NEEDED TO END TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS ASSEMBLY

19961206 Assembly Observes International Day for Abolition of Slavery, Adopts Texts on New And Restored Democracies, New Agenda for Africa

The highly organized, international trafficking in human beings, particularly young women and girls, was an evil trade which could only be ended through concerted national and international action, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali told the General Assembly this morning, as it observed the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

Good intentions, the Secretary-General went on to say, were not enough. They must be translated into concrete measures, new legislation, and an increase in resources at the national and international levels. The realities of trafficking in women and children must be addressed with urgency and a renewed sense of outrage.

President of the Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia) described the persistence of the problem as a "reproach to our age" which was nothing short of modern slavery and an affront to humanity. Women and children were being transformed into marketable objects to satisfy any and every demand. Such abuse should have no place in the world. "Each of us must step forward to guarantee the fundamental rights of those who had lost theirs", he concluded.

Carme Sala Sansa, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of Andorra said all forms of violence against women must cease: economic, social, political, physical and sexual violence. She stressed that as the third millennium begins, the power relationships among human beings -- and among the sexes -- must be transformed into relationships founded in justice.

Statements were also made this morning by the representatives of the Congo, Mexico (on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean States), United States, Ireland (on behalf of the European Union and associated States), Philippines, Mongolia (on behalf of the Asian States), Belgium, Canada, Norway and Jamaica.

In earlier action, the Assembly adopted without a vote a resolution encouraging Member States to promote democratization and to make additional

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efforts to support the steps taken by governments to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies. It invited the Secretary-General, Member States, the relevant specialized agencies and bodies of the United Nations system, as well as other intergovernmental organizations, to collaborate in the holding of the Third International Conference on New or Restored Democracies.

Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted the conclusions of the mid-term review of the implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. It affirmed the importance of effective follow-up, monitoring and evaluation arrangements for the implementation of the New Agenda.

In further action, the Assembly declared 7 December as International Civil Aviation Day, and urged governments as well as relevant national, regional, international and intergovernmental organizations to take appropriate steps to observe it.

The President of the Assembly announced a schedule for consideration of the reports of the Main Committees. On Tuesday afternoon, 10 December, the Assembly will consider the reports of the First Committee. The reports of the Third Committee will be considered in the afternoon of Thursday, 12 December, and the reports of the Fourth Committee on Friday, 13 December in the morning.

On Monday morning, 16 December, the Assembly will consider the reports of the Sixth Committee, followed in the afternoon by the reports of the Second Committee. On Friday morning, 13 December, the Assembly will also consider its agenda item 19 on the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

The Assembly meets again at 10 a.m. Monday, 9 December to begin its 2consideration of the Law of the Sea.

Assembly Work Programme

The General Assembly met this morning to take action on resolutions relating to support of new or restored democracies and on the implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, as well as to consider the proclamation of 7 December as International Civil Aviation Day. The Assembly was also scheduled to discuss the problem of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, as part of the commemoration of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which was observed on 2 December.

New or Restored Democracies

In connection with the issue of new and restored democracies, the Assembly had before it a report of the Secretary-General (document A/51/512), which includes reflections on innovative ways and means that would enable the Organization to respond effectively and in an integrated manner to requests of Member States for assistance in the field, and some concluding observations. The Secretary-General suggests that the report be read in conjunction with the report he submitted last year on the topic (documents A/50/332 and Corr.1), which addressed the promotion of a democratic culture. (For further details, see Press Release GA/9168 of 20 November.)

The Assembly also had before it a draft resolution (document A/51/L.20/ Rev.1) by which it would recognize that the United Nations had an important role to play in providing timely, appropriate and coherent support to the efforts of governments to achieve democratization within the context of their development efforts. It would encourage Member States to promote democratization and to make additional efforts to identify possible steps to support the efforts of governments to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies.

By other terms of the draft, the Assembly would invite the Secretary- General, Member States, the United Nations system, as well as other intergovernmental organizations, to collaborate in the holding of the Third International Conference on New or Restored Democracies. It would further request the Secretary-General to submit a report on the implementation of the resolution, including innovative ways and means, as well as other reflections, to enable the Organization to respond effectively to requests of Member States for assistance in the field of democratization.

The draft was sponsored by Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mali, Malta, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands,

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Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.

New Agenda for Africa in 1990s

The Assembly had before it the report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the General Assembly on the Mid-term Review of the Implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s (document A/51/48) which, from 16 to 29 September, conducted the mid-term review. It would also consider the report of the Secretary-General (documents A/51/228 and Add.1). The review included an assessment of the responses and measures to accelerate the implementation of the Agenda. The Assembly would also request governments and organizations to take appropriate measures to implement fully the recommendations of the mid-term review. In addition, it would decided that in 2002 an ad hoc committee of the whole of the Assembly's fifty-sixth session would conduct a final review and appraisal of the implementation of the New Agenda. (For further details, see Press Release GA/9152, issued 4 November.)

In its consideration of this item, the Assembly also had before it a draft resolution (document A/51/L.31) on the implementation of the mid-term review. Under the terms of the draft, the Assembly would adopt the conclusions of the Mid-term Review of the Implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s, consisting of an assessment of the responses and measures to accelerate the implementation of the New Agenda, as set forth in the report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the General Assembly for the Mid-term Review of the Implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s.

It would also request the Secretary-General to give the outcome of the mid-term review the widest publicity to all Member States and, in particular, to sensitize the heads of the agencies and institutions of the United Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, and the donor community to the measures and recommendations it contained. The Assembly would also request all States, international and multilateral organizations, financial institutions and development funds, the organs and programmes of the United Nations system and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to take, as a matter of urgency, concrete and effective measures in order to implement fully the recommendations contained in the report of the Ad Hoc Committee.

By other terms in the draft, the Assembly would affirm the importance of effective follow-up, monitoring and evaluation arrangements for the implementation of the New Agenda. It would also recognize the complementary

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role of the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa in the implementation of the New Agenda, including the mobilization of adequate resources, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of activities. It would further request the Secretary-General, pending the final review and appraisal of the New Agenda in the year 2002, to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-third and fifty-fifth sessions a progress report on the implementation of the present resolution.

The resolution was sponsored by Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Viet Nam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

International Civil Aviation Day

Under the terms of this draft, the Assembly would proclaim 7 December as International Civil Aviation Day. It would further urge governments, as well as relevant national, regional, international and intergovernmental organizations, to take appropriate steps to observe International Civil Aviation Day.

The draft resolution is sponsored by Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, France, India, Mauritius, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Thailand.

Abolition of Slavery

The Assembly discussion on the abolition of slavery would focus on the problem of trafficking in human persons, especially women and girls. The issue was discussed by the Assembly's Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) as part of its review of the advancement of women.

During its deliberations, the Committee had before it the Secretary- General's report on traffic in women and girls (document A/51/309), in which he notes heightened concern over the issue of trafficking due to such factors as increased pressures on poor women to provide income for their families and organized crime expansion into trafficking for prostitution and other forms of exploitation. To confront the mounting problem of trafficking in children,

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States have begun drafting an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which will deal explicitly with the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

The 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, are the two international instruments that address the issue of trafficking. However, the Secretary-General's report states that means of measuring State compliance are inadequate, and less than half of Member States are party to the 1949 Convention.

Action on Draft Resolutions

The General Assembly, acting without a vote, adopted the draft resolution on support for efforts to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies and concluded its consideration of the item.

Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted the draft resolution on the implementation of the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s.

In further action, also without a vote, the Assembly adopted the draft resolution proclaiming 7 December International Civil Aviation Day.

JOHN HOLMES (Canada), introducing that draft resolution, said that as part of its commemorative activities marking the signing of its convention on 7 December 1944, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) declared that that date should be celebrated as "International Civil Aviation Day".

Civil aviation was of fundamental importance to the world, he said. It remained the safest mode of public transportation, and was increasingly important for the world's economic, social and cultural development. The ICAO played a critical role in the development of international civil aviation, particularly in ensuring the safe utilization of the world's airways. Canada was proud to be the host country for ICAO.

The resolution called on governments and national, regional, international and intergovernmental organizations to mark that important occasion through appropriate means.

The representative of the United Kingdom, speaking in explanation of position on that draft, said that the holding of the celebration did not fall within Economic and Social Council guidelines, and the costs associated with the draft's implementation were not a good use of the scant resources of the United Nations.

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International Day for Abolition of Slavery

The President of the Assembly, RAZALI ISMAIL (Malaysia), said the harsh reality of poverty and deprivation, punctuated by dreams of better life in richer countries, had spurred individuals to migrate either permanently or on a temporary basis. Unlike earlier times, women were now more commercially active and relatively free to travel. Women, therefore, constituted a large proportion of these would-be immigrants. Some countries put rigid immigration controls in place which have had serious adverse impacts by limiting opportunities and restricting options for legal immigration.

He noted that those factors had combined to create a widespread pattern of illegal immigration flows, facilitated by unscrupulous people who sought huge profits. One part of the spectrum of the illegal transit of people concerned the trafficking of women and children. Although that heinous trade would normally be driven by sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced marriage and forced adoption were also to blame. The most tragic cases were, however, when those victims were sold and trafficked with the complicity of parents, relatives and people known to them.

Trafficking was an illegal and a clandestine practice, he continued, and, therefore, it was virtually impossible to estimate the actual numbers of women and children involved. Accurate information on the incidence of trafficking in children was even more fragmented. One fact remained incontrovertible, he said, that a greater number of younger girls were absorbed into the commercial sex trade where adult female prostitution existed. Even more disheartening were indications of a growing demand by male clients for sexual activity with very young girls and virgins, a trend probably associated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

He said it was ironic that when globalization and market forces had been accepted as the keystones of greater freedom and prosperity, the most vulnerable women and children had themselves fallen victim to the global zeal for commodification. Despite all of the efforts of the international community, the organized crime of trafficking in women and children had continued.

The persistence of the problem was a "reproach to our age", he continued, and was nothing short of modern slavery and an affront to humanity. As such, it should be treated with the abhorrence and moral outrage it deserved. All members of society must share in the responsibility to eliminate such exploitation of women and children. The international legal framework was in place and should be implemented and utilized. More important, perhaps, efforts were needed to extinguish the shame of victims which enabled the trafficker to hide behind the cloak of secrecy and security. "Each of us must step forward to guarantee the fundamental rights of those who had lost theirs", he concluded.

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Statement by Secretary-General

Secretary-General BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI said that slavery was an evil which the world had rightly outlawed and condemned. It was the most shameful, inhumane and degrading exploitation of human beings by other human beings. For most of the world, the abolition of slavery heralded the welcome demise of barbaric and inhumane practice. On the eve of the twenty-first century, however, the international community must acknowledge that slavery is far from dead.

The grim reality of modern slavery required vigilance and determination to uphold and implement the 1926 and 1956 slavery conventions, he said. It was necessary to rededicate efforts towards the abolition of slavery in all its forms. Tens of millions of people worldwide were living in slavery, including debt bondage and forced labour. There could never be any excuse for the forced labour of children, for the sexual and physical abuse of servants, and for the sale of women and children into prostitution.

He said that the traffic in human beings was now a highly organized and international trade with links to organized crime, mainly affecting young women and girls and often leading to prostitution and forcing domestic service and pornography. In the late twentieth century, that situation was simply unacceptable.

The realities of trafficking were stark, he added. Physical force and abuse were rife. Victims of prostitution faced the most appalling exploitation. Such traffic had profound social, economic and health-care implications for countries around the world. It was "an evil trade which requires concerted and urgent national and international action", he said.

Despite too many loopholes and too many problems of implementation and application, there was hope, he said. The Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) and the 1996 World Congress on the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm offered a comprehensive plan of action and a way forward. The Platform of Action adopted last year in Beijing, calling for the elimination of such trafficking and for assistance to victims, would require concerted action by Member States and regional and international organizations. Those platforms provided new hope for the millions of women and child victims.

But good intentions were not enough, he concluded. They must be translated into concrete measures, new legislation, and an increase in resources at the national and international levels. On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, he urged an urgent response to those issues with a renewed sense of outrage.

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DANIEL ABIBI (Congo), on behalf of the African States, said Africa was a continent where trafficking in women and children had been part of the evolution process over many centuries. Many of Africa's sons and daughters had been victims of deportation and slavery far from their native land. Evidence of the "scourge of the evils undergone" was still present, he said. Today's observance was aimed to draw the international community's attention to the persistence of the phenomenon, including in Africa. The fight against trafficking in women and children was especially important, since it attacked the most fragile elements of society. Africa was aware of the enormous efforts needed to put an end to it. The support of the international community was needed.

MANUEL TELLO (Mexico), speaking for the Latin American and Caribbean States, said that that region had lived through a historic struggle against slavery. As a result of independence movements, the region was the first to incorporate prohibitions against slavery. It was profoundly to be regretted that there were still people today subject to different forms of servitude. One of the most humiliating was the international traffic in women and children; it was, unfortunately, a growing phenomenon, and left indelible marks on its victims.

The increase in temporary migration and the expansion of organized crime undoubtedly facilitated this trafficking, he noted. It was a problem of a transnational nature. The Latin American and Caribbean region was committed to the task of securing the abolition of all forms of slavery and sexual exploitation. The news media must participate directly in that efforts. Harsher penalties to those who engaged in those practices were needed.

PREZELL ROBINSON (United States) said his country was combating trafficking through extensive domestic and international means, including extraterritorial jurisdiction statutes, by which criminal sexual behaviour occurring in one jurisdiction, such as a foreign country, could be prosecuted in another.

He cited measures the United States would undertake: establishment of international exchange programmes among law enforcement agencies; identifying centres of sex tourism and trafficking; creation of a clearinghouse for information on international trafficking; encouragement of international review and modification of domestic laws on prostitution and trafficking; and increase in training and coordination between customs and immigration authorities.

Among the initiatives of the United States to combat trafficking were: providing model legislation; revoking or denying certain visas; assigning additional law enforcement personnel to major source and transit countries; sponsoring further law-enforcement training; and developing a public diplomacy programme to better publicize the dangers.

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All governments, he said, were urged to enact and enforce anti- trafficking laws, to examine their national laws, to mount public information programmes and to take a regional approach to the problem.

JOHN H.F. CAMPBELL (Ireland), speaking for the European Union and also for Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia, and also on behalf of Iceland, said the odious practice of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, involved consistent and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. There was a need for concerted national and international action. It was obvious that trafficking in women for sexual exploitation was becoming a serious international problem. It was an area of criminality often organized by criminal groups which transcended police boundaries, locally, nationally and internationally.

The European Union had participated actively in the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Stockholm last August. The conference had succeeded in raising the level of awareness concerning those abhorrent practices. The Council of Ministers of the Union had agreed on joint action against trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of children. That included provisions for jurisdiction and penalties and other measures aimed at protecting victims and witnesses.

He said a regional conference in Vienna in June had produced several key proposals, such as cooperation in action against the trafficking in women and the development of a more coordinated policy at a national and international level, with a high priority to information campaigns and special attention to the human dignity of victims.

In marking the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, he added, Member States should commit themselves to "a global partnership ... to banish this scourge forever". FELIPE MABILANGAN (Philippines) recalled that at last year's Assembly session his delegation had introduced a resolution on traffic in women and girls. It condemned the illicit and clandestine movement or persons across national and international borders, largely from developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

At the international level, priority should be given to the ratification and enforcement of international conventions and instruments on human rights. The urgency attached to the problem would not be served by the long negotiating process that normally preceded the adoption of the new treaty or convention which some had proposed. It would be more useful just to amend the old 1949 Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The Convention could be provided with a wider view of the problem, including forced marriages and forced labour, and it should also have a monitoring mechanism.

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At the national level, priority should be given to the strengthening of existing legislation and the adoption of new legislation where none existed. Measures should be taken so that victims themselves were not penalized. The victims of trafficking should be accorded standard minimum humanitarian treatment, consistent with human rights standards.

CARME SALA SANSA, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of Andorra, said that a dynamic human rights policy would be incomplete without constant re-evaluation of the question of women and of their chances for advancement in all of the world's societies. Last year's Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing) had focused international efforts in memorable fashion, yet specific obstacles continued to prevent women from enjoying genuine equality and the human rights guaranteed to all humanity. Among the problems pinpointed at that Conference was the persistence of the degrading and dehumanizing traffic in women, reducing them to the most complete negation of their human identity.

There was as yet no specific programme geared to the advancement of women, she continued. The first necessity was to promote their education in order to give them the necessary knowledge and skill with which to improve their condition. Article 10 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women stipulated equal rights to education. The education of girls should inspire a feeling of equal capacities and independence; the education of boys should inspire respect for the principle of equality of opportunity for both men and women. For adults, governments and international institutions should make every effort to eliminate all discrimination and segregation in the fields of education, access to the civil service and to public life, as well as access to the job market and to housing. The United Nations must similarly pursue its policy of integrating women into its administrative structure.

Furthermore, all forms of violence against women must cease, she said: economic, social, political, physical and sexual violence. As the third millennium begins, the power relationships among human beings -- and among the sexes -- must be transformed into relationships founded in justice. The serious problem of violence against migrant women must also be closely considered. Andorra shared the concern over that issue expressed in the Committee on the Status of Women, in the Human Rights Commission and in the Commission for the Prevention of Crime and of Criminal Justice.

ALEX REYN (Belgium) said the international community could not close its eyes to the reality of a world in which the power relationship between exploiter and exploited, between executioner and victim, persisted in total indifference to the socio-political context in which it took place. Trafficking in women was one of those crimes whose origins were lost in history. Already in the early twentieth century, well before the founding of the United Nations, international legal instruments had been elaborated in order to mitigate its most destructive effects. The Convention of 1949 on the

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repression and abolition of the traffic in human beings had been, and remained, a guidepost in the struggle of the international community against the exploitation of women, particularly in the field of prostitution. Since then, the definition of that traffic had been expanded to include other forms of exploitation, such as forced marriage and labour.

The struggle to eliminate the traffic in women, he went on, required collaboration and coordination among the specialized human rights agencies of the United Nations, as well as among the bodies entrusted by signatory States with verifying the implementation of the relevant international conventions. Belgium had undertaken a number of domestic steps to define and elaborate a structured policy against the traffic in human beings, including penal sanctions against anyone involved in bringing a foreign national into Belgium under any form of constraint. At the bilateral level, it had inaugurated a pilot project in collaboration with the Philippines, tailored to confront sexual exploitation of Philippine women.

He added that the recent "horrible" events in his own country had profoundly shaken the conscience of Belgians. Those events had finally put an end to the myth according to which only countries in economic difficulty were affected by the sexual exploitation of children. Those events had coincided with the work of last August's World Congress in Stockholm, which had culminated in a declaration and programme of action for a global partnership against the sexual exploitation of children for commercial ends. Implementation of the Stockholm recommendations was one of the most solid cornerstones of international efforts to put an end to that particularly pernicious form of modern slavery.

Belgium, he said, favoured adoption of a binding instrument which would complement the Convention on the Rights of the Child by obliging signatory States to make sexual exploitation of children a criminal offence. The Convention's additional provisions on the sale of children, and on prostitution and pornography involving children, currently being drafted, must also commit their future signatories to adapting their domestic legislation in order to ensure the prosecution and punishment of such acts, wherever committed. Equally intolerable, of course, was the maltreatment and exploitation of children forced to work. The International Labour Organization had proposed concrete measures designed to free children from the most unbearable forms of such work: servitude through debt, forced labour, slavery, prostitution, and the performance of dangerous and health-threatening tasks. Realization of that objective would require the concerted mobilization and collaboration of States, of international organizations, of specialized United Nations agencies, of non-governmental organizations and the whole of civil society.

ROBERT R. FOWLER (Canada) said that the international community was facing an enormous transboundary problem which could be tackled only by

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countries working together. Many were taking measures to address the issue of trafficking in human persons, and the Philippines, in particular, was to be commended for leading efforts to encourage the relevant organs of the United Nations system to address the problem.

Canada had made the protection of the human rights of women and children a centre-piece of its domestic and foreign policy. The issue of trafficking should be addressed from a human rights perspective, as well as from a criminal justice and law-enforcement point of view. Any international initiatives on the traffic of persons must fully respect international human rights covenants, standards and norms.

He said the international initiatives in the area of trafficking in women and children should contribute to a clear and coherent definition of the problem and be relevant to contemporary forms of sexual exploitation. The conference convened by the European Commission last June had adopted a human rights focus as well as recommendations for future work. These included closer cooperation between countries of destination, countries of origin and transit countries; improved information exchange, training and awareness programmes for officials; and information, campaigns, and assistance for repatriation. Trafficking in women and girls was linked to broader migration issues. These in turn were connected to national and international security questions, such as transnational organized crime. The Canadian Government had responded with specific legislative sanctions to combat illegal migration, and would continue to explore, with other governments, new avenues to establish cooperative arrangements. The challenge was to control illegal migration while respecting international obligations to offer refuge to those seeking persecution.

JAKKEN BIORN LIAN (Norway) said today's observance of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery was scarred by the sad reality that modern forms of slavery continued to exist, particularly in abominable practices such as trafficking in human persons for sexual exploitation and forced labour, including minors. The main victims of trafficking were women and girls. The international community, he said, had a special obligation to protect victims.

Norway supported the idea of a new European convention on forced prostitution and trafficking in women. Such a text should also encompass children and men. Norway was following up the work of the Council of Europe on trafficking in women. Child labour was also a matter of great concern; in cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Government of Norway would convene an international conference on child labour in Oslo in October 1997.

PATRICIA DURRANT (Jamaica) said her delegation supported the statement made by Mexico, on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean States. While the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery was observed with

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celebration by some, for others it meant despair. While the world had witnessed the outlawing of an economic and social system once considered to be "natural", prohibition had not rendered the practice of slavery extinct.

Recalling that Jamaica had welcomed the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa, she said that event had signalled the onset of a new era for that nation, for the African continent and for the "stolen children" of Africa, victims of the cruel system of slavery, and the slave trade. As Jamaicans and other descendants of the "middle passage" knew all too well, slavery was more than just an event. It was a process by which the persons involved, both slaves and captors, were conditioned mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Freedom, when it came, was too late for that total conditioning to be easily reversed. Freedom heralded the beginning of a painful and often frustrating rebirth, whereby learned actions, ideas and feelings were suddenly no longer useful and new attitudes had to be adopted in their place.

She said the utter revulsion felt by every Jamaican for the trafficking in persons, especially women and children, could not be over-emphasized. The Secretary-General's report on the issue was of great concern, since those were two of the most vulnerable groups. The Jamaican Government condemned this gross crime in the strongest possible terms. It was aware of the economic factors that contributed to the growth of slavery and the development of an evil system; only when there was no "gold" to be mined from this trade would it cease to flourish.

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