TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN IN PEACE MISSION AREAS TO BE DISCUSSED BY INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS AT MEETING IN TURIN

TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN IN PEACE MISSION AREAS TO BE DISCUSSED

BY INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS AT MEETING IN TURIN

VIENNA, 8 May (UN Information Service) -- The trafficking of women in peace mission areas and how to tackle it will be discussed by international experts at a meeting this week in Italy.  The two-day conference "Trafficking, Slavery and Peacekeeping:  the Balkans Case" is being organized by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) in collaboration with the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at the American University from 9-10 May at the UNICRI headquarters in Turin, Italy.

A number of distinguished high-level experts will be involved in the meeting.  They will come from the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) and other international organizations including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Staff College, the

International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the

International Organization for Migration (IOM), the European Union, as well as from national governmental agencies and military forces and NGOs

The UNICRI/TraCCC experts meeting will consider how to develop just and comprehensive responses to the trafficking of women in peace mission areas and will focus particularly on the instruments for alleviating these abuses and the means for severing any links between the international community and those engaging in trafficking.

Specific training strategies targeted at military, police and civilian peacekeeping personnel to be implemented at national and international levels will be outlined at the conference.

The meeting is a follow-up to "Transnational Crime and Peacekeeping:

Comparative Perspectives", a McCormick-Tribune Foundation-sponsored TraCCC

conference held in Cantigny, Illinois, United States, on 6-7 September 2001, which highlighted the need for an in-depth examination of, and coordinated action against this hideous form of trafficking.

For further information please contact:  the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, Tel: (+39) 0116537111 or e-mail: peacekeeping@unicri.it, or the United Nations Information Service

Tel.: +43 1 260 60 4666, Fax: +43 1 260 60 5899, E-mail: UNIS@unvienna.org.

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