PRESS CONFERENCE ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING BY UN OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME

PRESS CONFERENCE ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING BY UN OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME

Trafficking in humans would not be one of the world’s most serious crimes if Governments did their job to protect victims instead of contributing to the conditions allowing them to be abused, the human rights advocate and Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador, Bianca Jagger, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference prior to a ceremony commemorating the International Day for the abolition of slavery.

Also taking part in the press event were Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); Julia Ormond, an activist to be named today as United Nations Goodwill Ambassador on trafficking in human beings, HIV/AIDS and violence against women; and Melanne Verveer, Chair of the Board of Vital Voices Global Partnership, a United States organization to promote women’s emergence at the global level.

Acting as the moderator, Mr. Costa provided background on the Day by saying it celebrated the entry into force, in 1951, of the International Convention against Slavery.  That first ever international instrument to condemn the practice had been formulated in the first years of the United Nations.  In a matter of days, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organization Crime would enter into force, along with its three protocols, the first on the prevention, suppression and punishment of trafficking in persons.  The other two dealt with the smuggling of migrants and with the illicit manufacture and trafficking of firearms.

Referring to that Convention, Ms. Jagger said the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation were two of the countries encountering the most challenges with regard to trafficking and yet, they had not yet signed the Convention or its protocols.  Actions were being taken to urge them to ratify the instruments and enact legislation to put curbs on the vast global network affecting primarily women and children, which flourished because governments were not prosecuting practitioners.  That was because trafficking was so closely tied in with social and economic issues.

For example, even when victims were able to escape, local Government officials often returned them to the traffickers because bribery was involved, she said.  In many areas of the world, victims who had been trafficked to foreign countries had nowhere to go.  Even if they found their way home, parents wouldn’t take them in after they’d been forced to be prostitutes.  If they had contracted HIV/AIDS, doctors often used to treat them.  And a crazy notion that had to be addressed through an intensive global information campaign was the belief that sexual contact with young children would cure HIV/AIDS.

Ms. Verveer of Vital Voices said she agreed that such misconceptions contributed to the heinous trade with a global reach that only the United Nations and its global capacity could counter.  She said she was proud to announce that, tomorrow, the United States would become a formal party to the Convention and to the protocol on trafficking of humans.  The practice had to be prevented, suppressed and “punished”, and the penalties had to be enhanced.  People were being trafficked along drug routes.  They were being preyed upon by predators.

The practice thrived on the conditions of economic poverty and lack of opportunity, she explained.  That was why the Russian Federation was one of the countries most insidiously affected.  When people were poor and lacked opportunities to help their situations, they were easily enticed through deception and fraud.  Once trapped, it was almost impossible to escape.

“It’s important to remember the difference between drug trafficking and trafficking in humans”, Ms. Ormond said.  “Drugs can be sold only once.  Humans can be sold over and over again”.  She was glad that her mandate had been broadened to include slavery beyond trafficking in humans because 27 million people around the world lived in conditions of slavery today.  Forced prostitution accounted for only one half of the victims of those practices.  Also included were child soldiers, domestic and agricultural workers as various other forms of entrapments.

Her emphasis as Goodwill Ambassador in this regard, she continued, was to be solution-oriented and to make sure solutions were culturally appropriate, adequately financed and individually appropriate.  Travel would be a big part of the solution.  There would be meetings with victims, both local and international non-governmental organizations and with Government officials.

In response to questions, she said she would not have accepted the role of Goodwill Ambassador had she not been committed to the cause enough to ensure she’d devote the time.  Referring to work she’d already carried out with United Nations entities and through her own non-profit organization, she said her next trip would be to New Orleans.  The issues of trafficking overlapped with those involving refugees.  The placement of children who were caught in refugee situations was a crucial determinant in what happened to them.

Was the problem increasing?  The panel asked.  The UNODC’s Mr. Costa said it would be premature to answer that question.  It was better to characterize the problem as “severe” since it was impossible to determine now whether the situation was intensifying or was being brought into greater awareness through actions of the United Nations systems and other actions by the activists on the press conference panel with him.

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