Note to Correspondents

HUMAN TRAFFICKING EXHIBITION TO OPEN AT UNITED NATIONS Headquarters

 

A photographic exhibition entitled “Human Trafficking:  Images of Vulnerability” opens in the north-east Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby at 6 p.m. on Monday, 29 October.  Launching the show will be Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Madam Ban Soon-taek, wife of United Nations Secretary-General, and other distinguished speakers.  The opening will be followed by a cocktail reception.

The exhibit includes photographs by three noted photographers:  Howard G. Buffett, a supporter of humanitarian initiatives and President of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; Kay Chernush, internationally recognized photographer who was commissioned in 2005 by the United States Department of State to document human trafficking; and Robert Bilheimer, director, writer, producer and recipient of an Academy Award nomination for “Cry Reason,” a documentary focusing on the late South African anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude.

The 55 photos, which provide a snapshot of the worldwide problem of human trafficking, will remain on display through 18 November.  “These pictures are a dramatic representation of a crime that shames us all.  Art is a powerful advocacy tool to motivate people to take action especially in the defence of women and children,” Mr. Costa notes.

This exhibition is sponsored by UNODC, the lead United Nations agency fighting all forms of human trafficking including child soldiers, sex slaves, forced labour, illegal adoption and illegal organ transfers.  The agency is the guardian of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its associated Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.

UNODC works with Governments, the private sector and non-governmental organizations to combat this modern form of slavery by raising public awareness, engaging in preventative activities and enhancing the capacity and skills of criminal justice professionals and policymakers.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, please contact Jan Arnesen at tel:  (212) 963-8531 or arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann at tel:  (212) 963-0089 or wichmann@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record