Opinions & Interviews

OSCE highlights Belarus’ leading role in global efforts against human trafficking

MINSK, 19 October (BelTA) - OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger highlighted Belarus’ leading role in enhancing the effectiveness of international cooperation against human trafficking as he spoke at a high-level event on combating trafficking in persons on the margins of the 9th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, BelTA learned from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“In their speeches, Yuri Fedotov  [Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime] and Thomas Greminger emphasized the leading role of Belarus in increasing the effectiveness of international cooperation to fight human trafficking,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The high-level meeting was chaired by Belarus Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Alena Kupchyna. Attending the event were high UN and OSCE officials.

The meeting was a follow-up to the series of events organized after the meeting of the heads of member organizations of the Inter-Agency Coordinating Group Against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT). It took place in London in May 2018 in accordance with the resolution on improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons initiated by Belarus and adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2017.

The participants of the meeting discussed issues related to the coordination of anti-trafficking activities within the UN, the role of ICAT in this process, and priorities for ICAT in 2019.
 
The participants highlighted the importance of ICAT as the main United Nations coordination body for combating trafficking in human beings, which makes it possible to effectively combine the efforts of 23 member organizations, each possessing unique experience and competence.

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