Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is an increasingly pressing issue for the international community. Trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, is a major modern challenge, with hundreds of thousands and even millions of victims every year.

Over the past years the Republic of Belarus established itself as an active and consistent advocate of various efforts aimed at combatting the trafficking in human beings.

A leader in encouraging stronger global action against human trafficking, Belarus was among initiators of discussions of this challenge within the United Nations. At the UN Summit in 2005, the President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, suggested to intensify international anti-trafficking efforts. To that end, Belarus put forward an idea of forging a Global Partnership against Slavery and Trafficking in Human Beings in the 21st century that would seek to unite efforts and best practices of all major stakeholders in anti-trafficking activities and foster a concerted UN response to this hideous crime.

As a first step towards the Global Partnership, Belarus initiated within the United Nations a resolution ‘Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons’. Adopted thrice by consensus at the UN General Assembly in 2006, 2008 and 2009, with the number of co-sponsors significantly multiplied over three years, the resolution reconfirmed its importance in promoting better anti-trafficking cooperation globally.

The resolution set up an Inter-Agency Coordination Group with the goal to increase coordination of global activities against human trafficking. In 2006 to support the ICAT activities, Belarus allocated a voluntary contribution to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

In 2007, Belarus organized an International Conference 'Trafficking in Women and Girls: Meeting the Challenge Together'. The first global and all-engaging forum on human trafficking ever held in the UN Headquarters, the Conference gathered over 400 participants from more than 90 Member States, around 20 international organizations and over 100 NGOs. It focused on defining the factors that impede closer international anti-trafficking cooperation and outlining the actions the UN had to take to help improve international response to human trafficking.

In partnership with International Organization for Migration, in 2007 Belarus created in Minsk an International Training Centre in Area of Migration and Combatting Human Trafficking under the Academy of the Belarusian Interior Ministry. The Centre organizes seminars, round tables and training courses for law enforcement and other experts from across the globe.

Based on the proposal of Belarus that was supported by a number of other states, the UN General Assembly held the first-ever thematic debates on human trafficking in 2008 that articulated a call for urgent and efficient measurers to tackle that challenge. Another round of the debates was held once again in 2009.

The 2008 UN Economic and Social Council resolution 'Strengthening coordination of the United Nations and other efforts in fighting trafficking in persons’, yet another Belarusian initiative, sought to enhance the role of the ECOSOC as a major UN body in dealing with anti-trafficking. In particular, this resolution invited UN Member States to consider elaboration of a UN action plan or strategy in fighting human trafficking and set out measures to further support the ICAT activities.
The Belarusian efforts in combatting human trafficking were highly praised by the Special UN Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, who visited the Republic of Belarus in May of 2009.

In the recent years Belarus coordinated four international conferences on the problems of organizing efficient collaboration of countries, international organizations and NGO in combating human trafficking. Three conferences took place in Moscow, one was held in New-York. These events attracted high level representatives of governments and specialized international bodies, including the Director General of the International Labor Organization.

All actions initiated by Belarus within UN were aimed at elaboration and adoption of the UN plan on combating human trafficking, that guarantees efficient coordination of actions of all international forces, including UN member states, international and local organizations, business communities, civil sector and mass media.

As a crucial step forward in implementation of counter-trafficking initiative of the President of the Republic of Belarus, the UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Human Trafficking was adopted by UN General Assembly on July, 30 2010. On August 31, 2010 the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon officially endorsed the beginning of the Plan implementation, highly praising its importance.

The Plan stipulates implementation of the concrete actions aimed at strengthening international cooperation in preventing the crimes, related to human trafficking, and prosecution of the involved criminals. The Plan would engage Governments and criminal justice systems, civil society and the private sector. One of its most important elements is a United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for trafficking victims, especially women and children, which aimed to protect vulnerable people and support physical and psychological recovery.

The UN will review in 2013 the progress, achieved in implementation of the Global Plan, which guarantees that the Belarusian initiative will remain a long-lasting item on the international agenda.

Timeline of Belarusian initiatives on combating human trafficking

Useful links:

• Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations

• “Human trafficking: beyond the Protocol” an article by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Martynov, (“Forced Migration Review)”
• Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons visits Belarus