The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution initiated by Belarus

16 November 2012

16/11/2012

On November 16, 2012 the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution initiated by Belarus titled “Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons”.

50 States from all regions of the world including the members of the EU co-sponsored this resolution.

Since 2006, this is the 4th Belarusian resolution on combating trafficking in persons, unanimously supported by all UN Member States.

The resolution envisages holding in 2013 of a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to appraise the progress in implementation of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, adopted at Belarus’ initiative in 2010. The meeting will be attended by representatives of States, the leadership of the UN and other international organizations as well as by NGOs actively involved in combating trafficking in persons.

The event of such level and scale on the issue of counter-trafficking will be held at the United Nations for the first time in its history.

The resolution also provides for the implementation of the Belarus’ proposal to present at the UN Headquarters in New York the first global report on human trafficking, containing competent analysis of the trafficking situation in the world.

In presenting the Belarusian resolution at the UN Mr. Evgeny Lazarev, Head of Division for Global Policies and Humanitarian Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus pointed that, since the launching in 2005 by H.E. Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus the initiative on strengthening international efforts to combat trafficking in persons Belarus has been consistently and consecutively promoting this theme at the UN.

The MFA representative noted that as long as there is a need to join efforts to prosecute and punish criminals, as long as there is a need to jointly promote and protect human rights of victims of trafficking, Belarus, supported by friends, will continue an uncompromising struggle against this contemporary form of slavery, which should not be associated with a civilized society.

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