Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for joining us for this discussion on strengthening partnerships to stop human trafficking through the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons.
Meetings on ICAT have been taking place here in Vienna and in New York since we brought together the heads of the ICAT agencies for the first time this May.
I would once again like to thank Ambassador Kupchyna for helping to set this positive result in motion.
Belarus and the Group of Friends united against human trafficking have played a pivotal role in keeping the crime of human trafficking high on the international agenda.
As you know, the Nobel Peace Prize was recently awarded to Nadia Murad, UNODC Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.
This is a well-deserved recognition of Ms. Murad's bravery in the fight against human trafficking and sexual violence in conflict.
Moreover, it shows how far the international community has come in acknowledging and understanding this problem.
I also thank our partners the OSCE Secretary General Greminger and Dr. Giammarinaro, as well as UN Women and UNHCR, for joining us at this session of the Conference of Parties to UNTOC.
One of the topics of our discussion today is how far has the UN system come in addressing human trafficking, in coordination and increasingly, across the UN pillars of peace and security, human rights and development.
ICAT was launched in 2006 to improve inter-agency cooperation on this issue, with UNODC tasked by the GA to serve as the permanent group coordinator.
As a platform for discussions and information exchange, ICAT has served a useful purpose, resulting in a number of issue papers and practical guidance to support anti-trafficking responses.
Nevertheless, participation and resources have, for the larger part of ICAT's existence, remained limited, and this has also served to limit the activities and potential of ICAT.
But the first Principals Meeting in May triggered a renewed wave of interest in ICAT, including from new organizations. By the time we met in London we had twenty-three members.
Our organizations have very diverse mandates, and yet we are all addressing this issue, whether in the context of criminal justice responses to human trafficking and migrant smuggling, comprehensive security, gender, migrants and refugees, children, conflict, or sustainable development.
Moreover, we are all agreed on the primary importance of prevention, and protecting and assisting victims.
The involvement of so many different organizations shows how widespread the crime of human trafficking is, affecting every region and touching upon so many aspects of our daily lives.
It also shows how crucial it is for us to harmonize responses, building on our complementary mandates and expertise, to advance comprehensive solutions.
I think we have made a strong start this year with improving this alignment, but we need to do more.
This requires modest, but nevertheless dedicated, resources, and I urge all of our Member State partners to assist us in these efforts.
I strongly believe we can achieve even greater impact with your support.
UNODC remains committed to doing all we can to further ICAT's work, including through stronger linkages with the OSCE Alliance and other mechanisms, and to continue raising awareness of the problem of human trafficking through the Blue Heart Campaign.
We are engaged in supporting governments to implement the Protocol and the General Assembly's Global Plan of Action, as well as the Global Compact for Migration to be finalized in December.
Also later this year, UNODC will be presenting the 2018 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, which will further examine trafficking challenges in armed conflict.
I rely on our ICAT partners and Member States to join us in these efforts to shed light on trafficking challenges and to coordinate more effective responses.
Thank you.