The UN General Assembly took up the issue of human trafficking at a thematic debate on Tuesday in an effort to fight a scourge that enslaves more than 2 million people worldwide.
"Human trafficking is a crime against humanity - the modern form of slavery," said assembly president Srgjan Kerim at the opening of the debate.
The thematic debate aimed to raise awareness about the scale of the problem, promote international partnerships and consider how the UN system most effectively can address human trafficking.
An estimated 2.5 million people are in forced labor, mostly in the sex trade or as forced laborers, at any given time as a result of trafficking, according to UN statistics.
"Two hundred years after the end of the transatlantic slave trade, and as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, it remains a flagrant breach of humandignity," he said.
"We can only fight it successfully if we work in partnership, across borders and across all parts of society," he said.
Kerim urged member states to put their commitments into practice by taking measures to protect and assist the victims of human trafficking, to prosecute traffickers and to strengthen prevention.
He called for "comprehensive, integrated and people-centered solutions" to tackle the "global challenge" that poses "an inherent and grave threat to our human security."
In her remarks, Deputy UN chief Asha-Rose Migiro noted that up to two million women are trafficked across borders each year.
"To respond, we need universal ratification of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons," she said.
Migiro called for the concept of partnership to be incorporated into the combined efforts of prevention, prosecution and protection, adding "we can only beat back this deadly illegal trade with a strong and broad coalition."
"We cannot stop until we have freed all victims of human trafficking, for the sake of these millions of individuals and for our shared humanity," she said. "For millions of people around the world, the fight against human trafficking is a matter of life and death."
Women and children are the primary victims of human trafficking which generates 32 billion U.S. dollars every year in illicit profits, the United Nations says.
In 2006, there were only 5,808 prosecutions and 3,160 convictions worldwide, which means that for every 800 people trafficked, only one person was convicted.
Representatives of member states, nongovernmental organizations and officials of relevant UN agencies took part in the one-day event.
The debate consisted of two panel discussions focusing on the "three P's" (prevention, protection and prosecution ) in the UN Trafficking Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which was adopted in 2000.
With a focus on prevention, the first panel discussed measures to enhance multilateral cooperation to prevent trafficking in persons while the other explored ways to protect victims of trafficking and enhance cross-border cooperation in prosecuting traffickers.
Source:Xinhua
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