12 June 2009 - Not only are girls exposed to some of the worst forms of child labour, but they are also particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. Today marks the World Day against Child Labour, which calls for action to tackle the worst forms of child labour, paying particular attention to the situation of girls.
9 June 2009 - "Any effective and sustainable efforts to combat human trafficking must be integrated, transnational and collaborative", says Professor Md. Zakir Hossain, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Chitagong, in Bangladesh. Staff from the
UNODC Regional Office for South Asia recently sat down with Prof. Hossain, who is also a member of the Judicial Service Commission in Bangladesh, to discuss the challenges of human trafficking in his country.
19 May 2009 - Paintings from "Welcome to Gulu", an art exhibition that was unveiled last week at United Nations Headquarters, are now available for viewing and purchase at the prestigious Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Manhattan. The exhibition features some 200 paintings created by former child soldiers and abducted girls from Gulu, northern Uganda, who benefited from an art therapy project by acclaimed New York artist Ross Bleckner last January.
14 May 2009 - Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon yesterday led international calls for strong laws, broad alliances and concerted action against human trafficking at a special thematic dialogue of the General Assembly. Trafficking in weapons, drugs and blood diamonds has long been on the UN agenda, he said. "Now we must add people to that list".
13 May 2009 - Today the General Assembly will hold a thematic dialogue on human trafficking. The meeting, convened by the President of the sixty-third session of the General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, will look at ways of "taking collective action to end human trafficking", including the possibility of establishing a global plan of action to combat human trafficking. Among the speakers will be Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa.
11 May 2009 - The United Nations is calling for collective action to end human trafficking, with proposals to scale up efforts to a global level. At the same time, art takes centre stage as a goodwill ambassador, the first time an artist is bestowed with the honour, is appointed to spearhead the campaign against human trafficking.
28 April 2009 - In March this year, a conference to foster public-private partnerships in the hope of countering human trafficking was held in Bahrain. Hosted by Her Highness Sheikha Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, the meeting was entitled "Human Trafficking at the Crossroads". It aimed to attain rapid and effective action to alleviate the exploitation of human beings and bring an end to the suffering that trafficking in humans causes to its many victims.
Last March, the Kingdom of Bahrain held a conference to foster public-private partnerships in the hope to counteract human trafficking.
The event which was attended by the First Lady of Egypt Susan Mubarak and UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, amongst others, turned out to be a successful and productive meeting which gave birth to the Manama Declaration.
The conference also helped promote the issue and as a result, a full video report was produced shedding light on this crime that shames us all.
Last March, the Kingdom of Bahrain held a conference to foster public-private partnerships in the hope to counteract human trafficking.
The event which was attended by the First Lady of Egypt Susan Mubarak and UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, amongst others, turned out to be a successful and productive meeting which gave birth to the Manama Declaration.
The conference also helped promote the issue and as a result, a full video report was produced shedding light on this crime that shames us all.
The Kingdom of Bahrain held a conference in early March to foster public-private partnerships. The World Business Report entitled "Stamping out Slavery" was filmed around this conference called "Human Trafficking at the Crossroads", which aimed to attain rapid and effective action to alleviate the exploitation of human beings and bring and end to the suffering that this causes to its many victims. The video also features the First Lady of Egypt Susan Mubarak and UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa.
Credits: FBC Media
17 April 2009 - The eighteenth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice began yesterday at UNODC headquarters in Vienna. Over the course of the next six days, Member States will discuss critical international issues on global crime trends and responses. Attention will be given to what UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa has described as "a global crime wave".
14 April 2009 - I recently travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where centuries of exploitation by warlords and profiteers have taken their toll. I witnessed the effect of organized crime and saw "modern slaves".
8 April 2009 - Yesterday in the Ethiopian capital, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNODC, in the framework of the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), launched the publication
Combating Trafficking in Persons: A Handbook for Parliamentarians. "Parliaments and parliamentarians have the power to prevent human trafficking by raising awareness and curbing exploitative practices", said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa.
Between 23 and 25 March 2009, criminal justice practitioners met in Cairo, Egypt, to review training material on preventing and combating the smuggling of migrants.
The UNODC Regional Programme Office for South East Europe (RPOSEE), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Mission to Serbia and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission to Serbia organized two roundtables in Belgrade on the joint programme in the area of Anti-Human Trafficking in Serbia which was developed under the UN.GIFT.
25 March 2009 - Today is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that "Despite the official abolition of slavery, racism still pollutes our world. So too do contemporary forms of slavery". UNODC and the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) argue that human trafficking is a form of contemporary slavery that shames us all.
The UNODC Regional Office for South Asia Project "Strengthening the law enforcement response in India against trafficking in persons through training and capacity building" is a joint initiative of the UNODC and the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs.
Under that project, UNODC ROSA teamed with the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) of India to organize a one day Colloquium on Justice Delivery in Human Trafficking Crimes for Judicial Officers, Prosecutors and Police Officers on 15 November 2008 in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The colloquium involved all three wings of the criminal justice system, from all over India. Participants also included representatives from the media, UN agencise, civil society partners and students as observers. More than 250 senior officials attended this event.
5 March 2008 - Today at the Women's World Awards in Vienna, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa launched the Blue Heart Campaign with actors Claudia Cardinale and Monica Bellucci and other stars to rally world public opinion against human trafficking. This crime strips people of their rights, ruins their dreams, and robs them of their dignity. It is a global problem and no country is immune.
2 March 2009 - The findings of 22 strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) workshops with law enforcement, penal prosecution and judicial authorities conducted during 2008 by UNODC in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, have been put together in a regional report which analyses in depth the political, legal, institutional and technical conditions to investigate trafficking in persons, and provides practical recommendations to overcome gaps in the prosecution of traffickers.
This slide show, accompanied by an interview with the Chief of the UNODC Anti-Trafficking Section, Brian Taylor, clearly illustrates the situation in West Africa.
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa releases the 2009 Trafficking in Persons report at a press conference in New York the same day that he also appointed Miro Sorvino
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa releases the 2009 Trafficking in Persons report at a press conference in New York the same day that he also appointed Miro Sorvino
In New York, Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino, was appointed as UNODC Goodwill Ambassador's to Combat Human Trafficking.
Ms. Sorvino is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning actress, producer and an accomplished human rights advocate.