The protection of the rights of all human beings is at the very heart of UNESCO’s concerns. It is in this spirit that, on behalf of UNESCO, I hereby add my support to the “End Human Trafficking Now!” campaign and its worthy goals.
As the United Nations specialized agency with a mandate to promote peace and security through education, the sciences, culture and communication, UNESCO welcomes the Athens Round Table organized by The Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement and the Global Coalition Women Defending Peace. By bringing together representatives of the business community, the public sector, international organizations and civil society, the Round Table provides an opportunity to join forces through a shared adherence to ethical principles to combat the scourge of human trafficking. In UNESCO’s view, the adoption of the “Athens Ethical Principles” and their wider acceptance by the business community will provide a valuable stimulus to efforts to eradicate human trafficking throughout the world.
It is intolerable that, two centuries after the abolition of the slave trade, millions of people – mostly women and children – are still subject to this extreme form of human rights violation. Human trafficking is a form of slavery because the traffickers exert powers that amount to rights of ownership over the people they traffic, exploiting them in enslavement and denying their human dignity and, indeed, their very humanity.
UNESCO is particularly concerned with the increase in trafficking for purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation, which is part of the dark side of globalization and development. We must work together to ensure that tourism, for example, is an engine for development, not for the cultural and physical destruction of vulnerable populations.
I therefore urge all business leaders, government officials and public figures to use their influence to rally support for the international community’s fight to end human trafficking.
For its part, UNESCO is making its contribution by conducting and promoting research into and analysis of human trafficking. Through such efforts as the Trafficking Statistics Project, GIS-based social sentinel surveillance mapping, and structural vulnerability analysis, UNESCO uses its expertise in socio-cultural research to investigate a problem too often clouded by myth and emotion. The struggle to end the scourge of human trafficking needs to be grounded upon accurate information and cogent analysis. UNESCO’s work in this area, therefore, focuses on harnessing research findings, raising awareness, promoting best practices and developing appropriate policy tools.
We are convinced that prevention through education and information is the best way to tackle human trafficking at its roots. At the same time, we recognize that the situation facing the victims of human trafficking requires urgent remedy. In this regard, UNESCO believes that the business community and its leaders have a vital role to play in ensuring that the iniquity of human trafficking has no place in the 21st century.
It remains for me to wish the organizers of and participants in the Athens Round Table every success in your deliberations. Be assured that UNESCO shares your commitment to eradicating all contemporary forms of slavery and human trafficking, which are an affront to human dignity and human rights.