[Stop-traffic] Latin America: UN TO HOLD MEETING OF EXPERTS AND KEY OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS ISSUE OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

[Angelika Kartusch]

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Johannes HEIHSENBERGER [mailto:Johannes.Heihsenberger@unvienna.org]

Gesendet: Montag, 17. November 2003 14:54
Betreff: UN TO HOLD MEETING OF EXPERTS AND KEY OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS
ISSUE OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS ---- Strengthening Regional Cooperation
and Developing Agreements to Enhance International Judicial and Police
Cooperation among Key Issues for Discussion


UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE VIENNA (UNIS)

For information only - not an official document

 
UNIS/CP/652
                                                           17 November
2003



              UN TO HOLD MEETING OF EXPERTS AND KEY OFFICIALS
                TO  DISCUSS ISSUE OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

  Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Developing Agreements to
Enhance
    International Judicial and Police Cooperation among Key Issues for
                                Discussion


   VIENNA,  17  November  (UN  Information  Service)  -- Experts from
Latin America  and  the  Caribbean will discuss strategies against
trafficking in persons  and  transnational  organized crime and how to
strengthen regional collaboration, in a three-day conference on
“Trafficking in Persons: Theory and  Practice  in  Regional  and
International Cooperation”. The conference will  be  held  from  19-21
November 2003 in Bogotá, Colombia, and is being organised  by  the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Country Offices for
Colombia and Ecuador.

   Trafficking  in persons in Colombia and in Latin America is on the
rise. Indicators  show  that other forms of transnational organized
crime such as drugs  and  arms trafficking as well as money laundering
are related to and increase  this type of crime. However, the modalities
and purposes of human trafficking differ within the region. Colombia is
mostly affected by sexual exploitation and Bolivia, by forced labour.

   Key  senior  government  officials  from the Andean countries as well
as Panama,  Brazil,  Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica,
Sweden and  the Czech Republic will attend the conference.  They will be
joined by UNODC  experts  from  Latin  America,  Africa  and  Asia, the
International Organization  for  Migration  (IOM),  as  well  as  by
Colombian  national governmental agencies, research institutes and
academics.

   The  conference  will  discuss  how  to  develop  agreements  to
enhance international  judicial  and police cooperation. Participants
will consider how to make use of best practices, identified in the UNODC
ECOWAS (Economic Community  for  West African States) initiative, the
Czech Republic and the Thailand  Mekong Sub-Region projects. Experts
from the Max Planck Institute for  Foreign  and International Criminal
Law (Germany) and Damasio de Jesus
(Brazil)  will  present other tools and strategies to combat trafficking
in persons and transnational organized crime in the region.

   The  conference will also promote the ratification and implementation
of the  United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime,
which entered  into force on 29 September 2003, and its additional
protocols, the “Protocol  against  Trafficking  in  Persons” and the
“Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants”, which will enter into
force on 25 December 2003 and 28 January 2004 respectively.

   The  conference  is the first major event organised within the
framework of  the  project  “Combating  Trafficking  in  Persons  in
Colombia” signed between  UNODC  and  the  Ministry of Interior and
Justice of Colombia on 1 October  2003.  This project aims at
strengthening regional cooperation and establishing an overview of the
trafficking situation and its transnational
trends,   besides   developing  an  integrated  National  Strategy
against
trafficking in persons, including a Victims Statute.

   This project is strongly supported by the Government of Sweden, which
is a  key  donor,  and  is being carried out within the framework of the
UNODC Global Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings.

                                   * *** *
United Nations Information Service Vienna (UNIS)
         P.O.Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
         Tel.: (+43-1) 26060 4666, FAX: (+43-1) 26060 5899
         Email: UNIS@unvienna.org

                 Visit our homepage: www.unis.unvienna.org