By Mam Thanna
May 6th, 2014: Human trafficking is a modern day form of slavery; and children specifically, are vulnerable to being sold into this system. A 2012 UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report on human
trafficking recorded more than 10,000 cases of trafficking in persons in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific between 2007-2010, which is by far the highest rate of human trafficking in the world. The UN-ACT Project Document outlines the plans for the project which focuses on the Asia-Pacific region with great attention to the Greater-Mekong Sub-region (GMS: Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam), because these nations have the most extensive and specific flows of migration and human trafficking in South Asia.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed a 5-year strategy for a Southeast Asian project entitled, “United Nations – Action for Cooperation against Trafficking in Persons” (UNACT). This strategy outlines a strategic approach to coordinate efforts to combat trafficking in persons throughout the region. UN-ACT will build upon the work of the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, including revisiting an exsiting agreement between the six GMS governments with an increased focus on institution building to strengthen national capacities to fight human trafficking. UN-ACT took over the project management on May 1st, 2014 and held launch events in countries throughout the region over the course of the next few weeks.
The launch event in Cambodia was held on May 6th, 2014 at the Inter-Continental hotel in Phnom Penh. The welcome remarks were made by H.E. Mrs. Clare Van der Vaeren the UN Resident Coordinator for Cambodia, she gave an overview of the issues of human trafficking in the region and how UN-ACT plans to address these issues in SE Asia. After the welcome remarks ended, H.E. Mrs. Cuonh Sochhay, Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of the Interior pledged the support of the Ministry of the Interior to continue to collaborate with the UN on the issue of human trafficking through the new organization, UN-ACT.
And finally, H.E. Ing Kantha Phavi, Minister of Ministry of Women’s Affairs gave a speech about the causes of human trafficking and the importance of addressing these causes in order to prevent human trafficking in the future. H.E. claimed the three most important factors in human trafficking are; unemployment, poverty and illiteracy. She also pointed out that the law regarding human trafficking is vague which makes it difficult to collect the evidence needed to bring criminals to justice, and this must also be addressed. In conclusion H.E. pledged the support of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to aid UN-ACT by continued collaboration and providing important and necessary services to the victims and stakeholders of human trafficking; such as, trainings and creating or issuing official papers that are needed to help the victims.
