Delegate: Hedda Haakestad Langemyr
53. Ms. Haakestad (Norway), speaking as a youth representative of her delegation, said that although slavery had been abolished, human beings were still being traded and exploited. Every day, women and children were sold and forced into a life where their bodies were used through prostitution or as a source of cheap labour. Trafficking in women and children must be fought by attacking its root causes: poverty, which deprived women of education for employment, and armed conflict, which allowed trafficking to thrive in the power vacuum that often arose in post-conflict situations. Trafficking also highlighted the fact that in many societies, equal opportunity for women was still just a dream.
54. Although the State had the primary responsibility to eradicate that scourge, international action was also called for. A first step was the universal ratification, without reservation, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against [*9*] Women. Trafficking must also be fought through adequate financial and social support to victims, training for law enforcement, legal reform, information campaigns, assistance for repatriation and rehabilitation of trafficking victims, and combating sex tourism. The adoption in 2000 of a protocol against trafficking in persons had been an important step; it must be ratified and enforced, and cross-border lawenforcement cooperation must be enhanced.
55. Important contributions towards halting the trade in sexual services could be made at the national level as well. For example, Norway had introduced a code of conduct for government employees prohibiting the purchase of sexual services while on official business abroad. A similar code of conduct for military personnel serving in international operations had been adopted by NATO.
UN Doc.: A/C.3/59/SR.2
Cite as:
UN Doc.: A/C.3/59/SR.2, 4 October 2004, p. 8-9, Youth Delegate Search: https://youthdelegatesearch.org/norway-2004/, doi: 10.17176/20221018-195000-0.