{"id":284461,"date":"2025-04-08T10:50:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T14:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/pga\/79\/?p=284461"},"modified":"2025-04-08T11:28:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:28:54","slug":"pga-remarks-at-the-launch-of-the-report-of-the-global-commission-on-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/pga\/79\/2025\/04\/08\/pga-remarks-at-the-launch-of-the-report-of-the-global-commission-on-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Remarks at the launch of the Report of the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Remarks\u00a0by the President of the UN General Assembly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Philemon Yang<\/strong><\/p>\n

at the launch of the Report of the Global Commission on <\/strong><\/p>\n

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday, 08th<\/sup> April 2025 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Trusteeship Council Chamber<\/strong><\/p>\n

[As delivered]<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your Excellencies,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ladies and Gentlemen<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I thank the Right Honourable the Baroness Theresa May of Maidenhead for the invitation to address this important event this morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I welcome the efforts of the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, in collaboration with the Governments of Bahrain and the United Kingdom, the aim of this efforts is to raise awareness on the urgent need to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s launch of the Global Commission\u2019s report is a wake-up call.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A call to strengthen our actions to tackle the causes, dimensions and impacts of modern slavery and human trafficking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The challenges of modern slavery and human trafficking are violations of fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Those violations debase human dignity and they disrespect humanity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And given the scope of vulnerability to exploitation, it means all countries are affected \u2013 origin, transit and destination.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today, an estimated 50 million people live in modern slavery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One in three victims of human trafficking is a child.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is a painful reality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And most of those trafficked are women and girls, who often suffer brutal violence and various forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To be sure, Member States have long rejected such cruelty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the decades, they have united, time and again, to adopt historic global treaties to stop the spread of these twin miseries.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was clear in prohibiting slavery and the slave trade in all their forms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The International Labour Organization\u2019s Conventions on Forced Labour were also among the first of these ground-breaking instruments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol on trafficking in persons marked another milestone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2010, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the United Nations Global Plan of Action, that complements the United Nations Trafficking Protocol, which today is close to universal ratification.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More recently, Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 and Action 35 of the Pact for the Future set out renewed commitments to end forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Within all these frameworks, we find a constant, foundational truth: that \u201call human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What we need now is enforcement. We need action.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To pull out the roots of modern slavery and human trafficking, we must tackle the very situations that conspire to keep people in vulnerability for instance:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n