UNITED NATIONS THIRD COMMITTEE: INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
STATEMENT BY YUNEI KIM, FIRST SECRETARY, AUSTRALIAN MISSION TO THE UN
17 October 2024
Thank you Chair.
Australia is a strong supporter of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate.
We welcome the Special Rapporteur’s report, and her articulation of how gender shapes the experiences of those impacted by trafficking in persons. Prevention, protection, and accountability measures must take gendered impacts into account.
Australia is committed to applying gender-responsive and survivor-centred approaches to all security, law and justice efforts. We are supporting the implementation of victim sensitive court guidelines across ASEAN Member States – enabling a victim-centred and sensitive approach in handling trafficking cases in court.
Australia also thanks the Special Rapporteur for highlighting the harmful impacts of conflict on persons with disabilities in her report.
Persons with disabilities are more vulnerable to trafficking, and victims of trafficking often experience abuses which can lead to disabilities. Women and girls with disabilities are also at a higher risk of being trafficked for sexual exploitation purposes. We welcome the Special Rapporteur’s call for more disability-equitable responses to trafficking in conflict situations.
A study funded by our ASEAN‑Australia Counter Trafficking program (ASEAN‑ACT) on the intersection between disability and trafficking in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, found that good progress is being made in addressing the needs of trafficking victims with disabilities, but significant scope for improvement remains.
Australia is working with our ASEAN partners to implement findings of the report including capacity building for law enforcement officers to better understand the intersection of disability and trafficking and develop disability sensitive responses.
We also thank the Special Rapporteur for recognising the importance of the non-punishment principle in relation to trafficking for purposes of forced criminality. Australia supports the development of the ASEAN guidelines on the non-punishment principle, designed to assist ASEAN Member States update their domestic legislation ensuring victims of trafficking are not punished for forced criminality.
Special Rapporteur, how can we best ensure the design and delivery of prevention and protection measures for trafficking in persons are survivor-centred?
Thank you.