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MEETING ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS OPENS IN VENEZUELA

Representatives of the 34 member countries of the Organization of American States OAS today began a four-day meeting on Margarita Island, in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to examine areas of cooperation and develop policies and strategies for the prevention of human trafficking in the hemisphere.

The Meeting of National Authorities on Trafficking in Persons began with the participation of high-ranking experts from the OAS and Venezuelan public officials, including the Deputy Minister of Juridical Security, Rafael Jimenez Dan; the Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations for North America and Multilateral Affairs, Maria Pilar Hernandez; and Attorney General Isaías Rodriguez.

The representative of the OAS Secretary General, John Biehl, warned that “many forums for action, defense and the support of victims are not used adequately, in part because human trafficking is not yet on the national agenda of some countries in the region.” Biehl called for joint efforts to fight this scourge, adding that due to legal vacuums, this international crime carries insufficient sanctions and penalties.

The OAS effort in this area seeks to move beyond declarations and “turn thoughts into actions” so the region can make real progress in tackling such problems, Biehl said.

Venezuela’s Vice Minister of Juridical Security compared human trafficking to slavery in centuries past, and said this meeting will open the door for solutions to the problem. He said the conclusions reached will help in building “a new society of equals, without victims of exploitation, without those who dominate and those who are marginalized, a society free of poverty – a society that will truly extinguish the causes that today produce the trafficking, commerce and exploitation of human beings by human beings.”

The Alternate Representative of Venezuela to the OAS and Chair of the working group that prepared the meeting, Ambassador Nelson Pineda, said this issue is beginning to be discussed at the OAS, in accordance with the mandates established in recent General Assembly resolutions. “The rise in human trafficking is a result of economic and social inequalities in our hemisphere,” Pineda added. “We should leave this meeting flooded with optimism, convinced that the defeat of human trafficking is possible if we confront it by overcoming its fundamental causes: inequality, inequity and social exclusion.”

Under the recent OAS reorganization instituted by Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, the issue of human trafficking will be handled by the new OAS Department of Public Security, headed by Christopher Hernandez Roy. Initially it was part of the work of the Inter-American Commission of Women.

Reference: E-055/06