On the ICAT Briefing
29.06.2018A briefing for the UN Member States regarding the outcomes of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) Principals Level Meeting, held in May 2018, was convened at the UN Headquarters. The briefing was organised jointly by the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking, which is coordinated by Belarus and ICAT.
The ICAT Principals Level Meeting was initiated by Belarus to discuss the status and perspective of interaction of the ICAT Members and was convened pursuant to the UNGA resolution 72/195 “Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons” adopted by consensus at the 72nd session of UNGA.
ICAT was created in 2006, pursuant to the UNGA resolution 61/180 “Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons” adopted at the initiative by Belarus to foster a partnership among international organisations in the fight against trafficking in persons and comprises 22 Member Organisations and one Partner Organisation. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is a coordinator of ICAT. Chairmanship of the ICAT is performed on a rotating basis. In 2018 the Chair of ICAT is United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The briefing was attended by United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Executive Director of UNODC Y.Fedotov and Policy Specialist on Migration and Displacement in the Data and Policy Division at UNICEF Headquarters S.Blume.
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations Valentin Rybakov intervened at the briefing on behalf of the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking. During his statement, the head of the Belarusian Mission welcomed the expansion of the membership of ICAT with the agencies that don’t belong to the United Nations system and called for the need to strengthen partnerships among ICAT Members and more active involvement of all members of ICAT in the fight against human trafficking.
V.Rybakov proposed to ICAT to draw up a roadmap of their joint events on combating trafficking in persons to ensure an effective work in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Global Plan of Actions to Combat Trafficking in Persons. The head of the Belarusian Mission also called for the need to increase capacity-building in cooperation between ICAT and the United Nations Member States.
