Human Rights Council — A/HRC/56/60
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons,
especially women and children, Siobhán Mullally

Statement by Professor Michel Veuthey
Ambassador to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, Deputy Permanent Observer
Geneva, 27 June 2024

Mr. Vice-Pres­i­dent, Madam Spe­cial Rap­por­teur, Excellencies,

The Order of Mal­ta thanks the Spe­cial Rap­por­teur for her excel­lent report and wish­es to strength­en its aware­ness-rais­ing, pre­ven­tion, and pro­tec­tion efforts to assist vic­tims of traf­fick­ing through its mul­ti­lat­er­al and bilat­er­al diplo­mat­ic networks.

The Sov­er­eign Order of Mal­ta wish­es to con­tin­ue to coop­er­ate with the Spe­cial Rap­por­teur and oth­er stake­hold­ers, includ­ing faith-based orga­ni­za­tions and the busi­ness and aca­d­e­m­ic communities.

The Order of Mal­ta sup­ports the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive call­ing to
• Strength­en mea­sures to pre­vent traf­fick­ing in per­sons, by expand­ing access to safe, reg­u­lar migra­tion chan­nels and to refugee protection […]
• Rat­i­fy and imple­ment instru­ments of inter­na­tion­al refugee law and human rights law as well as inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law and mar­itime law pro­vid­ing safe­guards for the rights of those in dis­tress or res­cued at sea […]
• Ensure effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of the non-pun­ish­ment prin­ci­ple for all vic­tims of traf­fick­ing with­out discrimination […]
• Recall­ing the impor­tance of part­ner­ships with civ­il soci­ety actors […] rec­og­niz­ing their sig­nif­i­cant role in the pro­vi­sion of assis­tance to vic­tims of trafficking.

In con­clu­sion, the Order of Mal­ta wish­es to high­light the work of reli­gious com­mu­ni­ties in car­ing for vic­tims and sur­vivors of human traf­fick­ing as they are often the only ones to pro­tect and help vic­tims when the needs are overwhelming.

Thank you.