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Human Rights Coun­cil — A/HRC/58/19
Annu­al Report of the Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Secretary-General

on Vio­lence against Chil­dren, Dr. Najat Maal­la M’jid

 

State­ment by Pro­fes­sor Michel Veuthey

Ambas­sador to mon­i­tor and com­bat traf­fick­ing in persons, 

Deputy Per­ma­nent Observ­er in Geneva
Gene­va, 12 March 2025

Mr. Pres­i­dent, Madam Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Excellencies,

The Sov­er­eign Order of Mal­ta wish­es to express its thanks to the Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Dr. Najat Maal­la M’jid and her team for their well-doc­u­ment­ed report.

The Order of Mal­ta express­es its con­cern about the alarm­ing increase in vio­lence against chil­dren. The mul­ti­pli­ca­tion of con­flicts and the dete­ri­o­ra­tion of the cli­mate lead­ing to severe human­i­tar­i­an crises, the lack of social pro­tec­tion and the increas­ing use of AI and tech­nol­o­gy in traf­fick­ing have exac­er­bat­ed the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of chil­dren. Fur­ther­more, despite improve­ments in doc­u­men­ta­tion and the many actions cur­rent­ly under­way, many traf­fick­ers con­tin­ue to oper­ate with a high degree of impuni­ty and a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of vic­tims go unreported.

Fol­low­ing a long tra­di­tion of human­i­tar­i­an ser­vice, the Sov­er­eign Order of Mal­ta con­tin­ues to help those in need, espe­cial­ly chil­dren. Mal­teser Inter­na­tion­al, the Order of Malta’s inter­na­tion­al relief agency, is involved in numer­ous projects aimed at address­ing the root caus­es of child traf­fick­ing by pro­vid­ing essen­tial ser­vices and tran­si­tion­al aid activ­i­ties in Europe, the Mid­dle East, and Africa.

 

The Order of Mal­ta sup­ports the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Spe­cial Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to: 

 

  • Address the root caus­es of child traf­fick­ing such as pover­ty and the lack of access to basic services.
  • Pro­vide resources to strength­en child pro­tec­tion sys­tems and the capac­i­ty to iden­ti­fy vic­tims and chil­dren at risk.
  • Strength­en inter­na­tion­al, region­al and bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion and sup­port law enforce­ment across borders.
  • Improve crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion and mutu­al legal assis­tance capac­i­ties, as well as the access to jus­tice and reme­dies for traf­ficked persons.
  • Engage dia­logue with faith-based organ­i­sa­tions and reli­gious lead­ers.[1]

The Sov­er­eign Order of Mal­ta would wel­come an increased col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Spe­cial Representative. 

 

Thank you.

[1] A/HRC/58/19, para­gr. 33.