{"id":23046,"date":"2023-09-27T19:47:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T19:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=23046"},"modified":"2023-09-27T19:47:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T19:47:59","slug":"combating-human-trafficking-as-tackled-by-vladimir-makei-vadim-s-pisarevich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/combating-human-trafficking-as-tackled-by-vladimir-makei-vadim-s-pisarevich\/","title":{"rendered":"COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING – As Tackled by Vladimir Makei – Vadim S. Pisarevich"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"(FOREWORD by Sergei F. Aleinik, Minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Belarus<\/span><\/h5>\n
\"\"Vladimir Makei has been the longest serving Minister of foreign affairs of an independent Belarus. It is true that in 2012 he inherited the country\u2019s foreign service that had already been well-established, robust and effective. Nevertheless, V. Makei did his utmost to strengthen the Belarusian diplomacy so that it became even more vigorous and agile both in advancing the country\u2019s national interests as well as in promoting a number of topics on the global scene that served to bring all countries of the world together in an effort to address common challenges. V. Makei left his most significant intellectual footprint for his country\u2019s diplomats and for the world generally. Indeed, minister Makei was a well-read man who became an original thinker on international relations. So, he practiced and theorized in international relations alike. In this he was much like the 20th century\u2019s famous American diplomat G. Kennan.With this in mind, I have kindly asked some senior colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus to share their personal impressions on working with minister Makei on certain issues. Specifically, I asked three senior officials to answer the question of what legacy V. Makei left in the three areas of international cooperation: global politics, human rights and combating trafficking in persons.I hope that the findings of the following three short essays will tell us exactly what V. Makei will be remembered for both in Belarus and abroad.)<\/span><\/h5>\n
COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Vadim S. Pisarevich, head of the department for sustainable development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Perhaps, no other issue on the international agenda has been so much associated with Belarus than the topic of fighting trafficking in persons. Foreign diplomats often used to ask their Belarusian colleagues about what had motivated Belarus to play such a notable role in that area. We answered that undoubtedly it was our recognition of the problem in the late 1990s and the subsequent successful domestic campaign that virtually eliminated the crime of human trafficking as an issue of serious concern to the public. Importantly, international organizations praised Belarus\u2019 achievements back then.<\/h5>\n
These factors much inspired us to try to do something useful against human trafficking at the international level. So, in his statement at the United Nations Summit in 2005 the President of Belarus A. Lukashenko sent a powerful message to the international community to significantly step up its efforts against the crime. That statement, essentially, marked the beginning of Belarus\u2019 subsequent vigorous global work against human trafficking.<\/h5>\n
By the time V. Makei assumed his ministerial function, Belarus had already been in the forefront of global anti-trafficking efforts. Indeed, since 2006 Belarus was sponsoring on a biennial basis a key General Assembly resolution on improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons. Furthermore, Belarus was chairing the Group of friends united against trafficking in persons, an entity consisting of more than 20 countries with branches operating in New York, Geneva and Vienna.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Most important of all, in July 2010 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Global plan of action to combat trafficking in persons. Belarus first proposed the idea of a Global plan in 2006 and its diplomats worked strenuously in Vienna and New York \u2013 the world\u2019s two largest anti-trafficking hubs \u2013 to garner support to the idea, which had initially been rejected by many states.<\/h5>\n
The first thing that V. Makei asked his subordinates in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus to do with regard to all foreign policy initiatives of Belarus was to draft for him a kind of overviews of all of them. A \u201chuman trafficking\u201d overview certainly caught the Minister\u2019s attention. Indeed, he asked advice on additional reading, including on negotiations on the Global plan and on the Global forum on human trafficking \u2013 the largest ever international event on that issue \u2013 held in Vienna in February 2008.<\/h5>\n
V. Makei soon let us know that he was working on a large article on human trafficking in English. That article titled \u201cHuman trafficking in the post-Cold War period: towards a comprehensive approach\u201d appeared in January 2013 in an US-based “Journal of International Affairs”.<\/h5>\n
Two things are striking about this article.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
First,<\/strong> it reads as if it had been written by someone with many years of experience behind him or her in tackling human trafficking. This fact alone tells us how deeply V. Makei has grasped this theme.<\/h5>\n
Second,<\/strong> and what is particularly interesting, the narrative on human trafficking has been framed into a broader picture of global politics. Indeed, while multitude of essays have been written on trafficking in persons by distinguished authors over years, hardly is it possible to find one that strove to connect the two phenomena. To his credit, Minister Makei did it.<\/h5>\n
The article contains five parts. The first chapter provides an overview of what is generally known about the crime of trafficking in persons in terms of the crime\u2019s definition, types of trafficking, breakdowns by gender and age, global trends and regional incidence, etc. Clearly, V. Makei has read much on the issue and relies heavily on various sources in supporting his statistics.<\/h5>\n
In the second chapter the Minister in a very concise manner tracks all major international efforts that in some way or another related to the fight against either slavery or trafficking in persons since the early 20th century with a particular focus on the 1990s. His key point is that all earlier initiatives were rather fragmented while during the Cold War there was not much interest in transnational issues like human trafficking, because \u201cthe world\u2019s major players were primarily preoccupied with traditional security issues\u201d.<\/h5>\n
V. Makei argues that the situation began to change with the end of the Cold War, which inaugurated a more open international environment and more opportunities for migration. But the 1990s were the time, as the Minister put it, for \u201cthe problem\u2019s recognition\u201d, because policymakers far too often confused the two phenomena \u2013 trafficking in persons and migration.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
In the third chapter the Minister shows that the recognition of the problem found its reflection in the 2000 Human trafficking protocol that supplements the United Nations Convention against transnational organized crime. The interesting point the Minister makes here is that the Human trafficking protocol is strong on prosecution, but not so much on the aspects of prevention and protection.<\/h5>\n
V. Makei explains that the bias was influenced to some extent by domestic policies in the United States adopted in the wake of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.<\/h5>\n
The deficiencies of the above mentioned protocol were properly addressed at the Vienna Forum on human trafficking, held in February 2008, as the Minister argues in the fourth chapter. The forum, according to the V. Makei, was an important turning point in the fight against trafficking in persons, because it essentially marked the beginning of a new era that would seek comprehensive rather than \u201creductionist\u201d approaches against the crime.<\/h5>\n
The first attempt to realize such a comprehensive approach worldwide was associated with the United Nations Global plan, as the Minister demonstrates in the article\u2019s final chapter. He explains its comprehensive nature in structural, normative and organisational terms. The Minister ends his piece on a note that the forthcoming High-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on the appraisal of the Global plan scheduled for May 2013 would provide an opportunity to discuss how the comprehensive approach worked in practice.<\/h5>\n
Thus, it was only natural that Minister Makei personally attended the above High-level meeting in New York. The Minister delivered a powerful statement, with a particular focus on how the specific elements of the Global plan helped reinvigorate the international response against the hideous crime. More than that, V. Makei outlined a new area for action \u2013 trafficking in human organs.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Equipped with the Minister\u2019s call, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic of Belarus began working on a draft resolution on fighting trafficking in human organs. The resolution was presented to the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) in May 2014 and adopted by consensus while a number of delegations, including Russia and the United States, cosponsored it.<\/h5>\n
Another resolution on combating organ trafficking was tabled by Belarus at the CCPCJ in 2016. Once again it was adopted by consensus by the Commission. These two resolutions served the purpose of significantly raising attention to the crime of organ trafficking worldwide.<\/h5>\n
It was not surprising then that “Forced Migration Review”, a journal published in the United Kingdom showed an interest in having an article on the above topic from the Minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Belarus. The Minister wrote a piece titled \u201cTrafficking for human organs\u201d, which was published in the journal in May 2015. The purpose that V. Makei sought to achieve in that article was to provide a rationale for a new international legally binding instrument to deal with organ trafficking.<\/h5>\n
On the basis of this rationale Belarusian diplomats subsequently organised many thematic events in Vienna, Geneva and New York. While the goal of drafting a new international treaty on organ trafficking has not been attained yet, the discussion has slowly but steadily been making progress.<\/h5>\n

HUMAN RIGHTS – How Vladimir Makei Worked upon the Topic ? by – Irina A. Velichko<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n