Determined to eradicate human trafficking, says Oman at UN

Oman Wednesday 24/November/2021 10:56 AM
By: ONA
Determined to eradicate human trafficking, says Oman at UN
Supplied ImDr. Mohammed Awadh Al Hassan, Permanent Representative of the Sultanate of Oman at the United Nations.

Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman affirmed that it is resolute in its war against human trafficking which, it said, contradicts its noble humanitarian goals.

Dr. Mohammed Awadh Al Hassan, Permanent Representative of the Sultanate of Oman at the United Nations (UN), who delivered Oman’s speech at the UN meeting convened here, said that the Sultanate of Oman accords special importance to the issue of human trafficking. For that purpose, Oman formed a specialised body, which is the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking (NCCHT), founded in 2008 to implement various programmes, workshops, symposiums and conferences to raise awareness about the phenomenon and propose ways of addressing it and eradicating it by legal means.

Al Hassan added that despite the global hurdles posed by coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the government of the Sultanate of Oman never wavered in combating human trafficking. “Here, I would like to point out that Oman’s 3-year National Plan for Combating Human Trafficking (2021-2023) focused on a set of goals, among them “training frontline workers” and “raising social awareness”.

Al Hassan spoke about successful initiatives launched by the government of the Sultanate of Oman in cooperation with the private sector and civil society institutions to combat human trafficking.

The programme included “Insan” (or “human being”) initiative, aimed to raise public awareness about human trafficking by educating workers and employers about the phenomenon and means of reporting its perpetrators. “In addition to these efforts, the government of my country joined a number of global treaties and regional and international agreements on combating human trafficking. The pacts included the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Convention against Torture that resists all forms of mistreatment, severe or inhuman or unprofessional penalties, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Arab Protocol for Prevention and Combating Maritime Piracy and Armed Robbery.

Concluding the speech, Al Hassan said that the Sultanate of Oman is committed to the UN Plan for the Eradication of Human Trafficking, by all legal means, to eliminate the phenomenon and keep society clear of all its perils.