SGBV

According to the 2016 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, 79 per cent of the victims of human trafficking are women and children, with a clear example being the Yazidi women and girls who were submitted to various kinds of slavery and torture by the so-called Islamic State. Due to that situation, a lot of them have had to leave their countries of origin to find more favourable living conditions. Similarly, against the backdrop of the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which is now under way, we are deeply concerned to note that, according to the UNODC report I just mentioned, 20 per cent of the victims of forced labour and 72 per cent of those of sexual exploitation are women — a situation that clearly cannot be ignored. My country, too, is a victim of such crimes, in particular sexual exploitation and forced labour.