SGBV

This should be a familiar tale to the Council. We heard it ourselves in north-eastern Nigeria only last week. We saw it in the hands in the air when we asked the women there whether they had lost a child to Boko Haram. We saw it in their tears as they spoke of abducted daughters, of mass rapes, of grandchildren being born only to be enslaved. In response, we need a more forceful and unified United Nations approach to human trafficking, modern slavery and forced labour. We look forward to the Secretary-General’s report in November on exactly that, and we encourage him to focus on making existing structures, including the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons, work effectively.

We know what follows: sexual exploitation and sexual slavery, forced labour and child labour, human rights in tatters, conflict exploited and conflict sustained.