Addressing the opening session, Qatari Minister of Justice Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim said his country under the leadership of the Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, attached great importance to consolidating the values and principles of human rights.
Upholding the supremacy of law confirms the commitment of the State of Qatar to combating crime in general and to fighting the phenomenon of human trafficking in particular, Qatar News Agency (QNA) quoted the minister as saying.
"This became evident through Qatar National Vision 2030 which was developed in order to ensure a bright and prosperous future for the country," he noted.
Al-Ghanim added that Qatar continues its relentless efforts to address the phenomenon of human trafficking through building bridges of international and regional cooperation in this area, and activating the application of the relevant regional and international conventions.
Qatar has a set of legislative and institutional systems specializing in this regard, such as Law No. 15 of 2011 on combating human trafficking and other relevant national legislations, in addition to the enhancement of the role of national institutions active in this field.
"The latest national initiatives in this regard, represented in the establishment of Qatar’s National Alliance against Human Trafficking which achieves partnership between the local public and non-governmental sectors in order to work together to implement Qatar National Strategy to combat human trafficking," he went on.
Al-Ghanim renewed the commitment of his ministry of Justice to the establishment of this new national alliance in order to achieve the aspired goals, expressing the ministry’s welcome of cooperation with all brotherly Arab states and national and international partners, within the framework of the exchange of the best experiences, experiments and training programs in this field.
He noted that the real and effective fighting of human trafficking, requires greater synergy of international and national efforts towards that important communal issue, adding that it had become necessary to deal with this serious issue from its societal, legal and economic roots, and through the development of radical solutions to the causes leading to the spread of this phenomenon, by confronting the problems of poverty, marginalization, unemployment and ignorance, while providing the necessary care for the most needy groups such as women and children.
Despite the international efforts to stem the growth of this criminal activity, up to 800,000 persons, men, women and children fall victim to the trans-border human trafficking every year while the figures estimated by NGOs are far bigger than this, he revealed.
The Minister noted that the menace turned to be more complicated in the recent years due to the criminal manipulation of the Internet in this field which poses a challenge to the law-enforcement agencies.
The UN agencies estimate the volume of human trafficking to be the third largest source of income of the global organized crimes after the narcotic trade and the arms trade, Al-Ghanim added.
In a similar speech to the opening session, Board Chairman of Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking (QFCHT) Dr. Abdullah Al-Mal said human trafficking poses a grave threat to the social stability in the developed and developing countries alike.
"This phenomenon is a serious violation of human rights that hinders the development programs of the affected nations," he underlined.
During the two-day gathering 23 researches developed by specialists on the new trends and the best practices in combating this crime will be discussed.
