Italy joined the United Nations Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking at the High-Level Event held in Vienna today concomitantly with the opening of the 28th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
Italy’s participation in the Blue Heart Campaign forms part of its broader contribution to combating human trafficking and protecting the victims of trafficking and of serious exploitation through civil society organizations, police forces and judicial authorities. Thanks to today’s event, the United Nations – through UNODC, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime – has relaunched the Campaign that officially kicked off in 2009 with the aim of promoting a more extensive implementation of the Palermo Convention’s Additional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
In announcing Italy’s participation in the Campaign, the Italian Ambassador to the United Nations Office at Vienna, Maria Assunta Accili, recalled the importance of civil society organizations, associations and non-governmental organizations in combating trafficking, and especially in protecting the victims, as well as the one-million-dollar contribution that Italy has made to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons.
The Blue Heart Campaign aims to encourage the Institutions of member States to combat trafficking and raise the awareness of public opinion on the case of the victims through public communication activities (https://www.unodc.org/
