New York, 4 November 2010 - In a bid to help the victims of human trafficking, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today launched the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons with Hollywood stars and humanitarian activists Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. Joining them were Joseph Deiss, President of the General Assembly, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), former trafficking victims, and New York Times journalist-author and Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicholas Kristof.

The Trust Fund is one of the most important elements of the new United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons adopted by the General Assembly in July 2010.  It will provide humanitarian, legal and financial aid to victims of human trafficking with the aim of increasing the number of victims who are rescued and supported, and broadening the extent of assistance they receive.

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EUROPE’S TOP human rights watchdog has begun monitoring the Government’s actions to tackle human trafficking with the entry into force yesterday of a convention to curb “modern-day slavery”.

 Article appeared in the Irish Times 2 November 2010