Statement by Yunei Kim, First Secretary, Australian Mission to the UN

As delivered

Thank you Chair.

We welcome the Special Rapporteur's report, and her articulation of how gender shapes the experiences of those impacted by trafficking in persons.  We know that persons with disabilities, and in particular, women and girls, are more vulnerable to trafficking.

Australia also thanks the Special Rapporteur for highlighting the harmful impacts of conflict on persons with disabilities in her report, and call for more disability-equitable responses to trafficking in conflict situations.

Australia is committed to applying gender-responsive and survivor-centred approaches to all security, law and justice efforts. And we are supporting the implementation of victim sensitive court guidelines across ASEAN Member States. 

A study funded by our ASEAN‑Australia Counter Trafficking program on the intersection between disability and trafficking in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, found that good progress is being made in addressing the needs of trafficking victims with disabilities.

But significant scope for improvement remains, including capacity building for law enforcement officers to better understand the intersection of disability and trafficking and disability sensitive responses.

We also thank the Special Rapporteur for recognising the importance of the non-punishment principle in relation to trafficking for purposes of forced criminality.

Special Rapporteur, how can we best ensure the design and delivery of prevention and protection measures for trafficking in persons are survivor-centred?

Thank you.