UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) – Human trafficking remains one of the world’s fastest growing criminal activities in the world, an independent United Nations (UN) expert said today.

“[It is] one of the most appalling forms of human rights violations,” Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children, said, underlining that the role of regional organizations in fighting the scourge “cannot be underestimated.”

Ezeilo, who assumed her position in 2008, emphasized the need to enhance coordination among countries of origin, transit and destination in order to fight this problem, calling for stepped up support for regional and sub-regional groups seeking to catalyze State action to combat trafficking.

“In order to be effective, [these groups] should put the rights of the victim at the core of their strategies and actions,” she said. “By doing so, they will succeed both in protecting victims and prosecuting traffickers.”

Ezeilo underscored to the Council on Wednesday that “it is only be properly protecting and assisting victims that you can effectively prosecute traffickers.”

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