For information only - not an official document
UNIS/MA/171
10 May 2017
VIENNA, 10 May 2017 - Journalists are invited to attend a press conference on human trafficking taking place on the sidelines of the 26th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ).
The Press Conference will be held on Monday 22 May at 3.30pm at the Vienna International Centre in the M-Building in Room MEO71 and will be given by:
Nadia Murad, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
Journalists with permanent accreditation to the Vienna International Centre need no further credentials. All others must seek accreditation by sending an email request to press@unvienna.org or by telephoning: (+43 1) 26060 3342. Accreditation can be picked up at the Gate 1 entrance to the VIC.
Background: Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman who survived human trafficking at the hands of ISIL, was appointed UNODC Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking in September 2016. In 2014, at the age of 19, Murad, along with thousands of other women, was kidnapped in the village of Kocho in Sinjar, northern Iraq. While held hostage she was subjected to grave abuses at the hands of ISIL fighters who killed almost 1,300 Yazidi men and women and forced around 6,400 younger Yazidi women into slavery. She escaped after three months' captivity. Murad, aside from being a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is also the recipient of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2016, and joint recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought also in 2016.
Human trafficking is a grave violation of fundamental human rights and a serious crime. Every year, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children, women and men are exploited and abused at the hands of traffickers, both in their own country and abroad.
* *** *
For further information please contact:
David
Dadge
Spokesperson, UNODC
Telephone: (+43 1) 26060-5629
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-5629
Email: david.dadge[at]unvienna.org
