At this year’s HLPF, governments will review SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; and SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

These goals recognize that ending human trafficking is essential to achieving their aims. Human trafficking has an outsized impact on women and girls, and eliminating it is crucial for achieving SDG 5. In addition, we cannot provide decent work for all while people are forced to work without choice, through coercion and threats.

This side event will focus on the SDG 5 and SDG 8 targets relating to human trafficking, assessing trends and emerging challenges. Participants will hear from governments, UN agencies and civil society organizations about the risks to achieving these goals and how to respond to them.

Welcome remarks:

• HE Ambassador Merete Fjeld Brattested, Permanent Representative to the UN, Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN
• Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN
• Masato Shoji, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN

Panel:

• Livia Wagner, Thematic Lead on Human Trafficking, GI-TOC
• Delphine Schantz, Director of UNODC Liaison Office in New York, UNODC
• Luciana Aguiar, Senior Adviser with the UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub and Global Adviser to the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) Initiative, UNDP
• African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS)
• Kristina Amerhauser, Senior Analyst, GI-TOC

Moderator: Ian Tennant, Director of Multilateral Engagement, GI-TOC