Assembly/AU/Dec.207(XI) Page 1 DECISION ON STRENGTHENING THE COOPERATION BETWEEN THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE AFRICAN UNION IN COMBATING TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS The Assembly: 1. RECOGNIZES that trafficking in human beings is increasingly becoming a global scourge affecting all countries around the world, especially in Africa; 2. STRESSES the importance of the 2000 United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, as the first comprehensive international instrument dealing with this important issue and calling for achieving its universality as soon as possible; 3. WELCOMES the increased efforts to intensify dealing with this issue in the United Nations General Assembly as well as in other regional organizations, as manifested in the 2004 ASEAN declaration against trafficking in persons, particularly women and children, the 2005 Convention of the Council of Europe on action against trafficking in human beings, 2006 AU/EU Ouagadougou Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, especially women and children as well as the ECOWAS Declaration to combat Trafficking in Persons (2001) and the ECOWAS Initial Action Plan Against Trafficking in Persons (2001) and the AU Migration Framework for Africa; 4. FURTHER WELCOMES the establishment in 2007 of the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UNGIFT) to coordinate actions among governments, United Nations Organs, Civil Society, Non-Governmental Organizations and the Private Sector in order to fully ensure protection, prosecution and prevention in dealing with human trafficking; 5. EXPRESSES its appreciation to the “Suzan Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement” for all its efforts in raising public awareness for this important issue and for all its work to further develop public/private partnership to help African countries in combating human trafficking through ensuring protection, prevention and prosecution, in full cooperation with the United Nations and the African Union and through her global ambitious initiative “End Human Trafficking Now”; 6. COMMENDS the efforts exerted by various African Union organs and United Nations dealing with the issue of trafficking in human beings, in particular the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UNGIFT), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs