Mr. President, In thanking you for convening this Thematic Debate, allow me to first align myself with the statement made by the European Union Presidency.   In the past decade trafficking in persons has emerged as a high-profile crime and as a human rights issue. The 2009 UNODC Report on Human Trafficking illustrated alarming new trends in this heinous crime.
The nature and dimensions of this traffic is such that we must do more and we must do it better. Italy thus welcomes the Secretary-General’s background paper on “Improving coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons.” This overview provides us with a solid basis for discussions. Mr. President, In your letter of May 1, 2009, you invited Member States to discuss current efforts and to identify best practices. I would like therefore to recall some aspects of Italy’s national experience.
Since 1998, when a comprehensive new immigration law was adopted, Italy has dedicated priority attention to the protection and assistance of victims as well as to combating traffickers’ activities. My authorities’ efforts were aimed at achieving a new legal framework - victim-centred, human rights-oriented and gender and child-sensitive - focused on  the legal protection of victims. It also promoted a greater involvement of the private sector and local communities.
An important feature of this new legislation is the possibility to grant  renewable residence permits to the victim of trafficking. That opens the way to assistance and social integration programmes. The residence permit can be converted into a permanent permit for study or work purposes. In the past five years, approximately 5000 foreign citizens have benefited from this provision. Let me underline that the lack of victim identification remains one of the main obstacles to a more adequate protection. On this specific aspect, a higher level of cooperation among all countries affected by this scourge is to be hoped for. Mr. President,
The heinous nature and the new dimensions of this crime have led the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to further focus on bilateral and multilateral actions. Continuing a long-standing cooperation against trafficking, in October 2008 my Country has funded specific IOM projects aimed at assisting and protecting trafficked persons, for example in Nigeria.
Another initiative has been the publication of the “IOM Handbook on Direct Assistance for Victims of Trafficking,” financed by Italy: a practitioner’s tool, with useful information concerning the full range of assistance available to victims.
         Other have more recently started within the framework of (EC funded) IOM/ILO, in cooperation, and this is another important example, with Chinese authorities, in order to prevent the trafficking of Chinese workers.  An open dialogue also at business level among Italian and Chinese institutions is already assuring an improved and fruitful cooperation in law enforcement. Mr. President, The criminalisation of trafficking in all its aspects is crucial to an effective judicial cooperation. Italian law punishes all conducts included in the Trafficking Protocol, 2002 Framework Decision of the European Union on the fight against human trafficking and the Convention of the Council of Europe. The training of judges and prosecutors and the coordination of their efforts are critical areas.
Data on criminal proceedings for trafficking-related offences in 2003-2008 were collected by the Anti-Mafia Prosecuting Office. The findings are pertinent to our discussion.
The study shows that trafficking is often organised by criminal groups consisting of people of different nationalities and ethnic origins. Unlike in the past, the perpetrators and the victims are not necessarily of the same nationality. Our data suggest the existence of an increasingly transnational and interethnic trend. The ethnicity of the criminals and that of their victims has become less relevant than in the past. This underlines the need for more effective international co-operation. 
Mr. President, Ten years after the adoption of the UN Convention and its Protocols, the international community must take stock of the efforts made.
Trafficking in human beings calls for a global approach.
Our first task should be to improve the implementation of the existing international instruments - including those related to forced labor, to human rights, to  protection of women and children - and achieve universal adherence to the Trafficking in Persons Protocol. This is not the time for ideological or divisive discussions. We must focus on concrete goals in order to produce quick results against this heinous, modern form of human exploitation.