Mr. Abdullah Shaheen, Media Advisor and Press Manager at the Security Media Department in the General Secretariat of H.H. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior?s Office, submitted in the working paper a number of remarks and media guidance regarding the basics of press coverage of human trafficking crimes.

Mr. Shaheen stressed the commitment of the Ministry of Interior, as represented by the Media Security Department, to keep channels of communications open with the audio, print, and visual media by holding joint meetings periodically to discuss and illustrate everything about these crimes.

He also highlighted the media campaigns and the academic and training programs being prepared and organized to raise awareness about the inherent dangers of trafficking crimes and their psychological and social impacts, especially those related to child sexual abuse via the internet. Shaheen added that the Ministry has particularly created a database for human rights and developed a unified mechanism to be implemented in all police stations nationwide, by which any expatriate held in custody may communicate with the relevant Embassy or Consulate, as per the approved regulations.

Mr. Shaheen said that the Ministry held several awareness seminars to promote the legal values among different social and labor sectors in order to raise the cultural and rights-related awareness in the community as a whole.

It?s worth noting that the Anti-Trafficking Training Program for Arab Media Professionals aims at introducing the UN principles and standards regarding the media and press role to combat human trafficking. The training also offers a number of practical tools that can be used to implement these global standards.

The program aims also to improve the capabilities and awareness of the pan-Arab media and press outlets regarding human trafficking and boost national and regional cooperation and communication among the concerned entities and pan-Arab media outlets.

For his part, Dr. Hatem Aly, Regional Representative for the UNODC Sub-regional Office for the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries, commended the strategic partnership between the United Nations, as represented by the UNODC, and the Ministry of Interior?s Media Security Department, stressing its role in boosting and shedding light on the combined efforts of the relevant anti-crime entities, especially those combating human trafficking crimes.