By IANS,
Tehran : South Africa Wednesday called on the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to intensify their fight against the new forms of slavery such as human trafficking.
Speaking at the 15th NAM ministerial conference in Tehran, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said human trafficking among other forms of slavery was “totally unacceptable and we should fight it using all our might”, BuaNews agency reported.
“It is mainly perpetrated against women and children,” the minister said and urged the NAM member countries to question themselves what role they were playing in “promoting and consolidating common understanding, human rights and prosperity”.
“We should use the lessons from our rich history to build our future and to further enhance solidarity in our movement to the increase South-South cooperation and the dialogue with the North,” Zuma said.
“Both North and South should show tolerance to each other, to achieve real harmony without any attempt to dominate,” she said.
The minister said attention should be drawn to the social and economic aspects of achieving real dialogue, adding that without consideration of the socio-economic issues political dialogue would not contribute to the objectives of balancing development, security and human rights.
She said that as the NAM they should not only adhere to the equality of nations, large and small, but also to equality of human beings.
“Rights must include the right to education, health, food security, clean water and sanitation, shelter and the right to energy,” the South African leader said.
She reminded members of the 118-member grouping of the spirit of friendship, partnership and solidarity.
“An approach [is needed] that recognises that poverty and under-development can be conquered if there is true solidarity because there are adequate resources in the world,” she added.