To encourage better international coordination in fighting human trafficking, in September 2005 Belarus put forward an idea of forging a Global Partnership against Slavery and Trafficking in Human Beings in the 21st century. The partnership would seek to unite efforts and best practices of all major stakeholders in anti-trafficking activities and foster a concerted UN response to this hideous crime.

As a first step towards the Global Partnership, Belarus initiated a resolution ‘Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons’. Adopted by consensus in 2006, the first ever GA resolution on international coordination in combating human trafficking invited Member States to consider the elaboration of a UN action plan. The 2008 ECOSOC resolution ‘Strengthening coordination of the United Nations and other efforts in fighting trafficking in persons’, the next Belarusian initiative in a series of steps to facilitate the elaboration of a UN action plan, reaffirmed that appeal.

A clear call for an action plan was made at the 2007 International Conference 'Trafficking in Women and Girls: Meeting the Challenge Together'. The first global and all-engaging forum on human trafficking ever held in the UN Headquarters, the conference was organised by Belarus, the Philippines, UNODC and Vital Voices Global Partnership and gathered over 400 people from more than 90 Member States, around 20 international organisations and over 100 NGOs.

The need for a UN action plan was clearly expressed by many delegations at the General Assembly informal debate on fighting human trafficking on 3 June 2008 following the request from the Member States initiated by Belarus.

As a follow-up to the 2006 UN General Assembly resolution ‘Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons' Belarus initiated in the Third Committee the resolution, later adopted at the UNGA 63rd session by consensus. Pursuant to this resolution 63/194 the Member-States are invited to accelerate the consideration of the advisability of a global plan of action on preventing trafficking in persons, prosecuting traffickers, protecting and assisting victims of trafficking.

The Secretary-General has been requested to prepare a background paper on how to achieve the full and effective cooperation of efforts against trafficking in persons.

At the request of the Republic of Belarus supported by Bahrain, Egypt, Nicaragua, the Philippines, UAE and Qatar on 13 May 2009 the General Assembly held the Interactive Thematic Debate «Taking collective action to end human trafficking» on a global plan of action against trafficking in persons.