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PRESS RELEASE

Event:

9th COMMIT Senior Officials Meeting (SOM 9) Coordination and Action to Combat Human Trafficking: Lessons Learned from the COMMIT Process and Country Initiatives Where & When: Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel, 21 - 22 February 2013, Bangkok, Thailand
COMMIT is a unique and creative process initiated by the governments of the six Greater Mekong Sub-region countries in tackling human trafficking through a platform of high-level policy dialogue, and linking the regional response through individual national plans of action. -Police Lieutenant General Pham Quy Ngo, Vice Minister of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security Introduction The 9th COMMIT Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) was held last week from 21 22 February, bringing together senior government officials from the six nations of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam), who are committed to the goal of eradicating the heinous crime of human trafficking both domestically and transnationally from this region. The six governments together form the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Human Trafficking (COMMIT). SOM 9, which was hosted this year by the Royal Thai Government, came at an exciting point in the COMMIT Process. In the final year of its third phase, this Senior Officials Meeting focused on the past achievements of the process, the best practice methods that could be learned from those achievements, and how to best apply those lessons in determining the future direction that the process will take. Background Human trafficking is a terrible crime involving the cheating or deceiving of people into sexual servitude or labour for the purpose of exploitation. The International Labour Organization estimated in 2005 that 9.49 million people are in forced labor in Asia-Pacific region, with a significant amount of that thought to be in Mekong region. Also according to the UN, traffickers are making illicit profits estimated at $31 billion US dollars globally. Originating in 2004, the COMMIT Process was initiated when the Mekong Sub-Region nations signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) against Trafficking in Persons. This MOU committed each of the governments, along with the United Nations Inter-Agency Project (UNIAP) as the COMMIT secretariat, to the goal of eradicating human trafficking from the Greater Mekong Sub-Region and beyond.

Throughout the process, COMMIT has served as a model for intergovernmental and interagency cooperation, effectively engaging governments, NGOs, international organizations and civil society partners, while making significant and measurable progress in the anti-trafficking domain. SOM 9 The official theme of SOM 9 was: Coordination and Action to Combat Human Trafficking: Lessons Learned from the COMMIT Process and Country Initiatives. The meeting focused on the many achievements of the COMMIT Process over the past year, and used the lesson learned from those achievements to establish the priorities for 2013 and beyond. With the third phase of the process drawing to a close at the end of 2013, the meeting was also a crucial first step in discussing and planning the future of the process. Some of the major themes and recommendations identified in the meeting include: Discussion of the major country achievements in 2012, and setting the priorities for 2013 Improving engagement of anti-trafficking stakeholders outside of current COMMIT framework (Private sector, ASEAN, Other regional non-COMMIT countries) Key findings from COMMIT Victim Reintegration research Strengthening trafficking victim shelter standards, and focusing on victim reintegration and after care The continued integration and cooperation of the regions criminal justice response to human trafficking Soliciting the input and ideas of the regions young people through the Mekong Youth Forum Discussion and planning of the 2013 independent evaluation of the COMMIT Process. Using the lessons learned through the evaluation to begin the vision process of the future direction of the COMMIT Process beyond 2013

Conclusion The 9th COMMIT Senior Officials Meeting was an extremely productive event that provided the Governments of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region a forum to coordinate their regional anti-trafficking efforts. With human trafficking being a largely transnational crime, the annual SOM event is one of the most important opportunities for the governments to come together and effectively plan and coordinate a unified regional response to the terrible crime of human trafficking. This SOM was no exception and the planning and discussions that occurred over these two days laid the ground work for the future of much of the regions anti-trafficking action over the next 5 to 10 years. For more information please do not hesitate to contact the UNIAP representatives listed below.

In English: Mr. Adam Lemm, Communications and Reporting Officer, UNIAP Regional Management Office, Email: adam.lemm@undp.org In Thai: Ms. Pidchaya Pariyanithiroj, National Project Coordinator, UNIAP Thailand Email: pidchaya.pariyanithiroj@undp.org

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