OSCE Project Co-ordinator launches anti-trafficking training sessions for Ukrainian regional authorities

KYIV, 3 July 2007 - About 400 Ukrainian regional governmental officials will participate in a series of 15 regional training sessions on how to fight human trafficking that will be held in July and August as part of a project launched today by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

"Governmental partners play a key role in preventing and combating human trafficking as well as in assisting trafficking victims. Their co-operation at the strategic and operational levels is fundamental to ensure a coordinated and multi-agency response to the problem within Ukraine," said Ambassador James F. Schumaker, OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

The Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports, which is co-ordinating Ukraine's anti-trafficking efforts, requested the series of training sessions as part of a state programme to combat human trafficking.

The training sessions aim to improve regional authorities' awareness about human trafficking and about what they can do to prevent the crime and help victims. They also strive to ensure better regional co-operation between agencies involved in combating trafficking.

"The new State Programme to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings envisages a considerable input from the regional authorities which concerns all aspects of addressing the problem of trafficking," said Lyudmyla Lukinova, Deputy Minister of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports.

"It is crucial that governmental officials at the regional level throughout the country have adequate knowledge of this problem and are prepared to deal with it."

A further series of 10 training sessions is planned to be held in other regions of Ukraine in 2008.

The training sessions are funded by the Danish Foreign Ministry as part of the Danish Programme Against Human Trafficking in Eastern Europe.