OSCE Project Co-ordinator strengthens role of Ukrainian medical professionals to assist human trafficking victims

KYIV, 10 December 2008 - The role of medical practitioners in combating human trafficking and ensuring victim assistance is the focus of a two-day seminar that started in Kyiv today.

More than 60 health care officials and specialists from all regions of Ukraine are taking part in the event, which was organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (OSCE PCU) and the Ukrainian Health Ministry.

"A health care practitioner may be the first and only representative of a state institution that a trafficking survivor would go to see," said Todd Becker, Senior Project Officer of the OSCE PCU. "Medical specialists encountering trafficked persons can not only provide the medical assistance needed, but also refer this person to appropriate organizations that can assist further. The active involvement of the national health care system would increase the sustainability of anti-trafficking efforts in this country."

The participants will review Ukrainian anti-trafficking legislation and trends in addressing the problem in Ukraine and abroad. In addition, the medical practitioners will discuss their role in identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking. The seminar will also focus on the role of health care institutions within the national referral mechanism to assist victim rehabilitation.

Through this and other activities the OSCE PCU strives to promote a human rights based approach in dealing with trafficked persons within the health care system of Ukraine, and to foster cross-sector co-operation among country's different governmental stakeholders and non-governmental anti-trafficking organizations.

The seminar is organized with financial assistance from the Austrian Government and the Danish Foreign Ministry as part of the Danish Programme Against Human Trafficking in Eastern and South Eastern Europe.