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PRESS ALERT
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

Introduction The COMMIT Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) is an annual event that brings 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 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 is hosted this year by the Royal Thai Government, comes at an exciting point in the COMMIT Process. In the final year of its third phase, this Senior Officials Meeting will focus on the past achievements of the process, the best practice methods that can be learned from those achievements, and how to best apply those lessons in determining the future direction that the process will take. Background 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. Over the past nine years, the COMMIT Process has evolved through three different Sub-Regional Plans of Action (SPA). The third SPA focused on improved operational coordination; gathering, analyzing and disseminating improved data on human trafficking patterns; and the provision of high quality technical assistance and capacity building to all anti-trafficking partners. 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 is: Coordination and Action to Combat Human Trafficking: Lessons Learned from the COMMIT Process and Country Initiatives. This theme focuses on the anti-trafficking country achievements and issues from the past year, evaluating the tangible successes, and the lessons that can be drawn from those successes to help improve the process. Through evaluation, the COMMIT member countries will develop the direction of future phases of the COMMIT Process, determining in large part the regional anti-trafficking efforts of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region for the next 5 to 10 years. Some of the major themes of this years SOM include: Discussing the major country achievements in 2012 Coordination and plans of action to combat labour trafficking Improving private sector engagement in addressing labour trafficking Cooperation and action in the criminal justice response to human trafficking Meeting of the Mekong Youth Forum Key findings from COMMIT Victim Reintegration research Independent evaluation of the COMMIT Process 2013 Discussing the sustainability and direction of the COMMIT Process going forward into the future.

Conclusion On behalf of the COMMIT member countries, and the United Nations Inter-Agency Project, we invite press representatives to attend the event. We will also be following up with a post-event press release. For more information please do not hesitate to contact the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and UNIAP representatives listed below.

In English: Mr. Adam Lemm, Communications and Reporting Officer, UNIAP Regional Management Office Email: adam.lemm@undp.org

In Thai: Mr. Supawat Nooprik Director of Public Relations Division Ministry of Social Development and Human Security Email: prd.pr@yahoo.com Ms. Pidchaya Pariyanithiroj, National Project Coordinator, UNIAP Thailand Email: pidchaya.pariyanithiroj@undp.org