VITAL VOICES CONFERENCE ON TRAFFICKING IN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 BANGKOK 003955

SIPDIS

STATE FOR G/TIP, EAP/MLS, DRL/IL, PRM/PRP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN KCRM ELAB PREL SMIG PHUM KJUS EAID TH
SUBJECT: VITAL VOICES CONFERENCE ON TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS



1. Summary. The Vital Voices Conference, entitled
Civil Society and Government Collaboration to Combat
Trafficking in Persons in the Greater Mekong Sub-
Region, was held in Bangkok from May 22-24. The
conference promoted greater collaboration among NGOs
and government agencies on anti-trafficking activities
in the region, but also highlighted the need to
coordinate funding and strategic planning with other
actors - such as corporations and labor unions - that
were making important strides against TIP
independently. Representatives from the government
and NGO sectors of each Mekong Basin country
(excluding the Burmese government),as well as U.N.
and Thai government co-hosts of the conference,
praised the USG for providing a regional forum for
NGOs to express their view directly with
representatives of their own governments. In some
cases, members of the two sectors were meeting in this
capacity for the very first time. Following the
conference, PAS Bangkok organized a speaking tour in
northern Thailand for Melanne Verveer, Chair of Vital
Voices, and her staff. Recently-named UNODC Goodwill
Ambassador Julia Ormond also praised the conference's
unique format for encouraging countries to share best
practices on a problem that by nature transcends
borders in a region subject to huge migrant flows.
End Summary.


2. The Vital Voices anti-trafficking conference, held
in Bangkok from May 22-24, brought together NGO and
government leaders from around the world to focus on
improving collaboration in the fight against
trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
Participants agreed that the conference succeeded in
fostering dialogue between NGO and government
representatives that has often been missing in
international fora on trafficking-in-persons. Chinese
and Vietnamese NGO delegates in particular praised the
USG for proving a forum for NGO-government dialogue
that was not often available in their own countries.
The discussions generated by other conference
invitees, however, also made clear that other players
in the fight against TIP - such as the business
community and labor unions - were playing important
roles that needed encouragement through linkages with
NGO and government efforts.


3. Among the important informal recommendations
generated by the conference discussions:

-- Reduce "capital city policymaking" that ignored
realities on the ground in poorer, outlying provinces
that supplied most TIP victims.

-- Ensure that training initiatives assisting police
and government officials at capital headquarters get
extended to provincial officials who deal directly
with TIP.

-- Improve dialogue with labor unions, which can play
an important role in organizing workers (especially in
tourism, hotels) vulnerable to TIP. (Cambodian hotel
unions were cited as a positive example.)

-- Support G/TIP's enhanced focus on labor trafficking
and debt bondage.

-- Increase the role of the business community,
following the lead of Microsoft and the Gates
Foundation in addressing TIP and providing vocational
training for alternative sources of income.

-- Get law enforcement agencies and NGOs to "speak the
same language" when addressing TIP; law enforcement
needs to better respect victim privacy and security,
while NGOs need to understand the need to secure
testimony for successful prosecutions.

-- Improve the "quality" of TIP prosecutions as well
as the "quantity"; emphasize to governments that
exorbitant sentences for "small fry" traffickers does
not excuse lack of prosecution of corrupt officials or
trafficking "kingpins".

-- Ensure that competition for funds does not inhibit
donor coordination; NGOs seeking funds from same
sources tend to withhold information and keep projects
"proprietary".


4. Co-sponsors were the RTG's Ministry of Social
Development and Human Security, UNODC, USAID, and
Embassy Bangkok. Ambassador Boyce delivered opening
remarks, as did the RTG's Minister for Social
Development and Human Security (SDHS),actress and UN
Goodwill Ambassador Julia Ormond, UN Resident Country
Coordinator Joana Merlin-Scholtes, and Vital Voices
Chair Melanne Verveer.


5. RTG Minister Watana Muangsook opened the conference
by identifying poverty alleviation as a means to
combat trafficking. He described the RTG's dual track
economic development scheme, which focuses on both
domestic projects (e.g. the 30 baht health care
program and village funds) and regional cooperation
(e.g. Economic Cooperation Strategy.) Ambassador
Boyce encouraged greater government and NGO
cooperation, and called for the Thai Parliament to
pass a comprehensive anti-trafficking law this year.
Julia Ormond relayed stories gathered from her
meetings with trafficking victims around the world.


6. USAID's Regional Mission in Thailand designed
break-out sessions throughout the conference to
encourage government and NGO sectors to jointly
identify priorities and implement activities. The
Ministry of SDHS hosted a reception the first evening,
followed the second evening by a reception at
Ambassador's residence. Various delegates
participated as panel speakers throughout the
conference, and paragraph 6 summarizes these
presentations. The powerpoint slides can be accessed
at

http://www.vitalvoices.org/desktopdefault.asp x?page_id=346.


7. As a follow-on to the conference, PAS Bangkok
programmed Verveer and Wenchi Yu Perkins, also of
Vital Voices, on a three-day target-of-opportunity
speaking tour in northern Thailand. They met with
provincial anti-trafficking teams, consisting of local
government officials, police officers, public
prosecutors, psychologists, NGO representatives,
attorneys, and journalists in the provinces of Chiang
Mai, Chiang Rai and Phayao. The program ended with a
visit to the Development and Education Program for
Daughters and Community (DEPDC) in Mae Sai, located on
the border with Burma. DEPDC, a community-based
organization, is recognized internationally for its
success in educating rural, impoverished children and
adults, many of whom are from local hill tribes
without Thai citizenship, who are particularly
vulnerable to trafficking. Ms. Verveer and Ms.
Perkins used the opportunity to take lessons learned
from regional partners working to combat trafficking
and shared the knowledge and ext steps ith
numerous Thai officials working in some of Thailand
most notorious areas
for trafficking activities.

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CROSS-BORDER COLLABORATION; CROSS-CULTURE LESSONS
LEARNED
-------------- --------------


8. A member of the Royal Thai Police and a
representative of the UN Inter-agency Project on
Trafficking (UNIAP) described a trafficking case that
successfully prosecuted the trafficker through
effective international collaboration. In 2003, a
trafficker known as Khun Thea smuggled 11 Cambodian
women and girls through Thailand into Malaysia. The
subsequent investigation by the Thai and Cambodian
governments was aided by a Thai-Cambodian MOU against
trafficking, as well as the efforts of a host of
government offices, NGOs, and organizations from
Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia. In March 2005, the
trafficker was sentenced to 50 years in a Thai prison.


9. Thai-Burmese cooperation was illustrated by Save
the Children representatives, who discussed their work
in repatriating Burmese victims who were trafficked to
Thailand. They raised the possibility of a Thai-Burma
MOU to facilitate repatriation, and lauded the Thai
government's commitment to protect all children within
its territory, including trafficked Burmese. Save the
Children has repatriated 158 victims; of those, 12 are
male, and 44 have re-migrated to Thailand. Many who
reintegrated into their communities have become anti-
trafficking educators at home.


10. The director of the Nexus Institute presented
cases from Eastern Europe's experience in combating
trafficking, including multi-disciplinary national
working groups, some including NGO representatives,
and a regional multi-year anti-trafficking action
plan. The need for effective training for police,
investigators, and prosecutors was emphasized, as were
the responsibilities of law enforcement, such as
immediately providing victims with social services and
protection, ensuring confidentiality, and conducting
risk assessments.

--------------
OBSTACLES AND PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
--------------


11. The Southeast Asia Regional Cooperation in Human
Development (SEARCH) presented its plan for an
upcoming 5-year project, which will promote mechanisms
to uphold human rights. Three regional partners --
COMMIT, Asean Working Group, and Forum Asia -- will be
involved, and SEARCH shared its plans for avoiding
duplication and leveraging investments. In the same
panel, USAID described its review of a program in
seven countries, which allowed them to map their areas
of vulnerability, identify needs and gaps, and provide
recommendations. They stressed the need to
standardize field work such as data collection,
research techniques, and monitoring and evaluation,
and for increasing the use of mapping to prevent
redundancies. Finally, the Australian Agency for
International Development (AUSAID) shared what it has
identified as the four main challenges to anti-
trafficking efforts. They are:

-- Widespread refusal to accept that victim protection
and aggressive prosecution can be compatible
strategies.

-- Failure to treat trafficking and related
exploitation as criminal offenses.

-- Unrealistic expectations on underdeveloped systems
to deliver justice.

As indicators of progress, AUSAID is looking for
trafficking to be treated as a criminal offense, not
just a social problem; for destination countries to
take a greater role in prosecution; and for
prosecutions to be measured as "better," not just
"more."

--------------
EMPOWERING VICTIMS
--------------


12. The International Labor Organization's (ILO's)
presentation focused on the need for civil society to
empower the marginalized to take action, as opposed to
simply protecting their welfare and speaking on their
behalf. They also shared the example of Laos PDR's
successful use of steering committees from local to
national levels, which meet regularly and share
information effectively.

--------------
FINAL DOCUMENT: RECOMMENDATIONS
--------------


13. Delegates concluded the conference by creating a
document of recommendations, intended as a guideline
for increased cooperation among a variety of sectors
and organizations. Below is a slightly abridged
version of the document.

Final Statement - Conference on ivil Society and
Government Collaboration to Combat Trafficking in
Persons in the Greater Mekong Sub-region May 22-24,
2006 Bangkok, Thailand

We, the participants of the conference on ivil
Society and Government Collaboration to Combat
Trafficking in Persons in the Greater Mekong Sub-
region (GMS) athered in Bangkok, Thailand from May
22-24, 2006, reaffirmed the critical importance of
systematic collaboration between NGOs, civil society,
and Governments in developing and implementing
successful anti-trafficking strategies and programs.
This collaboration must cover all aspects of anti-
trafficking response overing prosecution,
protection, and prevention of human trafficking.

Specifically, the conference:

Recognizes that civil society encompasses NGOs and
many other actors;

Recognizes the critical importance of a comprehensive
approach to combat human trafficking, focusing on
protection, prevention and prosecution, and
importantly complemented by coordination of both
policies and programs;

Takes note of the commitments for close collaboration
between Governments and NGOs made by the GMS
Governments through the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial
Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) process, such
as the provision in the COMMIT Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) which explicitly acknowledges he
important role played by victim support agencies in
the areas of prevention, protection, rescue,
repatriation, recovery and reintegration, as well as
in supporting a strengthened criminal justice
response;

Takes note of the important efforts by the Governments
to conclude and implement a broad range of bilateral
MOUs to increase and formalize cooperation between
States in their efforts against human trafficking;

Recognizing the relevant UN conventions and
international legal instruments related to human
trafficking which also provide for the involvement of
NGOs in implementation and monitoring processes;

Acknowledges the key roles that NGOs and civil society
organizations are already playing in all aspects of
work to eradicate human trafficking in the GMS, and
commend the cases of close cooperation between
Governments and NGOs which are taking place;

In light of the above-mentioned findings, the
participants of the conference make the following
recommendations, which recognize the critical
importance of continuous and intensive collaboration
between NGOs and other representative organizations of
civil society and Governments. These recommendations
shall be communicated to the Governments of the
Greater Mekong Sub-region, NGO networks engaged in
anti-trafficking working in the sub-region,
international NGOs, UN agencies, other inter-
governmental organizations, and bilateral and
multilateral donor organizations:

(1) Governments and NGOs should more systematically
partner with each other in order to ensure that civil
society is actively involved in all aspects of the
determination and implementation of anti-trafficking
policies, including national action plans,
regulations, and laws. As part of this partnership,
the volume and quality of information shared between
the Government agencies, ranging from central to
grass-roots/local levels, international organizations
and NGOs should increase.

(2) Governments and NGOs recognize that consistent,
high-quality data collection, mapping of gap areas,
and quality research are the essential basis for
effective policies and responsive programs. Donors,
international organizations, research organizations,
governments, and NGOs should undertake and support on-
going research activities oth quantitative and
qualitative.

(3) Both the Governments and NGOs should broaden their
anti-trafficking partnership to include other civil
society organizations, such as those from organized
labor, faith-based organizations, migrant communities,
and the international and national business community.
Work on anti-trafficking initiatives with these new
allies should occur in a systematic manner to bring
forward new knowledge and resources from these
partners, and seek support from them for policies and
programs to combat human trafficking.

(4) Governments and NGOs recognize that significant
gaps in anti-trafficking response still exist in the
sub-region, both in terms of geographical coverage and
sectors of anti-human trafficking response. It is
recommended that these gaps be systematically
addressed by joint initiatives of Government and NGOs.

(5) Information on the positive role of NGOs in
cooperating with Governments on anti-trafficking
efforts, and the need to have NGOs involved in order
to ensure comprehensive anti-trafficking response,
should be reflected in all training curriculums at all
levels.

(6) Both bilateral and multilateral donor agencies
should take decisions on funding of technical
assistance and capacity building with particular
attention to the need to further strengthen government
and civil society cooperation, and to do so in a more
coordinated manner.

(7) Greater donor coordination, including prioritizing
both at the national and regional levels, would
enhance and facilitate the process of preventing and
combating human trafficking.

(8) Government and NGOs recognize the importance of
monitoring anti-trafficking projects to ensure
accountability, and continuously evaluating impact of
those activities, but also recognize that donor
agencies should provide longer term commitments to
anti-trafficking work being done. Possible approaches
could include the development of innovative monitoring
modalities, such as regional peer review mechanisms,
between and among Governments, NGOs, civil society,
international NGOs, and inter-governmental
organizations with an emphasis on long-term
commitment, and should stress the positive role that
NGOs can play in monitoring process and progress.

(9) Governments and NGOs recommend that the success of
criminal justice actions against human trafficking
offenders should be measured according to both the
quality of investigations and prosecutions and their
quantity.

(10) Donors should encourage and support public-
private partnerships as a new approach to generate new
ideas and additional resources for anti-human
trafficking work.

(11) Civil society organizations, including NGOs, and
law enforcement authorities should exchange experience
and information, as appropriate, build deeper mutual
understanding, and reach shared objectives to
prosecute traffickers and support the recovery of
victims of trafficking; and bilateral and multilateral
donors should support such opportunities.

(12) Stronger cross-border collaboration in all
aspects of anti-trafficking response, and technical,
financial and personnel support for those initiatives,
should be built among governments and NGOs.

(13) Where cross-border collaboration and coordination
does occur, it is critical that this be broadened to
embrace the concept of multi-disciplinary teams that
include NGOs, and encourage governments to initiate
pilot projects in identified trafficking hot spots on
borders.

(14) Governments and civil society actors should
consider to either extend existing cross-border
mechanisms, or to create similar mechanisms, to
address human trafficking.

(15) Regional agreements on procedures for cooperation
in human trafficking should be developed, taking into
account agreements already available at the bilateral
level.

(16) Governments and NGOs understand the urgent need
to deepen anti-trafficking response, and ensure that
policies and implementation reach to the provincial
and local level.

(17) Governments and NGOs should collaborate to build
capacity of concerned governments officials and NGO
staff working to provide protection and recovery
services to victims, and improve the standards of the
shelters and the services they provide.

(18) Workshops should be convened to clarify the roles
and responsibilities of the different stakeholders in
anti-trafficking actions. Possible results could
include the establishment of a multi-disciplinary
operations team at the national level to oversee
actions on cases of trafficked persons. This team can
direct the process of assistance and protection to the
victim, and the victim participation in the criminal
justice investigation and prosecution process. As part
of this process, the roles and scope of NGOs could be
more clearly defined, which would in turn help
facilitate their operations, and monitoring and
evaluation systems be established.

(19) Governments and NGOs in places of migrant
origin, transit and
destination should promote safe
migration as a strategy to reduce vulnerability to
human trafficking.

The participants will seek opportunities to
incorporate these recommendations into the anti-human
trafficking work that they do upon return to their
home countries. Finally, the participants wish to
thank the organizers and co-sponsors who made this
conference possible, specifically the Ministry of
Social Development and Human Security of the Royal
Thai Government, the Vital Voices Global Partnership,
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the
United States Agency for International Development,
the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in
Persons in the United States Department of State, and
the Embassy of the United States in Bangkok, Thailand.
The participants believe that the results of this
conference directly reflect the leadership and
commitment of themselves, as well as these
organizations, in addressing the global phenomenon of
human trafficking.

BOYCE