26 July 2001                                                            Press Release No. G/27/2001

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS LEARN TO ADAPT ANTI-TRAFFICKING
LEGAL MEASURES TO LOCAL POLICIES

ESCAP promotes legal instruments as weapons against “modern form of slavery”

BANGKOK (United Nations Information Services) – With the continued rise in trafficking in women and children for sexual purposes as its backdrop, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific will hold a regional seminar on using legal instruments as weapons in the fight against this modern form of slavery.

The Regional Seminar on Using Legal Instruments to Combat Trafficking in Women and Children, which will be held from 1-3 August at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok, is begin organized by ESCAP in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration.

More than 50 participants from 15 countries in Central, South, and Southeast Asia are expected to attend.

According to the United Nations, trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation constitutes a major social problem in Central, South and Southeast Asia. Experts are concerned that trafficking is still on the rise and increasingly linked to international organized crime.

In recent years, significant new national and international tools such as the United Nations Protocol on Trafficking of the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime have been adopted to combat trafficking.

Organizers expect the seminar to be a forum for information sharing and awareness-raising for government officials about the range of legal instruments available to them to combat trafficking and how to adapt them to local policies.

As one of the by-products of the meeting, ESCAP aims to create an anti-trafficking resource guide for Governments on using legal instruments to combat trafficking in women and children.

The regional seminar is the first of four meetings to be held throughout the region to deal in more depth with the issues and catalyse governments to develop similar legal instruments at the national level and to develop mechanisms for cooperation among countries.

For more information, please contact:
David Lazarus, Chief, United Nations Information Services/ESCAP
Rajdamnern Nok Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Tel: (66-2) 288-1234; Fax: (66-2) 288 1052
E-mail: unisbkk.unescap@un.org

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