OSH, Kyrgyzstan, 22 September 2006 - The OSCE Field Office in Osh has established an NGO network in the Ferghana Valley to fight against human trafficking.

The network will strengthen co-operation with government and international institutions, help monitor trafficking cases, and implement awareness-raising initiatives on a regional level. It will have a unified electronic database that will in the future be linked to other databases on trafficking in the CIS and Eastern Europe.

"This is a unique opportunity for NGOs to address regional and Trans boundary aspects of trafficking trends in the region," said Jerome Bouyjou, Head of the OSCE Field Office. "These NGOs should be further empowered to become true actors in the fight against human trafficking. We are committed to support the network and its activities in the future."

The new network was set up at an OSCE-organized two-day regional workshop that ended today. It was part of an OSCE-funded project "Multifaceted approaches to address the challenges of trafficking in human beings," which also supports research on human trafficking in southern Kyrgyzstan, the creation of "hotlines" for potential victims, information campaigns at the grass-root level and the training of lawyers and police officers.

Participants at the workshop, which featured experts from OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, also discussed international laws and mechanisms used to combat trafficking, ways of protecting the rights of victims of trafficking and their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.