Council of Europe

Ways to enhance the prosecution of human trafficking offences and improve the protection of victims’ rights in Ukraine was the topic of a discussion started in Kyiv today with the support from the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU).

The two-day event, jointly organized by the OSCE PCU and the country’s High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases, Prosecutor General's Office and Interior Ministry, brought together more than sixty law enforcement practitioners from 13 regions of Ukraine. Judges of the regional appeal courts, prosecutors, investigators and detectives will discuss positive practices and challenges related to the investigation and prosecution of various forms of trafficking in human beings.

Special attention will be paid to the protection of the rights of trafficking victims. […]

Some 60 young people from Armenia gathered today in Yerevan in a simulation of the OSCE core decision-making body – the Permanent Council. The two-day Model OSCE Conference is organized by the OSCE Office in Yerevan together with the Armenian School of Young Leaders. Participants discussed relations between the hypothetical countries of Abandia and Groveland which need to jointly tackle challenges of increased migration, economic instability, and growing human trafficking. […]

An OSCE-led seminar on improving the collection, usage and exchange of comparable data on migration in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan started today in Moscow. The two-day event is co-organized by the OSCE Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics.

Forty participants, including government officials from the Russian Federation and the three participating Central Asian countries, representatives of the CIS Interstate Statistical Committee, Russian academic circles as well as international experts, discussed international standards, regional and national aspects of migration data collection, ways to further improve migration statistics in the Russian Federation, and the steps needed to harmonize and exchange migration data between Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. […]

Today, the OSCE Office in Tajikistan completed an eight-day training course for officials from border, customs and interior agencies of Tajikistan on risk management in the prevention of criminal activity.

Twenty-four officers from of the Tajik Border Troops, Customs Service and the Interior Ministry worked on evaluating context and potential risks, identification, analysis and classification of risks, and risk assessment at airport and land borders. The course was delivered by serving police and border police officers from Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. […]

Senior border officials from 16 countries started OSCE-run Border Management Staff Course in Dushanbe today. “This comprehensive course opens doors for dialogue and co-operation among the officers from border, customs, and drug control agencies across the OSCE area”, said Hans Peter Larsen, the acting Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan. “Here they try to find common solutions, share various perspectives and strengthen professional skills to the benefit of their respective states and agencies”.

Twenty-five representatives from border guard, customs and drug control agencies in Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mongolia, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the US are attending the month-long course. […]