The seminar brings together 20 police officers from Kazakstan’s regions and 20 representatives from national and Central Asian NGOs. The participants will discuss effective policies and programmes to deter children trafficking, methods to identify victims and establishing standards for providing protection and effective assistance measures with a special focus on the needs of child victims.

The seminar will also address existing challenges in anti-trafficking legislation in Kazakhstan. Experts from Russia and Ukraine will share the best practices and standards learnt from their countries and Central Asian NGOs will discuss their in-depth experiences of working with child victims.

"Combating trafficking in human beings, with a particular focus on fighting trafficking in children, is one of the main priorities of Kazakhstan’s 2010 OSCE Chairmanship," said Ambassador Alexandre Kelchewsky, the Head of the OSCE Centre. "Effective identification procedures and developing child-friendly measures related to criminal and civil proceedings are essential to protect victims and ensure their access to justice."

Sultan Kusetov, the head of the criminal police committee under the Interior Ministry, said: "Combating human trafficking and defending the rights of victims is an urgent challenge for law enforcement authorities involved in identifying, preventing and punishing these criminal acts. An important key factor in fighting child trafficking is inter-agency co-ordination and joint co-operation between law enforcement agencies and NGOs."

The seminar was organized by the OSCE Centre in Astana in co-operation with the Interior Ministry, the International Organization for Migration, the United States Embassy and the Union of Crisis Centres NGO.