OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine to support anti-trafficking festival

KYIV, 30 September 2005 - Innovative and youth-oriented awareness-raising activities will mark Ukraine's first anti-trafficking festival, which will take place tomorrow simultaneously in several regions around the country.

The festival, supported by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, seeks to draw the attention of the nation's youth to the issue of trafficking in human beings. Top Ukrainian music bands will perform in the central squares of Kyiv and the regional centres of Odessa, Vinnitsa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Luhansk to help spread the anti-trafficking message. Well-known actors and government representatives will also address this topic throughout the day.

The Gender Theatre of the School of Equal Opportunities, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization (NGO), will present several performances on trafficking, gender violence and HIV/AIDS prevention.

A number of media sponsors, including radio, television and print outlets, are promoting the festival.

This initiative, which is the first of numerous, wide-ranging anti-trafficking campaigns in Ukraine, is the result of a close co-operative effort by governmental institutions, NGOs, international organizations, embassies and businesses. It represents a model for future co-operation in this field.