The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be organising the Conference on United Partnerships against Human Trafficking during 26 – 27 April 2018 at the Conrad Hotel, Bangkok. On this occasion, H.E. Mr. Virasakdi Futrakul, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, will deliver opening remarks, followed by two keynote addresses by Mr. Wanchai Roujanavong, Vice-Chair of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) and Dr. Vitit Muntarbhorn, Professor Emeritus of Law, Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University, and former Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

          Highlights of the programme will include two video messages – one from the Honourable Chris Smith, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senior Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Chairman of its Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee and another from Dr. Jean Baderschneider, CEO and Founding Board Member of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery.  In addition, the meeting will hear statements from Mrs. Wirawan (Boom) Mosby, Founder and Director of the HUG Project Thailand and Awardee of the 2017 TIP Report Hero and the Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for Human Rights in 2018, and from representatives of the International Organization for Migration and the Thai Union Group Public Company Limited.

          The general debate part of the conference consists of two panel discussions by experts in the field. In the afternoon session of 26 April 2018, the panel discussion on “Women and Children in Sex Trafficking” will be moderated by Mrs. Wirawan (Boom) Mosby. She will be joined by panelists from the Royal Thai Police, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security of Thailand, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This panel will examine gaps and challenges in existing co-operation and explore future co-operation in order to put an end to human trafficking in women and children. Panelists will also exchange good practices with and benefit from the experiences of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

          Another panel discussion on “Labour in the Fisheries Sector,” to be held in the morning of 27 April 2018, will be moderated by Dr. Netithorn Praditsarn, Member of the Subcommittee on the Studying and Monitoring of the Promotion and Protection of Thailand’s Image and Interests Overseas under the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the National Legislative Assembly. Panelists will include experts from the Ministry of Labour, the International Labour Organization, the Stella Maris Seafarers’ Center, the Labour Right Promotion Network Foundation (LPN), and the Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) Public Company Limited. In this panel, discussants will take stock of Thailand’s progress in the implementation of policy and legal measures to eradicate labour exploitation, exchange and streamline good labour practices, explore measures to enhance capacity building of labour iinspectors,  and strengthen public-private partnerships in the prevention of labour exploitation in the fisheries sector. 

          At the end of the programme, participants will discuss and adopt an outcome document of the conference entitled “Bangkok Call,” which will provide a set of recommendations and guidelines for a whole-of-society approach in combating trafficking in children and women and preventing labour exploitation in the fisheries sector.      

          The conference aims to reaffirm the political will and the solid commitment of the Government in the prevention and suppression of human trafficking in line with the national policy and agenda. It also aims to raise social awareness and galvanise multi-stakeholders’ co-operation and partnerships – be it from the public sector, the civil society, or the business community – in fighting against human trafficking. The meeting is a clarion call for all stakeholders within and outside the country to unite in their sustainable efforts to end human trafficking, in line with the Political Declaration on the Implementation of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. 

          Participants will include around 300 representatives from governmental agencies, international organisations, the diplomatic corps, the civil society, 

the business community and the academia.