Bangkok, 24 October 2014 –The Thailand COMMIT Youth Forum is now taking place in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, from 25 – 28 October 2014.  Organized by Save the Children, together with Thailand’s National Council for Child and Youth Development (NCYD), International Labour Organization (ILO), World Vision, and UNACT, the Forum allows for Thai youth to discuss and make recommendations on how to prevent youth and migrant children from being exploited or trafficked. 

Each year after the first Thailand’s COMMIT Youth Forum held in 2005, a group of children and young people are selected to participate in the Mekong Children’s Forum on Human Trafficking, resulting in a number of recommendations to governments and civil society groups in the Mekong Subregion.

COMMIT (Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking), which is a government process, aims to develop coordinated and comprehensive policies and programme interventions to end human trafficking across six countries (Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam).

Through young people’s participation, the forum aims to affect positive policy and attitudinal changes.  The forum will enable children and youth to consult with peers and with influential adults.  These young people, who are among the most vulnerable to trafficking, quite often have a different and powerful perspective on what more could be done in the development of anti-trafficking policies and programme activities. 

The primary activity of the forum is to discuss priority issues for young people in Thailand that would ultimately lead to a Mekong Children’s Forum on Human Trafficking.  

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Save the Children in Thailand aims to advocate for commitment by governments at the national and regional levels to eradicate all forms of violence against children. We also work in close collaboration with government, international agencies, and NGO partners to raise awareness and advocate on anti-trafficking initiatives in the Mekong sub-region.

For media contact:

Songporn Leelakitichok 
Communications and Advocacy Coordinator
Save the Children Thailand
Email: bea.leelakitichok@savethechildren.org