Twenty-eight young people from six countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) joined the Regional COMMIT Youth Forum in Phnom Penh from 27-30 April where they presented recommendations to their governments on how to best support youth-led community activities for human trafficking prevention.

“Human trafficking is a very relevant issue for these young people. They have witnessed or experienced it within their communities and they are best placed to develop recommendations for the government to maximize the positive impact that young people can have in the fight against human trafficking,” said Warankana Mutumol, Child Protection Specialist, Save the Children. 

The youth participants, who were between the ages of 15 and 25, delivered the following recommendations to their governments:

• Invite young people selected by their peers to join the COMMIT Task Forces;
• Make funding available to young people to implement trafficking prevention activities in their communities and provide approval and mechanisms for government to participate and provide input; and
• Help young people acquire safe migration skills and trafficking awareness by making learning about migration and human trafficking part of the mainstream school curriculum, using available toolkits such as World Vision's Smart Navigator toolkit and empowering young people as trainers. 

The recommendations were well received as were the creative examples of educational tools for human trafficking prevention that youth created and displayed, including a game developed by the Thai youth, where choosing safe migration actions, such as memorizing a hotline number, allows the players to advance while risky migration behaviour, like giving up your passport, causes setbacks.

Cambodia’s official trying out the safe migration game created by the Thai youth during the Regional COMMIT Youth Forum.

“Young people know what their peers are listening to, what they are watching, who influences them and how they like to get information. The Regional COMMIT Youth Forum gave these young people a platform to use this knowledge to engage their governments,” said Lindsey Higgs, IOM X Public Sector Officer. “By working together, we are finding solutions for those who are most affected by this issue – the young people themselves.” 

Shadow puppet performance created by the Myanmar youth as a tool for raising awareness about human trafficking.

The COMMIT Youth Forum, formerly known as the Mekong Youth Forum (MYF), was established in 2004 as an initiative of a coalition of children’s rights and counter-trafficking organizations. The transition of the Mekong Youth Forum to the COMMIT Youth Forum reflects the increasing integration of youth participation in national and regional counter-trafficking efforts. “The process of the CYF starts at the national level, where each country in the Greater Mekong Sub-region organises a national youth forum in which children and young people actively involved in anti-trafficking work discuss the challenges of their own countries and develop recommendations for their respective government. The national forum is also a platform for the children and youth to select their representatives to participate in the Regional COMMIT Youth forum”, said Stefan Stoyanov, World Vision’s End Trafficking in Persons Policy Project Manager.

Youth from Lao P.D.R, planning creative outreach activities during the Regional COMMIT Youth Forum.

The Youth Forum took place in conjunction with the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and Inter-Ministerial Meeting (IMM), where the fourth Sub-Regional Plan of Action (SPA-IV) was approved. SPA-IV includes support for the COMMIT Youth Forum and collaboration with community stakeholders across the six COMMIT countries – Cambodia, China, Lao P.D.R., Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.  

Six representatives from the Regional COMMIT Youth Forum present their recommendations during the COMMIT Inter-Ministerial Meeting with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng.

“As the representative from the Thai Government, I admire the youth for their recommendations and ideas.  The recommendations from youth are innocent and powerful.  We will use and implement the output and products by these youths to convey messages on the issue of human trafficking for the benefits of our communities and the child target groups.  I hope that the other COMMIT Youth Member countries will support the children’s work and encourage them to allow children to have a voice.  We see the future of our countries and communities in the hands of these youths,” said the chairperson of the youth engagement session, Ms. Saowanee Khommapat, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Social Development and Welfare, Thailand's Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

“I learned many things from this forum.  I learned more about human trafficking and safe migration.  I hope the government will support more money to organize more activities to prevent trafficking in communities.  This forum also has taught me to work in a team and be confident when presenting our work,” Nguyen Van Doan, 15, speaks about his experience at the Regional COMMIT Youth Forum.

The Regional COMMIT Youth Forum was endorsed by the six COMMIT governments and organized and supported by child rights and counter-trafficking organizations and bodies – IOM X, Save the Children, Terre des Hommes Netherlands, UN-ACT and World Vision. 

###

For media enquiries, please contact:
Songporn Leelakitichok
Communications and Advocacy Coordinator 
bea.leelakitichok@savethechildren.org