participants could consider for use in their national context. Representatives from OSCE field operations in Central Asia and the South Caucasus also participated. ****** 3.5 The Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings Background THB has been recognized as a form of organized crime integrally linked with various other forms, such as drug trafficking, corruption, money laundering, forging of documents, fraud, smuggling of migrants, and terrorist activities, apart from being a gross violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Human trafficking endangers national security and economies of the participating States permeating into the legal economic sectors, and furthermore, transforming labour exploitation resulting from THB into a structural component of the global economy. In 2011, seven professional staff members of the Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (OSR/CTHB) were fully engaged in addressing trafficking in human beings (THB) as an integral part of organized crime, and its dimension of a serious transnational threat. Addressing THB as a Transnational Threat The OSCE commitments and recommendations provide the participating States with valuable tools to meet the challenges of THB as a transnational (as well as internal) threat and challenge. In 2011, the OSR/CTHB continued to promote the implementation of these comprehensive commitments in the course of country visits to Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and the United Kingdom. The SR/CTHB discussed with authorities how best to facilitate cooperation and information exchange on subjects including but not limited to – international co-operation among law enforcement agencies, victim-witness protection and capacitybuilding at an international level, as well as capacity-building of prosecutors and the judiciary. The OSR/CTHB contributed to national and international events related to THB-TNT in Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Istanbul, Minsk, Moscow, Otranto, Palermo, Paris, Pristina, Rome, Saint Petersburg, Sarajevo, and many other cities. In October, the OSR/CTHB participated in the work of the Unified Commission on the Harmonization of Countering Terrorism, Organized Crime and Drug Traffic Legislation in the CIS region, under the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (CIS IPA), and strongly supported draft Commentaries to the CIS Model Law on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and the CIS Model Law on Providing Assistance to the Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings, both adopted by the CIS IPA in 2008. In March, the OSR/CTHB contributed to an annual session of the “Working Group on Prevention of Irregular Migration” of the International Border Police Conference in Minsk. A particular challenge raised by the participants in 2011 was how to distinguish mixed migration flows including irregular migrants and asylum seekers according to internationally recognized standards. The OSR/CTHB was invited to present the OSCE’s approach to THB. 33