cases. An international and a local trainer specialized in online investigative journalism delivered the training that focused on new media tools as well as objective, unbiased and accurate reporting of cases. The training also included the treatment of victims during interviews. Participants also visited an NGO-run shelter for victims of sexual exploitation. On 19-20 September, the Office visited the Rehabilitation and Reintegration Centre for Victims of Trafficking in Mingechevir. The NGO Clean World Public Union is running the centre, which the IOM supports. The centre assists potential and presumed victims of sexual exploitation. On 30 September, the Office and USAID visited the shelter for street children run by the NGO Azerbaijan Children Union. The purpose of the visit was to review the situation regarding street children as potential risk groups for trafficking and to elaborate on the possibility of the Office’s support to the Union’s work on the prevention of child trafficking and provision of assistance to the child victims of trafficking and forced labour. In 2011, the shelter was assisting thirteen street children who had experienced various forms of violence. On 3-7 October, the Office participated in the “Human Dimension Implementation Meeting”, attending sessions on “Gender Equality”, “Migration” and “Human Trafficking”. Participants discussed the current situation in the OSCE area concerning human trafficking and forced labour and existing OSCE commitments in addressing trafficking for various forms of labour exploitation. On 13 October, the Office met with two of its international partners, the ICMPD and ILO. During the meeting, parties discussed the ongoing regional project on counter-trafficking and exchanged ideas on the establishment of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the identification of victims of trafficking and forced labour. On 18 October, the Office met with representatives of the IOM and UNHCR. The parties discussed the possibility of conducting joint training activities for law enforcement agencies on the topic of trafficking in human beings, forced labour, mixed migration and undocumented persons as potential victims of trafficking and forced labour. The first series of training activities was scheduled to take place in selected regions of Azerbaijan in December of 2011. On 25-27 October, the Office participated and spoke at a training session organized and conducted by the IOM. The three-day training course included participants from law enforcement who have responsibility for combating trafficking in persons. The training provided participants with an in-depth overview of reactive and proactive investigative techniques to enable them to identify and analyze the key investigative challenges that they face in their work. The training covered a combination of inter-active plenary and working group sessions based on a specially constructed case study scenario. The training was part of the activities developed within the Regional Consortium project “Strengthening of Comprehensive Anti-Trafficking Responses in the South Caucasus.” On 31 October, the Office launched a needs assessment for the investigation and prosecution of trafficking in human beings and forced labour in Azerbaijan. The needs assessment mission, comprising two international experts, commenced their first series of meetings with state agencies, such as the State Migration Service and the Anti-Trafficking Unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The expert team also met with representatives of the State Labour Inspection, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of National Security, as well as with international organizations and civil society members. In addition, the team conducted a desk review of anti-trafficking policy documents and legislation to assess the current anti-trafficking system concerning the detection, investigation of cases and identification of victims. The assessment report provided a set of recommendations that the Office was going to discuss with the host Government in the weeks to come. 89