Human Rights and Anti-Trafficking As part of its project on “Human Rights Protection for Trafficked Persons and Vulnerable Groups in Central Asia”, ODIHR carried out two assessments in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The first of these focused on National Referral Mechanisms (NRMs) and was held in Kyrgyzstan from February to April 2013, while the second assessment studied the access of trafficked persons to compensation and was held in Kazakhstan from May to August 2013. Law-enforcement officers were among those interviewed for the assessments along with representatives of other state agencies, international organizations and NGOs working in the field of anti-trafficking. In May, ODIHR organized a regional round table on “Building National Referral Mechanisms: Gaps Analysis and Good Practices”, held in Istanbul.35 One of the aims of the round table was to familiarize participants from different agencies and different countries with the work of their counterparts, in order to build co-operation between them. Police officers and prosecutors from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were given the opportunity to exchange experience with their counterparts from Belgium, the Netherlands and Moldova, as well as with the participating NGOs. In August, ODIHR launched a call among civil society actors in Central Asia for small projects aimed at empowering victims and potential victims of trafficking. The small projects selected from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were going to mainly focus on awareness-raising, in particular in remote locations and among the youth, as well as on increasing the capacity of NGOs and state agencies working on anti-trafficking and building co-operation with diaspora communities; together with other aspects of THB prevention and the provision of assistance to trafficked persons. Most of the projects selected involved co-operation with government counterparts, in particular the Ministries of Interior and Prosecutor’s offices, which have been invited to assist either as experts or as beneficiaries. Throughout 2013, ODIHR contributed to the activities of OSCE field presences involving law enforcement officers. As such, ODIHR contributed to a training course on the “Investigation and Prosecution of Suspected Trafficking Offenses, and Conviction and Punishment of Trafficking Offenders for Law Enforcement Agencies, the Judiciary and Defense Lawyers”, organized by the OSCE Office in Ashgabat jointly with the TNTD/SPMU on 24-25 July. The Office also contributed to a seminar on “the Multidisciplinary Approach to Combating Human Trafficking: Referral Mechanisms and Co-operation”, organized by the OSCE Mission to Moldova in Tiraspol; as well as to a conference on “Promoting Sustainability of State-Led National Referral Mechanisms for Victims of Human Trafficking”, held in Kyiv in November. Travel Document Security and Population Registration On 26-27 November, ODIHR and the TNTD/ATU jointly organized an “Expert Roundtable on Addressing the Link between Travel Document Security and Population Registration/Civil Registration Documents and Processes”, which took place in Warsaw. The roundtable explored the latest trends in forging travel documents, with special focus on the particular practices criminals and terrorists employ to obtain genuine travel documents (including electronic passports) under a fake identity. The roundtable also sought to identify measures the OSCE can take to enhance international efforts that link travel document issuing systems to civil registry systems as part of a robust mechanism for the management and issuance of national identity and travel documents. 35 For a press release on the roundtable, see: <http://www.osce.org/odihr/101832>, accessed on 17 January 2014. 157