VIENNA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) need to establish long-awaited national monitoring and reporting mechanisms to document and combat human trafficking, an OSCE press release said on Tuesday.

    According to OSCE's press release, more than 60 governmental officials responsible for combating human trafficking in their respective countries are participating in the two-day seminar here.

    Eva Biaudet, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings noted at the seminar that participating countries need to identify the scope of human trafficking within their borders. National rapporteurs or similar mechanisms to report, review and measure progress made at the national level, based on assessment and evaluation, are critically important, Biaudet said.

    The 2003 OSCE Action Plan to combat human trafficking recommended that the organization's 56 participating states establish and strengthen the role of national rapporteurs or similar mechanisms. The Hague Declaration made the first international call to establish such a national mechanism in the OSCE region in 1997. But to date, only a handful of the OSCE participating states have such monitoring systems in place, the OSCE's press release said.

    "We lack an overall picture of the scope of the problem, of trends. We even lack an accurate assessment of the results of our actions. This seminar is a great opportunity to expand our knowledge on the basis of accurate national reports," said Biaudet.