A/HRC/15/27 note verbale to this effect was sent to all permanent missions in Geneva on 10 July 2009. The requested compilation of views, reflecting responses to the note verbale, is submitted in the document A/HRC/15/27/Add.1. II. Organization of the seminar A. Opening of the seminar 6. The Chair for the first day of the Seminar, the Director of the Research and Right to Development Division of OHCHR, welcomed participants and explained the objectives and structure of the seminar. She then introduced the three opening speakers: the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; the President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen, and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. 7. In her opening address, the High Commissioner for Human Rights congratulated the Human Rights Council for convening the important event. She noted that it was taking place 10 years after the adoption of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking Protocol), a landmark international agreement that had provided structure and impetus for the development of a strong legal framework around the issue of trafficking in persons. The High Commissioner affirmed that the work of her office in that area was guided by the rights-based approach enshrined in the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking. In response to a need reflected in observations from stakeholders, OHCHR had begun developing a detailed commentary to the Principles and Guidelines. It was hoped that the commentary to the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, which was also to be informed by the results of the seminar, would help States, United Nations agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to promote, support and implement effective rights-based responses to trafficking. The High Commissioner emphasized the important role to be played by survivors of human trafficking in helping to shape effective rights-based responses to combating trafficking. She informed participants of an event, to be held by OHCHR at the fourteenth session of the Human Rights Council event on 2 June 2010, which was aimed to give voice to the experience and the views of survivors. 8. The President of the Human Rights Council affirmed the Council’s commitment to the issue of trafficking and informed participants that the Council would consider the proceedings of the Seminar and its recommendations in September. He noted that six delegations from the five regional groups were also co-sponsoring the panel of survivors of trafficking mentioned by the High Commissioner. The President of the Human Rights Council highlighted the strong link between trafficking and human rights: trafficking violated the right to life, the right to decent work that was freely chosen, and the right to protection against discrimination, arbitrary detention, forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage and commercial sexual exploitation. The Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, under consideration at the current meeting, were the first articulation of the human rights-based approach to trafficking and had provided a valuable contribution to the mainstreaming of human rights in the work of States, regional organizations and United Nations agencies in combating trafficking. 9. The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children welcomed the convening of the seminar. She noted that the Principles and Guidelines had been an important resource for the work of her mandate. The Special Rapporteur noted that 4