Progress Report: Criminal Justice Responses to Trafficking in Persons

The first reports of trafficking in the South East Asia region concerned cases of women and girls being moved within or across borders for purposes of sexual exploitation and servile marriage. This Report tracks the achievements of the past decade and examines the challenges that lie ahead. It sets out the seven essential components of an effective criminal justice response to trafficking:
• Strong and comprehensive legal frameworks;
• Specialist investigative capacity to investigate trafficking cases;
• Frontline capacity to identify and respond to trafficking;
• Prosecutorial and judicial capacity with regard to trafficking cases;
• Victim identification, protection and support;
• Provision of special support to victims as witnesses; and
• International legal cooperation in trafficking cases.
Conclusions in this report affirm that ASEAN Member States continue to lead the way in developing strong and effective criminal justice responses to trafficking. The Progress Report confirms that in this part of the world, as in every other, traffickers are very rarely identified, prosecuted and convicted. Victims of trafficking rarely receive any form of justice or redress for the harms committed against them