Combating human trafficking in Asia

Trafficking in persons, especially women and children, has received a significant amount of international, regional and national attention in recent years. However, the level of awareness and measures taken to address the issues involved in trafficking tend to vary greatly across the subregions of Asia. While interventions have historically focused on socio-economic aspects, recent years have seen some promising legal initiatives. In fact, a proliferation of legal and other instruments has been developed as an essential weapon in the fight against trafficking in the Asia region..

On the international level, the United Nations General Assembly recently adopted the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. In addition to this trafficking-specific instrument, numerous existing international conventions contain provisions or frameworks relevant to trafficking in persons, such as, inter-alia, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, a number of human rights conventions protect human rights and fundamental freedoms violated by trafficking, including slavery and slavery-like practices. Other international conventions address the migration, labour, gender and child dimensions of trafficking