Introduction
In line with the relevant ASEAN instruments and Roadmap for an ASEAN Community relating to trafficking in persons, there is a need to have strong international cooperation and a comprehensive regional approach to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, in all forms of sexual, labour, and organ trafficking. This ASEAN Plan of Action, which complements the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP), aims to provide specific action plans within ASEAN Member States’ domestic laws and policies, as well as relevant international obligations, to effectively address regional challenges common to all ASEAN Member States in the identified major concerns, to wit: (1) Prevention of trafficking in persons; (2) Protection of victims; (3) Law enforcement and prosecution of crimes of trafficking in persons; and (4) Regional and International cooperation and coordination.
In undertaking this ASEAN Plan of Action, ASEAN Member States are mindful of the equal rights and inherent human dignity of women, and men, as well as the rights of children, as reflected in the following international and regional instruments, among others:
1. Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN Charter”);
2. United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children;
3. Convention on the Rights of the Child;
4. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women;
5. United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons;
6. ASEAN Human Rights Declaration;
7. ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children adopted in 2004;
8. Criminal Justice Responses to Trafficking in Persons: Ending Impunity for Traffickers and Securing Justice for Victims in 2007 (“ASEAN Practitioner Guidelines”);
9. ASEAN Leaders’ Joint Statement in Enhancing Cooperation against Trafficking in Persons in South East Asia in 2011; and
10. ASEAN Plan of Action to Combat Transnational Crime.
