CIFAL Jeju - Enhancing a Victim-Centered Approach: Identification, Assistance, and Protection of Trafficking Victims in the Asia-Pacific Region
Trafficking in persons is a violation against human rights. It involves the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving a person through the use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploitation. Virtually every country in the world is affected by trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced labour, servitude, and removal of organs as a country of origin, transit or destination. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their home countries and abroad.
While estimates of the number of persons trafficked vary, ILO research indicates that an estimated 20.9 million persons, around 3 out of every 1,000 people globally, are subjected to forced labour. Even this staggering figure is largely considered a conservative estimate given the clandestine nature of the crime, and the strict methodology applied. The Asia-Pacific region records by far the highest rates of human trafficking in the world. The same ILO report as mentioned above, estimates that some 11.7 million people from the region are in conditions of forced labour at any given point in time. UNODC’s 2012 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons demonstrated that, while human trafficking is truly a global phenomenon, it most commonly occurs intra-regionally, with each region and sub-region experiencing unique and geographically-characterized patterns for origins and destinations.
CIFAL Jeju serves as a knowledge hub and platform for promoting city-to-city cooperation. Through this approach, CIFAL directs its capacity building efforts towards local actors. CIFAL Jeju / Jeju International Training Center (JITC) focuses on the thematic area of social inclusion, especially focuses on human trafficking issues which impact the capability of human beings to drive their own lives and decide their own future. Cities in the Asia-Pacific region can substantially improve the situation by focusing and sharing experiences on the prevention of trafficking, prosecution of traffickers and the protection and reintegration of victims of trafficking. CIFAL Jeju’s training efforts aim to strengthening the role of local authorities and actors in the Asia-Pacific region to better identify and protect victims of trafficking.
The capacity building training workshop will:
Demonstrate the linkages between human security and the victim-centered approach to addressing trafficking in persons;
Explain and apply standards and exchange good practices in identifying, assisting and protecting victims of trafficking;
Analyze how anti-trafficking strategies, policies and frameworks can be adapted for local implementation and present inter-agency/governmental coordination methods; and
Promote information sharing and exchange of best practices between central/provincial governments and NGOs/local actors.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
Identify the basic concepts related to trafficking in persons, human security and human trafficking, especially among women, children, and refuges in the region;
Describe the difference between human trafficking and human smuggling, forced labour and other related exploitation;
Identify key challenges and recognize best practices and lessons learned to address human trafficking and, as well as policy measures for enhancing human security at the local level;
Identify key challenges, recognize and apply practical solutions to ensure that victims of trafficking are protected base of identified needs;
Apply tools and methods such as UNITAR's CityShare methodology to rate and compare each other’s anti- trafficking policies, and make specific action plans for local implementation and follow-up of lessons learned (via city-to-city cooperation, awareness raising activities, inter-governmental coordination, and other practical implementation examples); and
Develop professional networks aimed at exchanging information and knowledge.
The workshop will address the following topics:
Module 1: Introducing the concepts and current trends in trafficking in persons
Module 2: Identification of victims of trafficking
Module 3: Global approach to addressing trafficking in persons
Module 4: Refugees and trafficking in persons
Module 5: Providing assistance to victims of trafficking
Module 6: Prosecution
Module 7: Prevention
Module 8: Monitoring and Evaluation
Module 9: Cityshare Methodology
The training will be delivered through:
Lectures and presentations by experts
Practical exercises and group discussions
UNITAR CityShare Methodology
Action plan development and presentation
Study visit
The targeted audience of this workshop includes local government officials and other related personnel from NGOs and institutions who directly work with victims of trafficking.