UNODC releases new anti-human trafficking manual

31.08.2009 14:45

28 August 2009 - Today at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, UNODC released a new manual that addresses gaps in the capacity of criminal justice practitioners to prevent and combat trafficking in persons.

The Anti- Human Trafficking Manual for Criminal Justice Practitioners, which was launched by United States Ambassador-at-large, Luis CdeBaca, elaborates promising practices at every phase of the criminal justice response to trafficking in persons and stands as a practical guide and training tool for criminal justice practitioners.

"The public release of this manual comes at a critical time as we grapple with a downturn in the global economy that is increasing the vulnerability of people at the hands of human traffickers", said Ambassador CdeBaca. He added that effective implementation of anti-trafficking legislation is critical to ending the abhorrent practice of enslaving people for the purpose of extracting their services for profit.

According to the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, released in February 2009, the number of convictions of human traffickers is increasing, but unfortunately not in proportion to the growing extent of the problem and the growing awareness of it.

Reasons for the low number of convictions include absence of anti-trafficking legislation in some countries, the inability to translate legislation on human trafficking into action by law enforcement officials and, in some cases, mistaking human trafficking situations as migrant smuggling. Further to this, sometimes prosecutions are not successful because of the unwillingness of victims to cooperate with the criminal justice system where they have been threatened and intimidated by traffickers.