ASEAN Bulletin An “ASEAN Handbook on International Legal Cooperation in Trafficking in Persons Cases” to help improve cooperation between criminal justice officials who are involved in cross-border trafficking investigations, was launched in Manila recently. The Handbook provides a step-by-step guide to pursuing transnational trafficking cases where victims, perpetrators and evidence are located in more than one country. It outlines the key forms of international cooperation, from informal police-to-police assistance to mutual legal assistance and extradition, as well as full documentation for making or responding to a request for cooperation. The standards set out in key international and regional treaties relating to transnational organised crime; corruption; and international legal cooperation are also clearly explained in the Handbook to strengthen the collaboration amongst the law enforcement, judiciary and prosecutorial officials of ASEAN. In introducing the Handbook, the Secretary-General of ASEAN acknowledged the scale of the challenges currently facing national criminal justice agencies in dealing with this complex crime. “In every part of the world, including our own, traffickers are rarely identified, prosecuted and convicted. This is a particular problem for countries of destination, where the most serious forms of exploitation usually take place. In addition, victims of trafficking rarely receive any form of justice or redress for the harms committed against them,” said Dr Surin Pitsuwan. The Handbook was launched at the side of the 10th Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime on 27 October 2010. It was prepared by technical experts involved in the Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons Project (ARTIP), through the Australian Government Overseas Aid Program (AusAID), and funded by the Australian Government and the European Union, through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). | |
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