In order to be effective, efforts to address trafficking require that the states adopt tactics that respond to the specific dynamics of the problem. Trafficking involves both intra state and international activities involving vulnerable populations largely unable to avail themselves of existing protection mechanisms.
This requires a state strategy that attacks the problem from a regional, international and
local level.
I. At the Regional Level
II. Create a Regional Framework.
As this research and the long history of sex trafficking in this region reveals, a common
understanding of trafficking and agreement on basic principles does not
yet exist. Yet the necessary coordinated response cannot proceed
without such an agreement.
Since a variety of international instruments
provide a useful framework through which to address this problem it is
recommended that governments:
a. Adopt the UN Convention on Transnational
Organized Crime and its Trafficking Protocol. The UN Convention on
Transnational Organized Crime and its Trafficking Protocol, already
adopted by the international community and expected to enter into
force in the near future, can be used to introduce a uniform language to
facilitate the creation and implementation of regional strategies.
Ratification of these documents will give meaningful guidance to States
as they begin to address trafficking in the region.
b. Implement Existing Related Treaties. Recognizing
that the Organized Crime Convention and Trafficking Protocol were
designed to assist states in combating international crime, the
provisions of the Trafficking Protocol should be understood as
complementary to the human rights protections related to trafficking
contained in treaties universally ratified by the region's states:
Convention on the Rights of the Child, ILO Convention No. 182,
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women, and the Inter American Convention of Belem do Para.
Toward this end, the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on
Human Rights and Human Trafficking issued by the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights will offer important guidance.
c. Adopt the Inter American Convention on
International Traffic in Minors and the UN Optional Protocol on the
Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
d. Coordinate through the Central American
Parliament (PARLACEN). Given the similarities in existing legislation
on trafficking, bringing existing laws into conformity with each other
and enhancing those laws where necessary may be facilitated through
PARLACEN and the development of model legislation against
trafficking that includes all forms of exploitation.