BANGKOK, THAILAND, 2-4 April 2019 – NEXUS Institute was pleased to attend the launch of the ACWC Regional Guidelines and Procedures to Address the Needs of Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. The ACWC Regional Guidelines provide ASEAN Member States with a common approach through which to implement commitments under the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP), presenting a set of agreed upon regional multi-sectoral guidelines and procedures that reflect national, regional, and international commitments across six primary areas:
- victim definition and identification
- victim protection and support
- special measures for victim-witnesses
- special and additional measures for child victims
- access to remedies
- return, recovery and reintegration
NEXUS provided ongoing technical support and expertise to the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) during the drafting of the ACWC Regional Guidelines.
Following the official launch in Bangkok, NEXUS Senior Researcher Rebecca Surtees also participated in the practitioners workshop with other ACWC-appointed practitioners to further elaborate the ACWC Regional Guidelines into a model implementation toolkit. Participants included ACWC representatives, ACWC-nominated TIP practitioners from each ASEAN Member State (AMS), representatives from the Poverty Eradication and Gender Division of the ASEAN Secretariat, and technical experts from select development partner organizations, including from the ASEAN-Australia Countering TIP (AACT) project, International Organization for Migration (IOM), USAID Asia CTIP, the Asia Foundation, NEXUS Institute, and others. Participants reviewed the initial draft model implementation guide, refined its contents through working group discussions, and identified next steps for finalizing the draft.