On September 28, 2016, with the support of the U.S. Government and the European Union, the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) launched its Regional Review on Laws, Policies and Practices within ASEAN relating to the Identification, Management and Treatment of Victims of Trafficking, especially Women and Children. The culmination of a nearly two-year process, the launch of the Regional Review provides ASEAN with substantive findings from across the region to build on the momentum from the leaders’ endorsement of the ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (ACTIP) in late 2015. 

The U.S. Government provided support through the ASEAN-U.S. Partnership for Good Governance, Equitable and Sustainable Development and Security, a joint project of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. State Department and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Working with the Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument Human Rights Facility, the project was able to provide guidance and support to the ACWC as it undertook research and drafting of this comprehensive Regional Review. The Regional Review, which has been conducted to strategically align with the ACTIP, provides ASEAN bodies, national-level governments, and civil society a unique resource and recommendations to draw upon in the implementation of the ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons. Specifically, it provides ASEAN Member States a baseline from which to develop regional and national-level initiatives, including providing a definition of trafficking and how it is criminalized, identification and processing of victims at the national-level, rights of protection, support, and recovery and actual practice, victims’ role in the criminal justice process and their rights in policy and practice, and measures to ensure reintegration and to guard against re-trafficking.

In her remarks during the opening ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN, Nina Hachigian, congratulated ASEAN on its efforts to continue to push forward to combat trafficking in persons in the region: “I am glad that the ACWC regional Review we are releasing today will provide ASEAN Member States with information and insight to support implementation of the ACTIP in this very important area of victim identification, management and treatment," she said. "The Review has involved a lot of hard work from researchers, officials, and especially the representatives of the ACWC, who have released these findings into the arena of public debate at a time when the momentum from the leaders’ endorsement ACTIP is still palpable.” 

More than 130 participants attended the event, including from numerous ASEAN bodies, the ASEAN Secretariat, the diplomatic community, civil society and media.