Gender and Trafficking in Human Beings: The EU and ASEAN Responses Compared

Trafficking in human beings for purposes of labour, sexual or other types of exploitation has become a significant challenge to Europe and its migration policies. While much attention has focused on sexual exploitation, the role of gender in trafficking – e.g. in terms of vulnerability to trafficking, the forms that exploitation takes and resulting violations of human rights – continues to be contested. The European Union has developed its approach to trafficking over the last 15 years and its 2011 Directive requires attention to the ‘gender perspective’. ASEAN adopted its Convention against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, in 2015. Despite their many differences, both the EU and ASEAN have been criticised in the past for overly focusing on a criminal justice response aimed at the prosecution of traffickers. This paper examines the current state of the law and practice in the EU and ASEAN, asking how the issue of trafficking is understood and approached. The paper argues that the comparison between the EU and ASEAN highlights the important role of gender norms and assumptions in shaping the conceptualisation of counter-trafficking policy.