Human Trafficking Assessment Tool

Overview

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative's (ABA ROLI) Human Trafficking Assessment Tool (HTAT) measures a country's de jure and de facto compliance with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (UN Trafficking Protocol) that supplements the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.

The HTAT analyzes national anti-trafficking laws and government efforts to combat trafficking against the obligations set forth in the Protocol and its host Convention. In addition to international standards, the HTAT references existing regional instruments to combat trafficking, highlights non-governmental organization (NGO) best practices, and includes pertinent compliance and non-compliance examples from around the world.

Trafficking in persons is one of the most prevalent crimes today involving severe human rights violations. By creating the HTAT, the ABA ROLI has joined the global campaign to encourage states to criminalize human trafficking, prosecute human traffickers, protect victims, and develop measures to prevent this phenomenon from occurring.

The HTAT serves as a comprehensive resource on human trafficking and can be used to:

• Assist governments in countries of origin, transit, and destination for victims of human trafficking to prioritize areas of concern, draft strong anti-human trafficking legislation, and implement effective anti-human trafficking programs.Assess states that are not parties to the UN Trafficking Protocol and its host convention and encourage ratification.
• Assist NGOs working to combat human trafficking to monitor compliance with the UN Trafficking Protocol and advance advocacy and programmatic efforts.
• Encourage increased collaboration among NGOs and governments.
• Monitor a country's long-term performance by conducting second and third round assessments to identify improvement or remedial action.
• Assist the donor community to gauge which countries are in greatest need of support and prioritize programmatic funding.