Shaping Human Trafficking Policy in SE Asia and Through the UN SDGs

In July, Acting Associate Director Jessie Brunner attended a United Nations University two-day workshop in New York that convened diverse stakeholders to discuss how best to implement UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7, which aims to eradicate modern slavery, human trafficking and forced labour by 2030, and to eradicate child labour by 2025. The Alliance 8.7 was created to help achieve this ambitious undertaking and coordinate with those working on the many interrelated Sustainable Development Goals.

The collection of accurate, robust data is essential to monitor and fulfill target 8.7. Currently, Jessie is in Southeast Asia conducting research to inform the design of a toolkit aimed at promoting promising practices on data collection and encouraging government collaboration to combat human trafficking among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States. This builds on her publication, “Inaccurate Numbers, Inadequate Policies: Enhancing Data to Evaluate the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in ASEAN,” that provides analysis and recommendations to support ASEAN regional anti-trafficking efforts. Stay tuned for the toolkit publication in December 2017!

Those interested to learn more about the issue of human trafficking are invited to join us on October 5 for a talk featuring Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick on his new book, "What Slaveholders Think."  

Stay abreast of the Handa Center’s work in human trafficking here.