Effective adjudication is essential to securing justice for victims of trafficking in persons, holding offenders accountable, and strengthening public confidence in the justice system.
Courts across ASEAN are increasingly applying victim-centred, trauma-informed, and rights-based approaches, while adapting to an evolving trafficking landscape.
To support this effort, the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices Working Group on Judicial Education and Training (CACJ WG-JET), in collaboration with ASEAN judiciaries and with support from the Australian Government-funded ASEAN-Australia Counter Trafficking program (ASEAN-ACT), produced this Compendium through a series of judicial knowledge exchanges.
The Compendium capture practical, experience-based insights from courts across ASEAN on the adjudication of trafficking in persons case. They highlight approaches to victim protection and support, child-responsive procedures, the use of digital evidence, restitution, and access to justice.
The Compendium also document gender-responsive and inclusive counter-trafficking initiatives and serve as practical resources for judges and other counter-trafficking stakeholders seeking to strengthen implementation of the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP) and promote fair, victim-centred trials across the region.
- Synthesises lessons, good practices, and challenges from Indonesia and the Philippines.
- Builds on and updates the 2024 compendium, which drew on the 2023 ASEAN Judicial Knowledge Exchange between the two countries.
- Incorporates recent case experiences, jurisprudential developments, and capacity-building initiatives in both countries.
- Provides jurisdiction-specific examples and judicial practices from Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Singapore.
- Serves as a companion to Volume 1, extending the compendium series to additional ASEAN judiciaries.
- Draws on the 2025 judicial knowledge exchange among these countries in Vientiane, Lao PDR.