The overarching goals of this Toolkit are those of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which will be referred to hereinafter as the “Trafficking in Persons Protocol”. These goals are: To prevent and combat trafficking, To protect and assist its victims, To promote international cooperation. In pursuit of these goals, the Toolkit seeks to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information among policymakers, law enforcers, judges, prosecutors, victim service providers and members of civil society who are working at different levels towards these same objectives.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an international human rights treaty which aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and to promote equal rights between men and women worldwide. CEDAW is of great significance to trafficking in women and the exploitation of migrant women workers because it obliges states to uphold, promote, protect, respect and fulfil many rights which are critical in preventing and eliminating trafficking in women and the exploitation of migrant women workers and ensuring that adequate and rightsenhancing protections and remedies are afforded to those affected. The fulfillment of states’ obligations and duties under the Convention is monitored by the CEDAW Committee, a group of 23 independent human rights experts. One of the key ways in which state implementation is monitored is through the periodic review process, in which state parties are obliged to report to the Committee on measures undertaken to implement the Convention which subsequently assesses state progress and identifies areas for improvement. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also have the opportunity to provide information to the Committee on the situation of women’s rights in countries under review and to lobby them to address issues of particular importance with the state. Over the years, throughout the review process, trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers have been addressed with varying degrees of success. Limited understandings and experience of working on trafficking, as well as a strong prostitution abolitionist presence within the Committee has meant that more often than not trafficking has been dealt with in the context of sexual exploitation and in isolation from migration, labour and discrimination issues. Information provided to the Committee by NGOs on the situation of trafficking has typically been similarly narrow in scope and depth, and disconnected from the broader issues within which it exists. A more comprehensive and nuanced approach to trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers must be adopted if the review process is to be effective in advancing women’s rights in these particular areas of concern. Accordingly, this toolkit provides guidance to NGOs engaging in the CEDAW review process. It hopes to enable NGO reporting to provide more thorough information on the situation of trafficking in women and the exploitation of women migrant workers 7 and to link these areas of concern with migration, labour and discrimination issues. It also provides lobbying tools for NGOs to facilitate effective advocacy to the Committee on these issues, in order that the Committee is better equipped to address trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers with states under review.

This document is an initial set of practical tools developed jointly by the member agencies of ICAT to address an issue identified by ICAT members as being critical for the international community to tackle in order to better respond to trafficking in persons and improve the impact of anti-trafficking activities, through discussing common design and evaluation issues.

Over the last half decade, IOM has implemented many counter-trafficking actions in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Although there have been major improvements in efforts to combat trafficking in human beings (THB) within these countries, as the modes of operation of traffickers continue to evolve, States need to ensure that interventions continue to address the needs of victims on the ground while at the same time focusing on targeted capacity-building of law enforcement. This is particularly true in light of recently identified global trends, including the increased incidents of trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation, the recognized under-identification of male victims and an observed rise in the number of children identified as victims. Therefore, at the end of 2015, IOM undertook a project funded by the IOM Development Fund to improve planned THB interventions in the countries in the South Caucasus by making available a comprehensive assessment of the overall THB situation in each country. The assessment was done for these specific purposes: (1) to collect and synthesize stakeholder views of the current human trafficking landscape and responses thereto in the region; (2) to identify stakeholders’ perspectives on the trafficking situation and trends, as well as the gaps in relation to identification and referral, assistance and protection, and prevention and cooperation; and (3) to arrive at key conclusions and offer recommendations on how to strengthen existing responses, correct inappropriate processes, and address gaps at the domestic and, to the extent possible, regional levels. In order to produce these reports, a researcher was hired to develop a counter-trafficking needs assessment tool in line with international standards to serve as a basis for a needs assessment of existing State and non-government organization counter-trafficking mechanisms in each country. The research methodology included a desk review, stakeholder survey, in-person interviews conducted in each country and a national validation workshop for each country. As a result of this initiative, three separate national country reports for Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan were produced in June 2016. The findings within each report are broken down into the following categories: (a) national THB trends; (b) identification and referral; (c) assistance and protection; (d) investigation and prosecution; (e) prevention; (f) and coordination and cooperation. Findings were based on indicators developed as a part of the tool. Each report additionally contains recommendations to address gaps within each listed category, which stakeholders are invited to consider in their future efforts to combat THB in their respective countries.

This handbook presents the determinants of migrant vulnerability (DOMV) model for analyzing and responding to migrant vulnerability. The DOMV model is specifically designed to address the protection and assistance needs of a specific subset of migrants: those who have experienced or are vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and abuse before, during or after the migration process.The handbook further presents best practices and lessons learned in migrant protection and assistance, based on IOM’s extensive experience in providing protection and assistance services to trafficked and other vulnerable migrants, and on the provision of return and reintegration services to migrants from around the globe.