13.8: Regional Efforts to Address Transnational Crime

While United Nations and multilateral conventions are an important mechanism for combating transnational crime and enhancing human security, there are some limitations to such international efforts. For example, there are differences among countries in their perception of the seriousness of the problem, in their commitment to adhere and enforce such conventions, and in their ability and willingness to prosecute trafficking offenders—which requires on-going political commitment to contribute the necessary economic resources. Other barriers to effective international efforts to combat transnational crime include bureaucratic inflexibility and a lack of information sharing. Instead of international conventions, therefore, it may be that regional efforts and structures for enforcement—such as the European Union Europol or Southeast Asia’s Aseanapol—offer a better approach. This is because regional governments are more likely to face similar crime problems, be more willing to share information, be more able to harmonize laws against transnational crime, and be more willing to cooperate in enforcing such laws.

One example is the 2005 Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. This develops a rights-based approach to trafficking based on prevention, the protection of victims, and the prosecution of traffickers. In an operation in March 2011 in ‘one of the biggest cases of its kind’ Europol identified 670 suspects, arrested 184 persons, and identified and rescued 230 children. ^[3] All of the Council of Europe’s 47 members had ratified the Convention as of June 2019.

Another regional example is the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) whose member states have adopted a common position and expressed their willingness to increase cooperation against transnational crime. The Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime was established in 2002 to help ASEAN members work together on practical measures to help combat the smuggling of people, trafficking in persons, and related transnational crimes in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The Declaration from the Sixth Bali Process Ministerial Conference in 2016 acknowledged:

the growing scale and complexity of irregular migration challenges both within and outside the Asia Pacific region … [and] supports measures that would contribute to comprehensive long term strategies addressing the crimes of people smuggling and human trafficking as well as reducing migrant exploitation by expanding safe, legal and affordable migration pathways. (Ministerial Conference of the Bali Process, 2016, pp. 1, 5)

For the most part, the regional approach of ASEAN appears to be limited to releasing numerous communiqués, with member countries lacking in resources and confronting high levels of corruption. Moreover, because ASEAN is built on a consensus model, members are reluctant to criticise each other, leading to resistance to institutional reforms and few concrete policy outcomes (Emmers, 2010). In the case of piracy at sea, for example, most ASEAN members tend to respect the limits of their territorial jurisdiction and are reluctant to prosecute pirates if those crimes were committed outside of their own jurisdiction. Criminal groups tend to exploit this reluctance and often commit their crimes in the territorial waters of one state before seeking sanctuary under another country’s jurisdiction.