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POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Sociology of Law
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1395907

Hong Kong Anti-Human Trafficking Framework: What Lessons Can be Learned from Europe?

Provisionally accepted
Noble Po-kan Lo Noble Po-kan Lo 1,2*
  • 1 College of Professional and Continuing Education, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 2 Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The paper examines the regulatory framework related to human trafficking in Hong Kong and identifies its deficiencies as being the lack of an accepted internationally compliant definition of trafficking, and the absence of any specific criminal offence of trafficking as a result. The paper compares the approach taken in Hong Kong to efforts undertaken in Europe by the Council of Europe, the UK, and the European Union, and identifies several lessons from the European experience which could help rectify failures observed in Hong Kong. In particular, it is shown that the effective combatting of human trafficking is dependent not only upon a definition of a trafficking offence which recognises the essential elements of there being an 'act', a 'means', and a 'purpose' of exploitation, but also upon the state establishing sufficient institutions and agencies dedicated to identification and protection of trafficking victims. Without the detection of trafficking victims, criminals engaged in the act of trafficking perceive their chances of being caught and prosecuted as low, and operate with impunity. This necessitates the adoption of a consistent and readily identifiable criminal offence of 'trafficking' aligned with the approach taken by the Palermo Protocol, just as the EU and UK have done.

    Keywords: Human Trafficking; Anti-Human Trafficking Framework, Hong Kong's Modern Slavery Bill, Council of Europe, European Convention on Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights

    Received: 04 Mar 2024; Accepted: 10 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Noble Po-kan Lo, College of Professional and Continuing Education, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China

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