The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Friday urged member-nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to help stamp out the $32-billion global human trafficking.

Speaking during the forum of ASEAN national human rights institutions (NHRI) in Mandaluyong City, CHR Chairperson Leila M. De Lima said crafting a regional protocol on the trafficking of women and children is one significant contribution in ending the trade in human, stressing that it is a modern form of slavery.

“As this Protocol is drafted, let us maximize the sharing of best practices and successful mechanisms, among our countries, and our institutions.

Let us understand what has worked before, and adapt and replicate it, on a wider scale. Let us also understand what has not worked in the past, so that ways can be found to avoid similar fates, moving forward,” she stressed.

De Lima explained that as early as 2003, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) placed the annual profit from human trafficking between $7 billion and $10 billion annually while the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated the organized crime to be grossing nearly $32 billion.

“The outcome of this drafting must be an instrument which functions at an operational level. It must offer a means for providing regional support to national institutions and national laws, while also helping to make concrete as well as further develop the norms and obligations already found in international law,” De Lima added.

Her call came in the wake of the approval of the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), which will be ready to be “a form of template for regional cooperation on the issue of human trafficking, within the ASEAN. It will embody the experiences and best practices, of various national and regional human rights institutions, making it a logical place to begin, for a regional human rights body.”

This makes trafficking a most heinous crime since it exploits human beings and causes them untold suffering for the sake of profit.