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Trafficking in persons a broad human rights issue: Washington

August 1, 2022 6:30 am

Ministry of Defence & National Security, Senior Defence Adviser, Joji Washington.

Trafficking in persons is not just a gender issue but a broad human rights issue, as both men and women are being exploited.

Ministry of Defence & National Security, Senior Defence Adviser, Joji Washington says while women and girls may be exploited for domestic, beauty-related and sex work, men in vulnerable regions are also at risk of being forced into more strenuous physical labor.

“To address and effectively counter the global issue of trafficking in persons. Fiji, we recognise the need to work together. Starting at the community level up to the district and divisional, and likewise at the national, regional and international level.”

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Washington says Fiji welcomes the Pacific RISE-CTIP as a program that will support the countering of trafficking in persons in Fiji by strengthening prevention, protection, and prosecution mechanisms.

He says they will achieve the goals of this programme through partnership with Fiji’s CTIP national task force and the Fiji Interagency Working Group on Human Trafficking.

Washington says the partnership will implement the country’s National Human Trafficking Strategy 2021-2026 and National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking 2021-2026.

The Pacific RISE-CTIP is a US$10 million five-year partnership between the United States Agency for International Development and The Asia Foundation to implement counter-trafficking in-person interventions in four Pacific Island countries, including Fiji.