Challenges of Human Rights Enforcement in Mitigating the Exploitation of Children and Women a Comparative Study of Victim Protection Systems for Human Trafficking

Abstract

Human trafficking, particularly targeting vulnerable groups such as women and children, is one of the oldest yet most modern forms of human rights (HR) violations in the 21st century. Although the international community has declared war on modern slavery through the Palermo Protocol, the reality of law enforcement in many developing countries, including Indonesia, continues to face extraordinary systemic challenges. The fundamental issue lies in the conflict between a criminal justice paradigm focused on punishing offenders (retributive justice) and the state's obligation to mitigate exploitation and provide comprehensive human rights protection. Criminal justice systems often create spaces for secondary victimization, where victims' fundamental rights to trauma recovery, physical protection, and economic compensation are reduced to bureaucratic and transactional administrative matters serving the interests of courtroom evidence. This study is normative legal research that integratively applies the statute approach, human rights approach, and comparative approach. The research focuses on a critical evaluation of Indonesia's legal framework for mitigating human trafficking, particularly Law Number 21 of 2007, which is then diametrically compared with victim protection systems in two European countries, namely Germany and the Netherlands. The findings confirm that the challenges of human rights enforcement in mitigating human trafficking in Indonesia stem from the lack of independence of victims' recovery rights from the criminal adjudication process. In contrast, the comparative study demonstrates that Germany and the Netherlands have moved far beyond this paradigm by implementing a victim-centered approach in which victims are granted temporary residence rights, unconditional financial compensation from the state, and psychosocial care without requiring testimony as a prerequisite. This study recommends amending national regulations to establish a Victim Trust Fund and integrated service institutions independent of the police as a tangible manifestation of Dignified Justice that respects human autonomy and dignity. These findings contribute significantly to the discourse on cross-jurisdictional human rights criminal law reform.