The Notary as Gatekeeper in Protecting Women and Children from Human Trafficking

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the preventive role of the Notary as a gatekeeper in combating human trafficking and in protecting women and children in Indonesia. Trafficking networks routinely abuse legal instruments—company deeds, placement agreements, and other authentic documents—to give a lawful appearance to exploitation, and the Notary, as the public official who authenticates such instruments and who is designated a reporting party under the anti-money-laundering regime, stands at a decisive preventive point. A normative juridical method was used, combining statutory and conceptual approaches based on primary legal materials and peer-reviewed journals. The findings show that the Notary holds two relevant duties: applying the principle of knowing the service user (customer due diligence) and reporting suspicious transactions, alongside the duty to preserve the integrity of authentic deeds. Yet a norm conflict between the Notary Law and the anti-money-laundering framework, together with the duty of confidentiality, weakens this preventive function. Grounded in the value of Pancasila justice, the study concludes that reformulating the Notary Law and strengthening due diligence would make the Notary a more effective guardian protecting women and children from trafficking.