Abstract:
The Southern African region is a part of Africa which is a source, transit and destination for human
trafficking, especially women and children. To prevent this, throughout 2018 - now, SADC
member countries have ratified the legal framework and national, regional and international action
plans in the framework of regional cooperation. Therefore, this research focuses on looking at the
effectiveness of the collaboration that has been carried out by SADC member countries in the form
of various bilateral and trilateral collaborations to overcome the problem of human trafficking,
especially in women and children. Apart from that, we see the importance of cross-border
cooperation in handling human trafficking cases, especially in the SADC region. Through this
research, it is known that although there has been a lot of collaboration, such as forming and
ratifying legal frameworks. However, unfortunately there is no legal framework and action plan
regarding extraordinary forms of cross-border human trafficking. In addition, the legal framework
and action plans only cover cases of migrants or smuggling, and do not even cover cases of women
and children. On the other hand, implementation is still very bad with problems, SADC countries
only focus on their own action plans. Causing low levels of regional cooperation and integration,
which are important factors in handling cases of human trafficking in women and children. The
findings of this thesis explore SADC's ineffective efforts during 2019-2022, particularly in the
SADC region.
