Critics condemn the Protocol for its overly general treatment
of the prosecution of trafficking cases, because it does not provide
any sort of concrete minimum legal standard for States to uphold.
This generality is, however, in line with the purpose of the Protocol. The very nature of allowing individual countries to create
their own trafficking laws allows for standards that, while different
from country to country, uphold the same general principle. In
this way, prosecution can be locally carried out across the world
to best deal with issues that may be specific to a particular area. In
reality, human trafficking does not look the same in every country;
thus, it ought to be prosecuted differently in different regions.
Second, the protection of victims is an integral part of any
human trafficking legislation. Chapter II of the Protocol specifically
deals with the issue of protection by laying out a few measures
that ought to appear in countries' standards. Among these are the right of the victim to privacy and confidentiality, information
on court proceedings, assistance as needed to testify against
the traffickers, housing, counseling and information on their legal
rights, medical assistance of any sort, and opportunities for education
and employment. 4 Critics have identified that this section
lays out a general framework for individual state legislation, but it
"contains very little in the way of hard obligation" for those states
involved. 5 A country is only required to provide assistance to
victims "in appropriate cases and to the extent possible under its
domestic law."'36 Again, as in the case of its prosecution measures,
the Trafficking Protocol was criticized for the general nature of
its protection framework. Anne Gallagher, an internationally recognized
trafficking expert, has stated outright, "The weakness of the protocol's protection provisions [...] is likely to undermine its effectiveness as a law enforcement instrument