A/HRC/12/21 page 20 V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Conclusions 89. The questionnaire responses from Member States demonstrate that bonded labour has received limited attention in national legislation. This is because bonded labour is perceived to exist either in traditional, rural settings, or not at all. There is a lack of awareness and understanding of the new subtle, emerging forms of bonded labour. 90. Despite the fact that forced labour mostly involves private agents, it is the responsibility of the State to enact legislation and policies to combat forced labour and protect the victims. 91. It is not only important that a country has legislation to combat forced labour, but that the legislation is enforceable. Studies also show that where countries have introduced legislation to combat forced labour, the legislation has been difficult to enforce.29 92. It is encouraging to note that countries like India, Pakistan and Brazil have been able to successfully enforce the existing laws against bonded labour. The Government of India has indicated that it gives priority to the identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers. Figures from India for 2008 show 5,893 prosecutions and 1,289 convictions under the 1976 Bonded Labour System Abolition Act. In Pakistan, in accordance with 1992 legislation, judicial action has been taken to release bonded labourers and in 2006 the Government of Brazil released 3,266 bonded labourers in Brazil.30 93. In recent years much attention has been rightly paid to trafficking in human beings. Important United Nations and regional legal instruments have been developed, such as the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its Trafficking Protocol. The documents, signed by a large number of States, call for parties to use criminal sanctions to punish trafficking and to develop policies to prevent trafficking and protect trafficking victims. There are currently steps in place to develop monitoring mechanisms for the United Nations Convention. Regional trafficking instruments such as the South Asian Convention against Trafficking of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking have also been developed. States have also taken significant steps to combat trafficking which have resulted in many victims being released from this slavery-like practice. Trafficking in human beings is also addressed in other United Nations treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 29 A global alliance against forced labour, op. cit. 30 Ibid.