itself is indirectly responsible for the human rights violations flowing from that private act. State responsibility will arise where the State has failed to exercise due diligence in preventing trafficking, punishing traffickers and protecting victims. Progressive application of the due diligence standard in practice may yield results which are beneficial to trafficked persons by requiring the State to undertake a range of measures including (but not limited to): legislative prohibition of trafficking and related practices, effective enforcement of this prohibition, provision of assistance and legal remedies for victims and general preventive actions aimed at addressing the underlying causes of trafficking. A finding of state responsibility places an international legal obligation on the relevant State to take action to remedy the wrong which has occurred and to prevent its reoccurrence. (ii) Whether international law requires States to criminalize, investigate and punish trafficking and related conduct As noted above, the basic rules of state responsibility including the principle of due diligence require states to take positive action to prevent and redress trafficking including through criminalization, investigation and punishment. The only current international instrument dealing explicitly with trafficking is the Convention for the Suppression of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others 1949 (Trafficking Convention 1949) which requires States to criminalize, investigate and punish “trafficking” – where such trafficking and exploitation is by “prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons”. See Articles 16, 17 and 20 of the Trafficking Convention, 1949. In addition there exist widely accepted treaties (for example the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (ICCPR), Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 1979 (CEDAW) and the Slavery Conventions)7 each of which requires States to 6 Article 1 “The Parties to the Present Convention agree to punish any person who, to gratify the passions of another: (1) Procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person, even with the consent of that person; (2) Exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that person.” 7 (a) ICCPR: Article 2(2) (read with Article 8); (b) Article 6 of CEDAW provides: “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.” (c) CRC: Articles 4, 5. Article 35 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides: 11