RCMP Gazette Human Rights and Policing - Alberta Hate Crimes ...

huMAN RiGhTS AND POliCiNGRCMP COVERextensive experience in dealingwith trafficking as a criminalphenomenon. Most countries aredeveloping and adapting theircriminal justice responses on therun, and principally through trialand error.• Lack of co-operation acrossborders: Co-operation and crossfertilizationof ideas across bordersis still very limited. Mistakesin one country are not quicklycorrected in another. Goodpractices and lessons learnedare not disseminated as widelyand rapidly as they should be.It is also necessary to take into accountthe highly charged political and socialenvironment around this issue. Traffickingis implicated in some of the most sensitiveissues of our time including labourmigration, prostitution and discriminationagainst vulnerable minorities. Lawenforcement agencies may find themselvescaught up in debates and controversies thatcan affect their ability to address traffickingdiligently and professionally.Elements of an effectivenational responseIn 2008, we published an academic paper,“Developing an Effective Criminal JusticeResponse to Trafficking in Persons:Lessons from the Front Line,” summarizingour experiences of working with criminaljustice agencies in more than 40 countrieson the issue of trafficking. 1 In that paperwe proposed eight elements of an effectivenational criminal justice response totrafficking. They are as follows:A strong legal frameworkThe national legal framework needs to beclear and complete. It needs to criminalizetrafficking and related offences includingthose forms of abuse and exploitationthat are inherent in trafficking. The legalframework must also enable the rest ofthe system, for example, by ensuring thatinvestigators can do their job properly,that victims can access remedies, and thatevidence can be exchanged across borders.1 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=73070A specialist lawenforcement responseTrafficking cases require specialistinvestigators. Specialist trafficking unitsstaffed by trained investigators are nowa feature of many national police forces.To be effective such units must be wellresourced. They should be mandated toconduct or to supervise and advise onall trafficking investigations undertakenwithin the country. They should beempowered to exercise the legal andprocedural powers required to conducttrafficking investigations using the fullrange of available investigative techniques.Front-line law enforcement capacityThe best specialist investigators still relyheavily on their colleagues in the field.Frontline officials, whether they are police,customs, immigration or labour inspectorsare almost always the ones who haveresponsibility for identifying victims oftrafficking in the first place. It is thesesame officials who bear responsibility formanaging the first crucial hours of anytrafficking investigation until specialistinvestigators are in a position to take overthe case. This means that frontline officialswill often be responsible for critical taskssuch as victim safety, evidence preservationand detention of suspects. Frontline lawenforcement agencies require strong andconsistent support, including resources,training and direction, to do this job properly.Prosecutorial and judicial supportThis is the key to ensuring that the workdone by investigators is not wasted. Lackof knowledge or commitment at theprosecutorial and judicial level can befatal. On the other hand, a well-informedprosecutorial service and a committed,aware judiciary can make all the difference.Victim protection and supportVictims have a dual role in the criminaljustice system. The system is there to helpthem secure justice including conviction ofperpetrators and access to remedies. Butvictims also have a role in serving justicemore broadly. Prosecuting traffickers remainsheavily dependent on the co-operation andinvolvement of victim-witnesses. Theirwelfare, their state of mind and their futurebecomes a direct concern to the criminaljustice system on a number of levels.Effective international co-operationA great deal of trafficking involvesmovement across States and persons orevidence located in two or more States.The best investigations and the bestprosecutions will not treat this as a localcrime but will extend to embrace the entirechain of events. This inevitably meansinternational operational co-operation toexchange intelligence and conduct jointinvestigations, and international legal cooperationto exchange evidence, suspectsand the recovery of assets.Political/community supportThe effectiveness of a national criminaljustice response to trafficking dependsheavily on factors outside the immediateambit and control of the criminal justicesystem itself. Without communityunderstanding and support, withoutinformed political commitment, an effectivecriminal justice response to trafficking willelude the best police force, the strongestprosecutors and the most informed judges.For those working in the field, therecan be little doubt that trafficking andrelated exploitation is not decreasing andis quite probably getting worse. In thecoming years, the job of law enforcementwill certainly become more complicatedand possibly more politicized. A clearunderstanding of what an effective criminaljustice response to trafficking should looklike, an appreciation of the obstacles tosecuring such a response, and a willingnessto consider changing what is not workingwill stand national police agencies in goodstead, now and into the future. ▪Anne T. Gallagher is an internationallawyer specializing in trafficking. She isthe former Adviser on Trafficking to theUnited Nations High Commissioner forHuman Rights.Paul Holmes is an independent lawenforcement adviser and former operationalhead of the sex-trafficking squad of NewScotland Yard.Gazette Vol. 72, No. 3, 2010 19