KAZAKHSTAN: INL CONDUCTS ANTI-TIP TRAINING COURSE FOR LAW

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 000367 SIPDIS STATE FOR INL ALTON, AND CARROLL; EUR/ACE; SCA/CEN FOR OMARA; JUSTICE FOR GREG DUCOT SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR PINS PGOV PHUM KCRM KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: INL CONDUCTS ANTI-TIP TRAINING COURSE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, PROCURACY, AND JUDICIARY ASTANA 00000367 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. Summary. The International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) office, in cooperation with International Organization for Migration (IOM),conducted a four day training course for law enforcement, Border Guards, the Procuracy, and the Judiciary on prevention of trafficking in human beings and protection of victims' rights. The participants discussed best practices of detection, investigation, prosecution, and the conduction of hearings in human trafficking cases; exchanged real-world experiences; and advocated strengthening the dialogue between agencies to effectively combat trafficking. End summary. -------------- LESSONS AND DISCUSSIONS -------------- ¶2. INL representatives, IOM trafficking in persons experts, NGO representatives, lawyers, and a psychologist from the "Rodnik" TIP victim rehabilitation center, trained police officers, border guards, procurators, and judges from South and West Kazakhstan met in Almaty January 23-26 to combat trafficking in persons. A trainer arranged through the International Criminal Investigative Assistance Training Program (ICITAP) division of the Department of Justice taught the best U.S. practices in combating this crime and shared her wealth of international experience in the field. ¶3. During the course the participants reviewed national legislation, recent anti-trafficking in persons amendments to the national legislation, and international protocols and conventions to define TIP, slavery and slavery-like conditions and practices; discussed difficulties of detection, investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases; discussed the links between trafficking in persons and other criminal activities as well as legal businesses; defined human smuggling cases versus trafficking cases; and studied phases of victimization, the behavior of TIP victims, the issues of re-victimization and stigmatization, and assistance to and protection of victims of trafficking during and after investigation and court hearing. ¶4. The sessions included lecturing, brainstorming, videos, and psychological games. Role plays such as mock investigation or mock court hearings helped the trainees to understand what victims feel during the investigation and court hearings. The participating judges made short presentations of TIP cases that they had tried. A case about labor trafficking in Aktobe presented by a representative of the Department of Internal Affairs of Western Kazakhstan oblast attracted the most participant interest. Many questions, active discussion, and citation of case examples from participants' experience followed this case study. ¶5. The participants recognized the importance of strengthening anti-TIP cooperation between law enforcement, NGOs, and other institutions providing assistance to victims, as well as between law enforcement agencies of countries of origin, transit, and destination. -------------- NEXT STEPS -------------- ¶6. In the short term, INL will continue to provide refresher TIP training to in-service law enforcement officers from all regions of Kazakhstan. These sessions will be conducted in the newly rehabilitated Anti-TIP Study Center in the Karaganda Legal Institute. ¶7. INL will work with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Committee of National Security to provide special Anti-TIP courses in their Legal Institute in Karaganda and in the Military Institute in Almaty, as supplemental courses for their cadets. ¶8. As a long-term goal INL will work with the Ministry of Education to introduce TIP into official training curricula to ensure TIP awareness and competence of future generation of law enforcement officers, procurators, and judges. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶9. Observation, evaluations, and anecdotal comments show that participants receive anti-TIP training most enthusiastically when the training material is based on Kazakstani law and reviews cases adjudicated in Kazakhstan. For this reason, INL anti-TIP training ASTANA 00000367 002.2 OF 002 is provided both by local trainers and knowledgeable law enforcement officers, as well as by expatriate trainers who can provide a wider range of international experience. ORDWAY