MALI ADDRESSES LOW TIP RANKING

UNCLAS BAMAKO 000711 SIPDIS DEPT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, AF/RSA, AF/W DEPT PLEASE PASS USAID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PHUM PREF SMIG ASEC ML SUBJECT: MALI ADDRESSES LOW TIP RANKING REF: 09 BAMAKO 96 ¶1. Summary: Over the past several weeks, the Embassy held meetings with GOM officials to address Mali's Tier 2 Watchlist ranking in the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Mali's anti-TIP standing has been affected by the GOM's failure to prosecute alleged traffickers. A Justice Ministry official described the Ministry's re-engagement with the fight against trafficking in persons and said the Ministry's closer monitoring of new trafficking cases in the courts would lead to more prosecutions. End summary. -------------- Weak Law Enforcement And Prosecution -------------- ¶2. Due primarily to an active NGO network, Mali has demonstrated success in identifying and repatriating victims of trafficking. NGOs such as Enda Tiers Monde and Mali Enjeu have assisted in the repatriation of hundreds of child trafficking victims over the past year (reftel). Mali has also shown a capacity for law enforcement, as authorities were able to arrest a number of suspected traffickers. These arrests have not been followed by prosecutions, however, and the traffickers were subsequently released either due to a lack of evidence or were released provisionally pending trial. Cases in Kita and Sikasso have been stalled since 2008 (reftel). ¶3. A key challenge in Mali's efforts to combat trafficking in persons has been interministerial coordination, prescribed by a 2007 national action plan on child trafficking. A committee on child trafficking, chaired by the Ministry for the Advancement of Women, Children, and the Family (MPFEF) is composed of 43 institutional members, including 13 government ministries, NGOs, and civil society representatives. The purpose of the committee is to coordinate and provide oversight of the GOM's anti-TIP activities, but GOM members have so far failed to participate actively. -------------- Embassy Engages GOM on TIP -------------- ¶4. In response to Mali's drop to Tier 2 Watchlist status, the Embassy held a series of meetings with GOM officials at the MPFEF and the Ministry of Justice, two of the ministries central to the GOM's anti-TIP efforts. On October 8, the Embassy met with Special Advisor to the Minister of Women, Children and the Family, Colonel Konipo. Konipo said the Minister understands the potential ramifications for U.S. assistance and is committed to improving Mali's ranking. Konipo was recently designated the Ministry's focal point on TIP, replacing Director of the MPFEF's National Office for Women and Children Alou Barry, who had previously been the Embassy's point of contact on trafficking issues. This came as a welcome change, elevating TIP as a political issue and promising to improve Embassy collaboration with MPFEF. ¶5. On October 16, the Embassy met with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice, Badou Hasseye Traore, to explain Mali's ranking and the need to prosecute suspected traffickers. Traore welcomed the Embassy's demarche, observing that TIP is an important issue and noting that the Ministry of Justice has designated its own point of contact on TIP, Special Advisor Bouya Dembele. Dembele, with whom we met subsequently on October 21, said he is collaborating closely with MPFEF. He said that, earlier in the same week, he had been called by Konipo to discuss the GOM's statistics on cases of trafficking over the past year as well as to discuss Mali's action plan, provided to Konipo and Dembele by the Embassy. Dembele said the Justice Ministry previously tracked cases of trafficking closely but had failed to do so in the past three years. He said this would be a renewed priority and should result in an increase in prosecutions. -------------- GOM Efforts Ramp Up -------------- ¶6. Both Konipo and Dembele described their recent participation in a number of anti-trafficking initiatives. They served as representatives to an October Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in Abuja to discuss regional efforts to combat trafficking in persons. MPFEF officials participated in an October regional seminar organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to discuss migratory flows, and MPFEF also co-hosted a conference with UNICEF in Bamako to discuss Mali-Cote d'Ivoire cooperation on addressing child trafficking between the two states. Active collaboration between the Justice Ministry and the MPFEF, along with continued Embassy engagement, promises to yield positive results for Mali in the fight against TIP. MILOVANOVIC