24th May 2021 - Sétif, Mostaganem and El Oued, Algeria
Trafficking in Persons (TiP) is a complex problem that requires sustained and committed efforts from governments and societies to tackle it effectively. In that context, UNODC works closely in Algeria through its National Committee against Trafficking in Persons, to deepen the national criminal justice response and to improve the understanding of the crime, while protecting the victims of trafficking.
For the first time in Algeria, UNODC and the National TiP Committee held a series of three advanced training in Wilayas (regions) aiming at supporting national capacities in investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating TiP cases according to national legislation and increasing local understanding of TiP risks and trends. Tailor-made to Algeria’s current needs, challenges, and judicial system, these workshops took place in Sétif, Mostaganem, and El Oued. Senior key officials from several Wilayas of Eastern, Western and Southern parts of Algeria examined national good practices, challenges, and lessons learned in investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating TiP cases.
Each training included mock trial sessions on trafficking in persons based on staged case complex scenarios to foster discussions and provide practitioners with concrete knowledge that benefitted their duties as law enforcement officers and magistrates. In total, these three workshops reached 125 judges, prosecutors, gendarmerie, and police officers from 15 different Wilayas.
Substantive sessions focused on the national legal framework and its implementation, indicators to identify TIP cases, investigation practice and challenges, the use of special investigation techniques, good practices on victims and witness interviewing as well as international cooperation in criminal matters, demonstrating efficient implementation and use practical and technical tools developed by UNODC.
UNODC has worked closely with the National TIP Committee, national experts from the Ministry of Defense (Gendarmerie Nationale), Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Interior (Direction Générale de la Sureté Nationale) to build national capacity and ownership through earlier projects. Thanks to the outstanding coordination of these national agencies, national experts led the substantive delivery of sessions on investigating, prosecuting, and handling mutual legal assistance requests. Recommendations after each training were made by participants to the TiP Committee and UNODC in order to identify potential areas for capacity building. As part of these activities, UNODC donated IT equipment to the Executive Secretariat of the TiP Committee to support their work.
A special thanks to the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) for funding these activities.
For more information:
Algeria: A great step towards ending human trafficking for labor exploitation purposes
The 2020 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
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