March & April 2022 - The CRIMJUST Global Programme has carried out three “Trainings on Ethics and Integrity” in the Dominican Republic, Panama and Argentina for their AIRCOP Joint Airport Interdiction Task Forces (JAITFs), SEACOP Joint Maritime Control Units, and CCP Port Control Units. These trainings, delivered thanks to the expertise of the UNODC Regional Office for Central America and the Caribbean (UNODC ROPAN) and of the UNODC Regional Office for the Andean and Southern Cone, and in partnership with SEACOP, AIRCOP and the Container Control Programme (CCP), provided officers with a platform to discuss the unique integrity challenges facing law enforcement agencies responsible for border management. These activities are the result of a partnership between the projects established and supported by the European Union Global Illicit Flows Programme (GIFP.
During these workshops, experts and participants looked at definitions and concepts pertaining to ethics and integrity and codes of ethics for law enforcement officers. Participants also discussed best practices to address airport and port-specific vulnerabilities in line with international standards against corruption. In addition to theoretical sessions, experts arranged for a series of practical exercises requesting participants to solve hypothetical scenarios and to brainstorm solutions. These served to enhance participants’ capacity to identify potential corruption risks in day-to-day operations as well as to propose techniques and practices to report misconduct and to promote integrity and ethical behaviour.
Corruption is a critical enabler of drug trafficking – not only allowing organized crime groups to circumvent law enforcement detection and prosecution, but further corroding public trust in state institutions. A climate of strong institutional integrity, along with the establishment of effective accountability mechanisms in law enforcement agencies, are essential to ensure sustainable and fair criminal justice responses. It is why CRIMJUST has prioritized the strengthening of institutional integrity since its inception in 2016 and is working closely with AIRCOP and SEACOP to deliver country- and agency- specific trainings providing officers with the knowledge, tools and mechanisms to solve ethical dilemmas and report corruption incidences.
Similar trainings are scheduled to be delivered for SEACOP and AIRCOP units in Peru, Cabo Verde and Ghana in 2022. Together, these trainings are strengthening the EU Global Illicit Flows Programme responses to disrupt illicit flows, ensuring complementarity and coherence between its component projects.
These CRIMJUST activities were funded by the European Union under the framework of the "Global Illicit Flows Programme" [GIFP]. They join existing efforts to enhance law enforcement and judicial counter-narcotic strategies beyond interdiction activities and to foster transnational responses targeting each stage of the drug supply chain.
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