Bangladesh: UNODC builds capacities of criminal justice practitioners in countering Trafficking in Persons

Dhaka, Bangladesh/16 June 2022: Criminal justice practitioners play an important role in providing support to victims of trafficking in persons (TIP), including legal counselling and information on their rights and role in criminal proceedings. Legal counselling also prepares victims for the criminal proceedings and can reduce the risk of imposing further trauma on the victims.

Therefore, the skills of lawyers from these organizations significantly increases the chance of sound and coherent witness statements contributing to the successful prosecution of the traffickers.

Under the aegis of the GLO.ACT-Bangladesh project, UNODC, in partnership with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs of Bangladesh, organized capacity building workshops for 18 prosecutors from across Bangladesh and 18 lawyers from civil society organizations on countering TIP.

The workshops familiarized participants with the essential international legal instruments, frameworks, and case laws related to TIP. It also served as a knowledge-sharing platform where prosecutors had vibrant and engaging discussions on handling TIP cases. Experts guided the prosecutors on developing legal arguments for case preparation and trial.

The Bangladesh Secretary of Law and Justice Division, and the Solicitor of Law and Justice Division joined the inauguration ceremony and discussed with the participants ways to address challenges of prosecuting human trafficking cases.

Through group exercises, participating lawyers formulated a standardized response which would positively impact victim support services, prosecution and conviction rate. The workshop helped establish measures for ensuring victim and witness protection, providing logistical support and security measures for the prosecutors, and strengthening international cooperation.

Building on the discussions, UNODC, through GLO.ACT-Bangladesh, will support a network of lawyers, which would serve as a platform for sharing knowledge, experience and best practices on countering trafficking in persons.

This activity contributes to SDG 5, SDG 8 and SDG 16: https://sdg-tracker.org/

(Supported by the European Union)