COALITION PROGRAMS: Government & Police Training

Conference at the headquarters of SIDA Foundation for NGOs and government bodies of Baltic Sea States. Stockholm, 2004.

Between August 2004 and April 2005, the Angel Coalition, together with MiraMed Institute (USA) and Kvinnoforum (Sweden) and local NGOs in each city, organized five high-level regional anti-trafficking conferences in Petrozavodsk, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Murmansk, and Yaroslavl. The training conferences were funded by the Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons (TIP) of the U.S. Department of State and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

Collectively, the conferences brought together over four hundred participants, including foreign experts from ten countries, and scores of Russian participants. Among the attendees were representatives of media organizations, government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, intergovernmental organizations, educational institutions, and NGOs, in addition to social workers, psychologists, lawyers, and law enforcement. In addition to Russian (366 registered attendees) and Swedish (25) representatives, nationals of Finland (4), Turkey (3), the U.S.A. (6), Norway (2), as well as Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands (1 each) participated in the conferences. There were 5 representatives of intergovernmental organizations whose nationalities were unspecified. Fifteen participants were affiliated with a foreign embassy or consulate.

Training President's Administration in Yaroslavl April 2005.

A sixth and final conference was held in Moscow May 17-20 to bring together all of the Angel Coalition member organizations who are currently operating or planning to open shelters for a protocol writing conference. Both the Counter-trafficking Protocol and Plan of Action for the Russian Federation , published in August of 2004, and the Trafficking Victim Assistance Protocol, published in June 2003, were thoroughly reviewed and revised to incorporate findings from the regional conferences and the hands-on experience of each member organization. 76 attendees were registered.

Russian governmental participation was wide-ranging and included the District (6), City/Municipal (39), Regional (62), State (31), and Federal (25) levels. Total participation by Russian government representatives from all the conferences was 163. Of these, at least 27 were from the MVD (Ministry of Interior), which in Russia serves in a law enforcement capacity at both the central and local levels, and which, since January 2004, also bears responsibility for migration and border issues. Ten additional law enforcement representatives, from Interpol-affiliates or other countries, were also present. At least 21 prosecutors and court employees attended, in addition to 8 (non-prosecutorial) lawyers.

Government training in Chelyabinsk.

Top Russian and foreign experts including prosecutors, police officers, psychologists, and Ministry officials gave presentations on their fields of expertise, usually followed by discussion sessions in which participants were able to ask questions and voice their concerns and insights. The presentations consisted both of those intended for all conference participants and more focused, in-depth trainings intended to share particular areas of expertise with the pertinent audience. For instance, at the Murmansk conference a special seminar was held on the second day of the conference for judges, prosecutors, and police, while the second and third days of the St. Petersburg conference focused solely on the psychological treatment of trafficking victims.

Swedish prosecutors gave presentations at each of the regional conferences. In Sweden , the Public Prosecutor's Office functions independently from the police, court, and correctional authorities; prosecutors manage criminal investigations and make key decisions on prosecution issues. The prosecutors emphasized that traffickers are not independent actors, but criminal constituents who act in concert with one another. Trafficking is a form of organized crime, treated as such under the Swedish prosecutorial system, and there are clear linkages between the traffic in drugs and humans. Trafficking is also first and foremost a commercial activity fueled by the quest for money. The seizure of assets, when possible, thus constitutes an essential means of immobilizing trafficking networks.

United Nations meeting in New York City.

All of the prosecutors emphasized the crucial importance of trafficking victims - in terms of both the prosecution and their treatment as witnesses. A victim's testimony is often central to proving the element of unlawful means in a trafficking case. At the same time, a strong social and legal system of support must be in place in order to ensure that the rights of the victim are protected. Supporting the victim in such comprehensive ways is essential if her cooperation and her rights are to be assured.

Russian law enforcement (MVD) representatives uniformly stressed the need for legislative changes in order to carry out successful investigations. Currently the MVD [at the State level] lacks any legal basis for investigating reported and suspected trafficking cases. In the Republic of Karelia , for example, investigators have identified suspected traffickers based on false employment ads in newspapers, but they cannot work with prosecutors to build cases against these suspects until the law gives them the authority to do so. A Ministry of Interior official in St. Petersburg critiqued the recent Criminal Code Amendments because the relevant articles (127(1) and 127(2) contain "too many items to be proven." Some of the Russian MVD representatives also expressed their strong support for working with NGOs to combat trafficking, suggesting that the latter could play a key role in educating District-level police about the problem. In January 2004, the MVD was given authority over migration issues alongside the border control police.

Foreign government and intergovernmental experts working on migration issues discussed some of the issues which emerge when dealing with trafficking in their field. A representative from the Swedish Migration Board described the criteria under which foreign trafficking victims make seek residence permits in Sweden , including through asylum claims. The vast majority of survivors choose to return to their home countries, underscoring the need for effective coordination between NGOs and government in the sending and receiving countries in order to ensure the safe return and rehabilitation of the victim.

An IOM representative working on migration issues also noted the need for clear criteria on what constitutes a trafficking as opposed to a human smuggling or illegal migration case. The comments of certain local government officials in Murmansk (see Regional Differences section) confirm the need to further develop and publish such criteria so that conflation of these categories does not occur.