Some 50 police, immigration officials, prosecutors and judges in Guyana are expected to participate in a trafficking in persons training seminar to be conducted by the Organization of American States (OAS) in Georgetown tomorrow and Friday.
The OAS said in a press release yesterday that the two-day training seminar is aimed at increasing the awareness of officials to this crime and strengthening their efforts to prevent and combat it.
The OAS referred to trafficking in persons as a modern-day form of slavery and a violation of basic human rights involving coercive sexual exploitation, forced labour and involuntary servitude, among others.
The OAS programme, “Strengthening the Capacity of Law Enforcement Officials, Judges and Prosecutors in the Caribbean to Identify and Combat Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children,” is being implemented in 13 English-speaking countries of the Caribbean.
Specifically, the release noted, the programme hopes to strengthen the capacity of police, prosecutors and courts to implement laws to combat trafficking; increase the exchange of information between the various Caribbean agencies working to combat human trafficking; and improve the capacity of law enforcement officers to protect and provide assistance to victims.
The training seminar, led by OAS anti-trafficking in persons experts, will look at such areas as the distinction between trafficking and smuggling; crime scene management; victim identification, assistance and protection; standard operating procedures for immigration control; understanding the gender perspective as part of the human rights framework; and how trafficking in persons affects men, women, boys and girls in different ways.
The programme was made possible with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
