The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the number of victims of human trafficking is estimated at more than one million, most of them victims of forced labour in artisanal mining sites, agriculture and domestic servitude, forced recruitment into armed groups, and sex trafficking.
The challenges posed by human trafficking and migrant smuggling in the DRC call for robust and adapted investigative approaches to deal with the difficulties specific to these crimes. To address this, in March 2022 CERC will conduct research to determine how corruption facilitates migrant smuggling and human trafficking in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The findings of this research will be used to develop policies and programmes against organized crime and to stimulate debate on the fight against human trafficking and migrant smuggling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
About our work on transnational organized crime
We:
- Advocate with the Ministry of Justice for the adoption of legislation that criminalizes all forms of trafficking and prescribes sufficiently stringent penalties – and, with regard to sex trafficking, penalties commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes.
- Develop programmes that step up efforts against all forms of trafficking, including sex trafficking and the labour trafficking of adults and children.
- Implement investigation programmes to proactively identify trafficking victims – in particular by training frontline officers to do so among vulnerable groups, including women and children exploited in commercial sex, street children, and men, women and children working in artisanal mines – and to refer victims to appropriate care.
- Raise awareness among armed groups so that they stop unlawfully using children in armed conflict and in artisanal mines.
- Provide comprehensive protection services to victims of all forms of trafficking, and ensure that trafficking victims are not punished for unlawful acts that traffickers forced them to commit.
- Develop and implement procedures to collect and report data on cases of sex trafficking, as distinct from other crimes of sexual violence, and of forced labour.
- Use existing legislation to step up efforts to investigate, prosecute, convict and adequately sentence traffickers, including complicit officials.
- Raise public awareness of human trafficking.
Self-assessment process of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
Between 15 March and 30 April 2022, CERC will take part in a UNODC workshop on the self-assessment questionnaire of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and in a self-paced course on the Convention’s review mechanism.
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, adopted by General Assembly resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000, is the main international instrument in the fight against transnational organized crime. The Democratic Republic of the Congo acceded to the Convention on 25 October 2005, including its Protocols to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons and against the Smuggling of Migrants.
The Convention is a major step forward in the fight against transnational organized crime and signals Member States’ recognition of the seriousness of the problems it poses, as well as of the need to foster and strengthen close international cooperation to tackle them. States that ratify this instrument commit to taking a series of measures against transnational organized crime, including the creation of domestic criminal offences (participation in an organized criminal group, money laundering, corruption and obstruction of justice); the adoption of new and broader frameworks for extradition, mutual legal assistance and law enforcement cooperation; and the promotion of training and technical assistance to build or upgrade the necessary capacity of national authorities.
Learn more about the Convention
The DRC’s accession to the Convention is, however, only a first step towards implementing this international instrument.
In line with the provisions of the Convention, the measures and means to combat trafficking in persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo keep growing, notably with the creation of an agency for the prevention of and fight against trafficking in persons (APLT).
Despite the efforts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its institutions and authorities are still struggling to reverse the trend of human trafficking, whose unidentified victims are estimated at nearly one million[1],[2].