IPNEWS: As Liberia moved to Tier Two of the US government’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), International Development Law Organization (IDLO) has stressed the need for stakeholders to utilize the TIP Case Management System in the country.
IDLO is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of the rule of law with a joint focus on the rule of law and development. It works to empower people and communities to claim their rights and provides governments with the know-how to realize them.
Augustine K. Browne, Deputy Commissioner of Police and Head of Planning, Research at the Liberia National Police (LNP), who spoke recently at a week-long capacity-building training, underscored the importance of the case management system training and stressed that it is important to accurately report the crime.
It may be recalled a year ago, Liberia was demoted to the reported Tier 3 Watch List — indicating that President Weah’s administration was not in full compliance with prohibiting trafficking in persons and punishing acts of such trafficking.
But the US government, via its Department of State 2022 annual human trafficking report, ranks governments by their efforts to combat human trafficking in all forms, and claiming that the government of Liberia had made efforts since the downgrade period to increase measures to combat trafficking.
The report’s three-tier system divides nations into tiers based on their compliance with standards outlined in the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 — with Tier 1 made up of countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards.
While Tier 2 countries’ governments do not fully comply with all of the act’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards and Tier 3 is made up of countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
He said the weeklong training, which brought together at least 30 participants from the Liberia Immigration Service, Drugs Enforcement Agency, National Police, Gender Ministry and LISGIS and Labour Ministry, Justice, and CSOs, was intended to ensure that stakeholders working with the system should learn how to use it for the betterment of their country.
According to Browne, the training was also aimed at enhancing the capacity of stakeholders in the utilization of the system built to effectively report on trafficking in person’s cases.
At the same time, the TIP case management system was demonstrated and facilitated by Maweyata Sow, a Consultant who developed the system.
During his presentations, Sow indicated that there will be different categories of users. Those who send the information to the system and as well as those who use the information sent to the system. He further avowed that the essence of collecting data is t report.
Sow further pointed out that TIP data reporting can be done by any of the trained institutions using the system and with the case investigation part of the system only exercised by the Liberia National Police that has the statutory mandate to investigate and forward a case before the court as mandated by law.
At the same time, Madam Dorah C. Mafabi, Country Manager of IDLO, lauded the participants for their efforts in helping to curb TIP in the country.
She asserted that her institution would do all it can to support the Government of Liberia in its response to combat trafficking in persons.
IDLO Country Manager said that as part of the TIP II project, her organization has been providing technical support to the NATT Secretariat through the Ministry of Labor to strengthen sectorial response to TIP through improved coordination between government authorities, international organizations, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
She said despite support from the Government and her partner, the Secretariat is not reporting reliable and credible information. Most information gathered on TIP is not evidence based. As a result of this, it was necessary to develop a digitized TIP case management system.
The development of a digitized TIP case management system as she said was done to enable accurate documenting and reporting of TIP cases across the country.
Mafabi further narrated that the case management system is intended to help improve the NATT Secretariat, and other actors, including law enforcement agencies, and at the same time advance accurate documentation and reporting of cases across the country. She further asserted that the case management system will generate relevant and reliable data that can be useful to inform the government of Liberia on effective TIP response.
For their part, the participants expressed appreciation to the IDLO for supporting the Government of Liberia in developing what they termed a unique system that will put Liberia on par with other nations in eradicating trafficking in persons across the country.
The training ended on Friday, July 22, 2022 after days of intense sessions about the usage of the system in Ganta City, Nimba County. By Simeon S. Wiakanty
