Law enforcement investigations in Uganda rely mainly on the testimony of trafficked persons to secure evidence against traffickers. However, according to Justice Batema, this approach, favours perpetrators of Human Trafficking.
Judges and State Prosecutors are calling for a humane approach to dealing with victims of human trafficking in order to achieve efficiency and successful prosecutions. They observe that short of that, trafficking victims, who have suffered significant trauma at the hands of perpetrators, cannot trust the court system for justice.
Justice David Batema, the Resident Judge of High Court in Soroti says victims must be protected from revealing too much information in public because this could expose them to danger in the aftermath. He says some questions are not necessary.
Law enforcement investigations in Uganda rely mainly on the testimony of trafficked persons to secure evidence against traffickers. However, according to Justice Batema, this approach, favours perpetrators of Human Trafficking.
He adds that in order to gain trust, the judicial system must ensure that victims of trafficking are protected through a victim-centred approach, which gives priority to the needs and wishes of the victim above any other consideration. He says in this way, the judiciary contributes to a healing process of the victims instead of traumatizing them further.
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Justice Batema was speaking during training for the Resolution of Anti-Human Trafficking, at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala. The training was organized by the Judiciary in partnership with the Human Trafficking Institute, Willow International and Pepperdine University. It is intended to raise awareness on trafficking of persons.
He equally faulted the police for not being patient with the victims especially at the time of recording statements which are at times inconsistent as a result of the trauma one could have gone through.
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The Director of Public Prosecution Mike Chibita observes a need to sensitize judicial officers to understand provisions of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act and ensure that it is effectively used in the application of justice. He is equally optimistic that the problems will be resolved through the passing of the Witness and Protection Bill.
//Cue in: …And educating them.
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Human trafficking is the practice of illegally recruiting, transporting people by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labour or commercial sexual exploitation.
Uganda is a source, transit and destination point for victims of trafficking in persons. The vice has been attributed to factors like rampant unemployment, poverty, high population growth, poor systems of education, and inadequate immigration policies and laws.
The Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009, criminalizes all forms of trafficking, prescribing punishments of 15 years to life imprisonment for perpetrators.
In 2016 114 trafficking investigations were recorded and 32 people prosecuted in 20 cases. Only 16 of these were convicted under the 2009 Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act. Nine of the 20 prosecuted cases, involved transnational trafficking, four of which ended in convictions, and nine cases involved internal child trafficking for labour or sexual exploitation, six of which ended in convictions.
This is above the three convictions secured in 2015 against 15 prosecutions and 108 investigations, according to data released in the 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report.
