Warnath Group Experts delivered two series of workshops on basic and advanced skills to combat human trafficking for Mongolian justice officials. The two series of training workshops, conducted at the request of the Government of Mongolia, were held at the National Legal Institute (NLI) in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia.
The first set of workshops, held March 14-17, 2016, was comprised of two trainings, each two days in length, for judges, prosecutors, police, and trainers from the Law Enforcement University. Sheila Berman, Warnath Group Senior Advisor on Law & Policy and Warnath Group Criminal Justice Expert Pieter Cronje facilitated these workshops. Approximately fifty-two criminal justice professionals were trained during these sessions to improve and sharpen their skills in addressing cases of human trafficking in Mongolia.
The positive response to these trainings from participants and officials of the Mongolian Ministry of Justice led to interest in obtaining additional training from Warnath Group experts to further the knowledge of those already trained, and provide basic training to new participants. In response to the resulting request for new trainings, the Warnath Group was able to quickly create and organize new customized skill-based training programs and three workshops in June shortly followed.
The first June workshop was a one-day educational dialogue on human trafficking for judges who were unable to attend the earlier training that the Warnath Group conducted in March. Participants joined Warnath Group Experts Albert Moskowitz and John Richmond for this workshop on June 14. The second three-day workshop, held on June 15-17, and also presented by Mr. Moskowitz and Mr. Richmond, covered advanced techniques as almost all participants had attended a previous training on trafficking by the Warnath Group. The third workshop was also a three-day advanced skills training course, for police and Law Enforcement University staff, was presented by Mr. Moskowtiz and Warnath Group Expert Steve Harvey on June 20-22.
The two sets of training workshops, which were customized for each group of participants and designed to accommodate different levels of knowledge and experience, were crafted to be highly interactive. The learning techniques Warnath Group employed across the five courses included the following:
- Demonstrations, conducted by the Experts, to illustrate good interview practice.
- Case studies presented to give the participants experience in applying legal and strategic principles to fact scenarios.
- “Clicker” technology was used to allow the participants to provide measurable real-time responses to inquiries about scenarios.
- Actors playing the part of trafficking victims were used in role-play exercises to give the participants an opportunity to put into practice interview techniques introduced by the Experts.
- An interactive video was used to challenge the participants to identify evidence of TIP at a crime scene.
All of these cutting-edge techniques and approaches encouraged vigorous feedback and discussion throughout the modules and exercises which covered international and domestic TIP laws, understanding the trafficking victim and the effects of trauma, best practices for interviewing and identifying victims of human trafficking, how to build a trafficking case and taking a case to court. These workshops highlighted a range of “victim-centered” skills, techniques and strategies that Warnath Group Experts have applied in human trafficking cases, including the following: building trust with victims and non-governmental service-providers; the need to ask open-ended questions, showing empathy toward victims of trafficking, listening carefully, asking logical follow-up questions, and understanding the elements that must be established in a TIP case, what evidence is relevant to proving those elements, and how to identify, collect and protect that evidence in building a case. Prosecutors and Judges also considered how to legally prepare victims/witnesses before trial under the Mongolian Criminal Procedural Code.
A number of officials participated in the trainings included the following: Mr. Unenbat Biitsee, Head of the Department of Implementation and Coordination at the Ministry of Justice, Ms. Undarmaa Dorjsuren, Senior Officer of Policy Implementation and Coordination Department at the Ministry of Justice, Political Chief Colleen Crenwelge from the U.S. Embassy Ulaanbaatar provided opening and closing remarks while Ms. S. Dondov, a private attorney and nationally recognized legal expert on human trafficking, and Mr. Bayarmagnai of the Ministry of Justice served as the domestic law experts.
Participants received certificates during Closing Ceremonies. In addition to formal remarks from officials, the Closing Ceremonies included spontaneous expressions of appreciation from a number of workshop participants for the opportunity to attend these trainings to acquire new tools, skills, techniques and strategies that will enable them to identify and develop human trafficking cases and to work with victims of trafficking in more meaningful and appropriate ways. They thanked the Warnath Group, the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassy officials, and the Mongolian Ministry of Justice.
The Warnath Group’s unique follow-up program, Human Trafficking: Continuing Education to Action, allows these positive relationships with participants to continue through communications over time after the workshops including consultation opportunities regarding human trafficking issues, provision of customized resources, and obtaining performance feedback through periodic surveys. These workshops were made possible by the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP), and with the help of the U.S. Embassy to Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.