UNODC offers training on drafting requests for mutual legal assistance

Given the complex nature of TIP and SOM crimes, the training workshops were also attended by representatives of the FIA’s Economic Crimes Division, who examined the links between financial flows and modern forms of slavery and encouraged law enforcement officials to “think outside the box” when investigating TiP and SoM cases.

“Since its inception in December 2020, the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) Unit of the Anti-Money Laundering Department aims to facilitate formal mechanisms of international cooperation through the established international and domestic mechanisms such as the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its Protocols and the MLA Criminal Matters Act of Pakistan 2020 (MLA Act),” stressed Muhammad Bilal Naeem, Deputy Director of the Anti-Money Laundering Department of the FIA. “At the same time, we must be clear that collection of routine information that does not require coercive action can and should be done through informal measures, which, unlike MLA, take less time to process and have better response rates,” he continued.

Furthermore, while presenting the MLA Act and the guidelines for the Ministry of Home Affairs, Tahir Awan, Deputy Secretary of the International Cooperation Cell, Ministry of Home Affairs, stressed that “formal international cooperation should preferably be initiated on the basis of information obtained through informal channels as it is more effective and offers better chances of prompt response”.

In this spirit, participants were introduced to various UNODC publications, tools and databases developed to promote and facilitate informal cooperation in the fight against organized crime.

The second day of both workshops focused on the legal bases, forms and principles of formal cooperation, as well as tips on how to prepare an effective MLA request that complies with the legislation in both the requesting and requested jurisdictions and meets the requirements on evidentiary certainty, language and content. The workshops culminated in a practical exercise on writing the MLA request using the UNODC MLA Request Writer Tool based on TIP case studies prepared for the training.

The Global Programme of Action against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants – Asia and the Middle East (GLO.ACT-Asia and the Middle East) is a four-year (2018-2022), €12 million joint initiative of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) implemented in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in five countries: the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Afghanistan), the Islamic Republic of Iran (IR Iran), the Republic of Iraq (Iraq) and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Pakistan). GLO.ACT-Bangladesh is a parallel initiative supported by the EU and IOM.

The project builds on a global community of practice launched under GLO.ACT 2015-2019 and supports government authorities and civil society organisations in targeted, innovative and needs-based interventions: in the sustainable development of effective strategies and policies, in the review and harmonisation of laws, in capacity development and in regional and transregional cooperation. The project also provides direct support to victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants by strengthening identification, referral and protection mechanisms. The project is firmly committed to integrating human rights and gender considerations into all its activities.