Dominican Chapter of the Latin American Observatory on Trafficking and Smuggling of Persons Is Launched

May 2013--With the presence of more than 40 representatives of civil society, academia, the National District Prosecutor's Office, the foreign ministry, and national and international officials, OBMICA and the Gender Studies Center of the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (CEG-INTEC) co-sponsored a discussion on May 24, 2013 at the INTEC campus on trafficking in persons in and from the Caribbean. At the same time, they formally established the National Chapter of the Latin American Observatory on Trafficking and Smuggling of Persons (ObservaLAtrata), which would be coordinated in the country by OBMICA during its first two years of operation.

ObservaLAtrata is a regional coordination space bringing together diverse actors and seeking the collective production of knowledge to influence the prevention, prosecution, and eradication of trafficking and smuggling of persons on the continent, as well as the comprehensive protection of victims. The Dominican chapter emerged from the need to develop multiple and varied lines of research, as well as a space for dialogue and dissemination of experiences that help to better understand the problem of trafficking in persons in and from the country.

During the discussion, speakers presented a diversity of perspectives on the issue, thus offering an updated panorama of the phenomenon, including the following dimensions:

• protection of trafficking victims and international refugee law (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees),
• trafficking and smuggling of persons in the Caribbean and Central America (Regional Network of Civil Organizations for Migration)
• smuggling and trafficking of Dominican women abroad (Association TU, MUJER)
• trafficking of Haitian girls, boys, and adolescents in the Dominican Republic (ObservaLAtrata-RD),
• internal trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children in the Dominican Republic (ObservaLAtrata-RD),
• criminal prosecution of trafficking and smuggling of persons in the Dominican Republic (Public Prosecutor's Office).

The event marked a first collaboration between OBMICA and the INTEC Gender Studies Center (CEG-INTEC), which share the objective of continuing to deepen gender analysis in migration, trafficking, and smuggling issues.

Likewise, Jonathan Baro Gutierrez, chief prosecutor of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office against the Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons, emphasized the need to have more precise information about the phenomenon in order to improve prosecution: "Communication of all studies and information held by civil society is vital. The starting point for creating a prosecution policy for trafficking [currently being formulated] is knowledge of reality: trafficking groups, preferred localities."

OBMICA Director Bridget Wooding closed the event by summarizing the next steps, including the election of a coordinator and the formal registration of the organizations making up the chapter. She also recalled that the space's primary functions are to compile all relevant research, undertake new research to fill any gaps, encourage broad coordination among actors, and carry out political advocacy and training actions.

To learn more about OBMICA's work on trafficking and smuggling of persons, click here.