Judge wants special courts for traffickers

A High Court judge has asked government to set up special courts to try suspects of human trafficking so as to ensure timely justice for victims.
Justice Margaret Mutonyi argued that survivors cannot freely testify in the normal court system because of the trauma they go through.
She explained that victims of human trafficking need to be first counselled and rehabilitated before appearing before court.

“It has been long overdue about the issue of special courts because victims are psychologically and sexually tortured and lawyers, especially on the defence side, ask irritating questions, which just break victims down, making them unable to narrate the ordeal before courts of law,” said Justice Mutonyi at the commemoration of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons in Kampala yesterday.
She added that the special courts should have well trained judicial officers, lawyers and prosecutors to handle the cases of trafficking.
The judge said that police should also be trained on how to investigate and handle these cases.

“These courts should have officers who appreciate the ordeal and situation of the survivor,” Justice Mutonyi said.
She explained that justice is sometimes delayed because some of the human trafficking cases take long to be brought to court.
She argued that if there are special courts, survivors could have opportunity not to be reminded of past incidents. The judge also asked government to empower the ministry of Gender to superintend over labour export agencies to curb human trafficking.
The commissioner of police in-charge of anti human trafficking taskforce, Mr Moses Binoga, said government has not developed a policy to handle labour export.

“We are working on the policy and we need to be backed by a budget to see how we can help them [human trafficking victims] because whether you are trafficked or not, there is a contract you sign in the country you are taken to, which is binding to them. If you fail to fulfil it, they say you have failed to work and, therefore, you have to pay for six months for breach of contract. We are making sure that there is a system to address such,” Mr Binoga said.
He revealed that of the 674 cases involving both national and international human trafficking, 176 of the suspected perpetrators have been taken to court and 59 convicted.

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