The Human Trafficking Institute recently provided specialized training on behalf of the United Nations to a group of prosecutors from South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority.

The training, funded by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime and held in South Africa’s capital, was part of the Palermo Protocol project, which provides legal and technical support to Southern African Development Community member states as they implement international requirements.

The purpose of the training was to expand human trafficking enforcement capacity in the region by equipping 25 designated prosecutors to train their peers on victim-centered investigations and effective prosecution strategies.

John Richmond, a Founding Director of the Human Trafficking Institute and a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, helped lead the training. Accompanying Richmond was Michael Frank, another human trafficking prosecutor with extensive Justice Department experience. Topics at the training included the myths of trafficking, the recurring challenges of case identification, typical legal defenses raised by traffickers, and approaches for solving common problems that arise during prosecution of trafficking cases.

This is the second human trafficking training of South African prosecutors that the United Nations has asked the Human Trafficking Institute to conduct.