Context
The use of online platforms and social media to recruit and exploit vulnerable people is increasing, with perpetrators recruiting victims by offering fake or misleading job opportunities that leads to forced labour or sexual exploitation.
Investigators and prosecutors are finding it difficult to keep up with these trends, requiring knowledge and skills in digital-based investigation and handling of trafficking in persons cases that involve an online element.
In response to these challenges and to support the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security’s priorities, ASEAN-ACT supported two workshops on digital evidence in collaboration with the ministry.
Fourteen experts from Vietnam and 9 international speakers from Australia, INTERPOL, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime shared their knowledge and experience in detecting, tracking, gathering, preserving, collating and using digital evidence during investigation, prosecution and adjudication of trafficking in persons cases.
The second and third workshops attended by justice agencies across Vietnam were held in November 2021 and March 2022, and focused on Vietnamese practices and practical experiences in the field.
Achievements
Mr Nguyen Van Vuong - a young officer from the Investigation Agency of the Vietnam Supreme People’s Procuracy - applied the learnings from these workshops, writing an article on 'Digital evidence in corruption cases' for the Supreme People’s Court magazine.
He then created and issued a stakeholder mapping on digital evidence examination, which helps the Investigation Agency and other agencies within and outside the Supreme People’s Procuracy to contact, collaborate with and seek support from each other in handling criminal cases, including trafficking in persons.
Mr Nguyen attended the training-of-trainers course for prosecutors and speakers held in January 2022 and is recognised as a peer educator, mentor and trainer on topics related to digital evidence and evidence examination of trafficking in persons cases.
"The workshops and training-of-trainers course organised by ASEAN-ACT created valuable opportunities for me to meet and learn from experts on collecting, analysing, using and examining evidence and digital evidence. They also answered my questions and guided me to overcome some challenges and difficulties in handling digital evidence, especially in digital examination. After learning from the workshops and training, I can develop new ideas and improve my own skills and knowledge related to collection, assessment and use of evidence in general, and
digital evidence in particular." -- Mr Nguyen Van Vuong, Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam
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