VN, Laos, Cambodia combat transnational crimes

via CAAI

More than 100 chief judges and judges from the Supreme People’s Courts of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia and their border provinces are attending a two-day conference that opened in the central coastal city of Nha Trang on Dec. 22.

The conference, the first of its kind, is being held under the initiative of the Viet Nam Supreme People’s Court (VSPC) in order to share experiences and put forward solutions to enhance cooperation in combating cross-border crimes.

At the first session, themed “Increasing the effectiveness of cooperation in crime prevention and control” and chaired by Chief Judge of the Lao Supreme People’s Court Khammy Saynhavong, participants were briefed on the complicated situation of drug and social order crimes and human trafficking.

According to deputy judge of the VSPC criminal court Hoang Thi Kim Oanh, among more than 1,580 cases of women and children trafficking detected in Viet Nam in the 2004-2009 period, women and children trafficked to Cambodia made up 11 percent of the cases and to Laos , 29 percent of cases.

VSPC Deputy Chief Judge Dang Quang Phuong said that the signing of bilateral and multilateral cooperation treaties among the three countries in combating crimes remained slow, which he said failed to reflect the goodwill and wishes of concerned parties in the negotiation to sign the judiciary assistance agreement.

The conference agreed to enhance cooperation among the three countries’ courts in combating and trials of transnational crimes.

They emphasised the need for local border courts to share experiences and organise fact-finding tours and seminars on professional skills for judges and courts’ cadres.