Spanish National Police deliver training course on investigating and resolving kidnapping for ransom situations at joint OSCE-UNODC workshop in Almaty

Strengthening the capacity of government experts from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to resolve and investigate kidnapping situations was the focus of a four-day training course organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) with the support of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana and in co-operation with the Spanish National Police from 5 to 8 June 2017 at the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC) in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The course was led by experts of the Spanish National Police on the basis of the best practices and procedures that they apply wherever their citizens are targeted, at home or abroad. It included training sessions on responses during the different phases of a kidnapping situation, the establishment of a negotiation team, the profile of a good negotiator and communication tactics. These sessions were complemented by technical discussions and exercises based on real-life cases that the Spanish National Police had dealt with in the past.

The event was part of the OSCE’s work on countering the financing of terrorism, with kidnapping for ransom being one of the sources through which terrorist groups seek to raise funds. This was highlighted in UN Security Council Resolution 2133 and the OSCE Ministerial Declaration on supporting its implementation, both of 2014.

“One of the most effective tools for fighting terrorist organizations is to cut off their funding. Preventing and combating kidnapping for ransom through international co-operation is an efficient way to do that while simultaneously protecting the lives of the innocent,” said Colin McCullough, Political Officer at the OSCE Programme Office in Astana. Effective law enforcement responses to kidnapping situations require an established agency strategy and a clear operational decision making process, he said, as highlighted in UNODC’s Manual on Countering Kidnapping and Extortion.

This regional training event was supported through extra-budgetary contributions by Liechtenstein, Spain and Switzerland to the OSCE Transnational Threats Department’s project, together with additional funding provided by UNODC. It was the fourth and final activity planned so far as part of the Department’s work on countering kidnapping for ransom.