Why the Kim Jong-nam assassination raises the need for a human trafficking framework

The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was assassinated at Malaysia airport in February 2017 by women squirting poisoned pens. News items suggest they thought they were part of a prank, were paid a limited fee and may have been from such a disadvantaged background that they were exploited. This raises issues of substantive law around their intention to kill when they committed the assault and any operative deception might be relevant to those issues. However, what is also important is to consider the effect of the UN human trafficking protocol which defines trafficking to include the ….recruitment of persons…by means of deception, of abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation…. Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of criminal exploitation is an increasingly significant phenomenon with victims being exploited through a variety of criminal activities. UN Guiding principles are that trafficked victims who commit crime should not be prosecuted or, if they are, should not be punished. Taking into account the recent decision in ZN v. SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE AND OTHERS [2016] HKCFI 2179; HCAL 15/2015 (23 December 2016), this presentation considers the role that abuse of process can play in criminal appeals and the need for a transnational human trafficking framework both for investigation and the exercise of any discretion to prosecute victims of human trafficking who commit crime.