Financial Crime World

Assessing Gabon’s Efforts Against Organized Crime

Gabon has been evaluated on its performance in addressing organized crime, with a focus on its judicial system, law enforcement, economic and financial environment, civil society, and social protection. This report highlights the key findings of this assessment.

Judicial System: Challenges and Concerns

  • The judiciary lacks specialized units to counter organized crime, making it difficult to effectively tackle these issues.
  • There have been allegations of complicity among judicial staff, with some judges allegedly taking bribes from traffickers.
  • Prosecutorial judges face limited professional capacity, hindering their ability to investigate and prosecute cases.

Law Enforcement: Progress and Gaps

  • While law enforcement has received training to combat specific activities like resource exploitation and drug trafficking, there is still a lack of specialized units to tackle organized crime effectively.
  • The creation of the Criminal Intelligence Analysis Unit aims to improve information exchange and counter organized crime efforts. However, its effectiveness remains uncertain.

Economic and Financial Environment: Challenges

  • Gabon has relevant mechanisms and regulatory frameworks to curb money laundering; however, it lacks capacity to investigate and prosecute cases effectively.
  • Anti-corruption initiatives are perceived as a tool for the executive branch to settle scores with dissenting voices, rather than being genuinely implemented.

Civil Society and Social Protection: Positive Efforts

  • State-funded NGO shelters offer services to homeless and orphaned children at risk of trafficking.
  • National authorities have increased efforts to identify and protect victims of human trafficking.
  • However, there is a lack of information on rehabilitation programs for drug abuse in Gabon.

Prevention Efforts: Challenges Ahead

  • Awareness campaigns have been implemented to prevent flora crimes and illicit trade of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.
  • Despite these efforts, prevention efforts related to human trafficking have decreased, with the government not signing the anti-trafficking national action plan into law.

In conclusion, while Gabon has made some efforts to address organized crime, there are still significant challenges in its judicial system, law enforcement, and economic and financial environment. Civil society organizations play a role in responding to organized crime, but their work is often hampered by restrictions on press freedom and intimidation by law enforcement.