Obligations of states parties under the migrant smuggling protocol

States are required under the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime, 15 November 2000 (the Protocol) to comply with a number of obligations that aim to combat and prevent the activities of migrant smuggling. For example, Article 4 of the Protocol indicates explicitly the obligations of prevention, investigation and prosecution. Furthermore, the obligations of criminalisation and cooperation are contained in Articles 6 and 7 of the Protocol. Finally, the obligation of States parties not to commit the offences in Article 6 of the Protocol can be inferred from the combined reading of the obligations of criminalisation and prevention. The principal aim of this chapter is to explore whether or not the activities of migrant smuggling can be combated and prevented by parties in light of the current wording of these obligations laid down in the Protocol. This chapter argues that the substantive framework of the obligations in the Protocol contains a number of lacunae because of the flexible, open-ended and vague terms used to formulate these obligations. Moreover, the responsibility of States parties for these obligations cannot be established readily in light of this wording. This chapter proposes a number of amendments that might make the obligations of parties in the Migrant Smuggling Protocol more effectiveness.