United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime and
Protocols and
United Nations Convention
against Corruption
World Summit of Prosecutors General, Attorneys General and Chief Prosecutors
Bucharest, Romania, 23-25 March 2009
Status of TOC and Protocols
 First 3 instruments opened for signature in Palermo, Italy, 12-15 December 2000
 Firearms Protocol adopted and opened for signature in New York in July 2001
160
147
147
140
127
Critical number
of ratifications needed
for entry into force
119
117
120
112
100
77
80
52
60
40
20
0
TOC Convention
(entered into force on
29 September 2003)
Trafficking Protocol
(entered into force on
25 December 2003)
Smuggling Protocol
(entered into force on
28 January 2004)
Signatories
Parties
Firearms Protocol
(entered into force on 3
July 2005)
22
Structure of the Convention: key features
Training and
technical
assistance
Standardized
terminology
4 basic
offences
Control
measures
Prevention
Protection of
witnesses and
victims
International
Cooperation
Confiscation
and seizure
33
Four basic offences
Participation in an organized criminal group (Art. 5)
Laundering of proceeds of crime (Art. 6)
Corruption (Art. 8)
Obstruction of justice (Art. 23)
Transnationality or involvement of an organized criminal group must not be made elements
of these offences in domestic law (Art. 34. 2)
44
International cooperation
Extradition (Art. 16)
Mutual Legal
Assistance (Art. 18)
Investigative measures
and other forms of
cooperation (Art. 20, 26,
27)
55
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Human Beings,
especially Women and Children
(Trafficking Protocol)
Status: 117 Signatories, 127 Parties
66
Criminalization (Art. 3)
States must criminalize:
trafficking in human beings
attempting, participating as an accomplice in, and organizing or directing others
to commit the offence(s) of trafficking
Definition: Trafficking in persons means (Art. 3.a)
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons
by means of the threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or
vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim
for the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual
exploitation, forced labor, slavery or similar practices, and the removal of organs
consent of the victim is irrelevant where illicit means are established, but criminal law defenses
are preserved (Protocol, Art. 3. b, Convention Art. 11. 6)
77
Assistance and protection of victims (Art.6)
 States obliged to assist and protect victims and witnesses by Convention (Artt. 24-25)
 Protocol recognizes that trafficking victims are particularly vulnerable and contains additional
measures for protection and support:
 protection of privacy and identity where possible
 information about proceedings and assistance in presenting views and concerns
 endeavor to provide for safety of victims
 programmes to protect victims from re-victimization (Art. 9. 1. b)
 Protocol calls for additional measures to support physical,
psychological and social recovery, taking account of special
needs of children:
 legal and other counseling
 medical, psychological, material and housing assistance
 possibility of obtaining compensation
88
Protocol against the
Smuggling of Migrants
by Land, Sea and Air
(Migrants Protocol)
Status: 112 Signatories, 119 Parties
99
States must criminalize:
Criminalization (Art. 6)
 The smuggling of migrants
 Producing, procuring, providing or possessing fraudulent travel or identity documents
for the purpose of smuggling migrants
 Enabling a person to remain illegally
 Attempting, participating, organizing or directing others to commit Protocol offences
Aggravating circumstances:
 circumstances that endanger safety
 inhuman or degrading treatment
Definition: Smuggling of migrants means (Art. 3. a)
procurement of illegal entry
into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident
to obtain direct or indirect financial or other material benefit
10
10
International cooperation
States shall:
cooperate to prevent the smuggling of migrants by sea (Art. 7)
exchange information relating to smuggling of migrants (Art. 10)
verify the legitimacy and validity travel or identity documents (Art. 13)
consider the conclusion of bilateral or regional agreements (Art. 17)
11
11
Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and
Trafficking in Firearms,
their Parts, Components
and Ammunitions
(Firearms Protocol)
Status: 52 Signatories, 77 Parties
12
12
Structure of the Protocol, key provisions
Definition: Firearm
 Standardizes terminology (Art. 3)
barrelled weapon
that can expel a shot, bullet
 Standard definitions of “firearm”,
“trafficking”, “tracing”
or projectile
by the action of an explosive
portable (by one person)
excluded antiques made before 1899
 Linking export to subsequent import permit (Art. 3. e, 10. 2)
 Requiring marking and record-keeping to support identification and tracing
(Artt.7, 8)
 Security measures against diversion
(Art. 11)
 Criminal offences for illicit manufacturing, trafficking and defacing firearm
markings (Art. 5)
 International cooperation in tracing and other matters (Artt.12, 13)
13
13
Criminalization (Art.5)
States must criminalize:
Illicit trafficking
Illicit manufacturing
Falsifying, obliterating, removing or altering markings
Attempts, participation as an accomplice, organizing or directing others to
commit Protocol offences
14
14
Marking of firearms (Art.8)
 States Parties must require unique marking which provides the name of
manufacturer, the country or place of manufacture and the serial number
 Countries which presently combine simple geometric symbols and a numeric
or alpha numeric code may maintain this practice
 Firearms must be marked at time
of manufacture, import, and when
transferred from government to
private hands
15
15
Implementing the Convention and its Protocols:
The Conference of the Parties (COP)
Established by articles 32 and 33 to:
Promote and review implementation
Make recommendations to improve Convention
Consider means of implementing and difficulties encountered by States
COP1 COP2 COP3
2004 2005 2006
COP4
2008
COP5
2010
16
16
COP 4 – key decisions
Review of implementation: group of experts to consider possible
review mechanism
International cooperation: focus on confiscation and seizure of
proceeds of organized crime, international cooperation for the
purpose of confiscation, extradition and mutual legal assistance
Trafficking, Smuggling and Firearms Protocols
Technical assistance: proposals for action on criminalization;
international cooperation in criminal matters; central authorities
dealing with requests for mutual legal assistance and/or extradition;
protection of victims; and protection of witnesses.
17
17
The United Nations Convention against Corruption
18
18
UNCAC - status of ratification
132 Parties (including European Community), 140 Signatories
14 0
13 2
12 0
117
14 December 2005
30 ratification
entry into force
10 0
80
60
10 8
93
80
54
40
37
24
20
13
05
D
ec
-0
5
A
pr
-0
6
A
ug
-0
D 6
ec
-0
6
A
pr
-0
7
A
ug
-0
7
D
ec
-0
7
A
pr
-0
8
A
ug
-0
D 8
ec
-0
8
ug
-
A
pr
-
A
ec
-0
4
04
D
ug
-
A
04
pr
-
A
-0
3
ec
D
05
2
0
19
19
Status of ratification by region (total: 132)
Group of Latin
Am erican and
Caribbean
States: 24 (18%)
Group of
Eastern
European
States: 20 (15%)
Western
European and
Other States
(including EC):
20 (15%)
Group of African
States: 41 (31%)
Group of Asian
States: 27 (21%)
20
20
Structure of the Convention
Prevention
(Art. 5-14)
Asset
Recovery
Criminalization
International
Cooperation
21
21
International cooperation
Mandatory
Question of
Offences Dual Criminality
Optional
Offences
Narrow Dual Criminality
Requirements
In MLAs
22
22
Prevention of transfer of proceeds of crime (Art. 52)
States Parties must require their financial institutions to:
Verify the identity of customers
Determine the identity of beneficial owners of high-level accounts
Apply enhanced scrutiny to accounts maintained by prominent public officials
Report suspicious transactions to competent authorities
Prevent the establishment of banks with no physical presence – “shell banks”
The implementation of these provisions may require legislation
23
23
Direct recovery (Art.53) – civil prosecution
Initiate civil action in another
States parties party’s courts to establish
shall be allowed to ownership of property acquired
through corruption
Courts Order corruption offenders to
shall be allowed to pay compensation to another
state party
Courts Recognize, in confiscation
shall be allowed to decisions, another party’s claim
as legitimate owner of property
Advantages of civil prosecution:
useful when criminal prosecution in not possible – death or absence of alleged offender
allows to establish liability on the basis of civil standards – different evidentiary requirements2424
Recovery and international cooperation (Art.54-55)
Give effect to an order of
States Parties confiscation issued by a court of
shall permit their another Party
competent Freeze or seize property upon a
authorities to
freezing or seizing order issued
by a court of a requesting Party
Allow confiscation without
States Parties criminal conviction – when
shall consider offender cannot longer be
measures to
prosecuted because of death,
flight or absence
25
25
Return of assets (art.57)
Embezzled public funds or
laundering of embezzled
public funds
Return to
requesting Party
Return to requesting Party if it can
reasonably establishes prior ownership
Other cases
Proceeds of other
offences of corruption
Confiscated property may be
returned to the requesting Party,
prior legitimate owner or
used for compensating victims
26
26
The work of UNODC to promote the Convention
Effective implementation
Full compliance
Universal ratification
Assistance to
Conferences of the
States Parties
Promotion of ratification
provision of
technical assistance
27
27
The road to Doha, 9-13 November 2009
Review of implementation:
towards the establishment
of the mechanism
Asset recovery:
generating knowledge and
building capacity
Technical assistance:
demand driven
28
28
Self-assessing compliance, gaps and needs (CoSP res. 1/2 and 2/1)
UNCAC self-assessment checklist – new survey software launched on 15 June 07
Strong emphasis on technical assistance needs and donors’ coordination
Criminalization
(art. 15, 16, 17, 23, 25)
Prevention (art. 5, 6, 9)
Horizontal review
covering all
chapters
Asset Recovery
(art. 52, 53, 54, 55, 57)
International Cooperation
(art. 44, 46)
29
29
Response to the UNCAC self-assessment checklist
Reporting parties
Reporting signatories
Non reporting parties
72 reporting States Parties: 55 % response rate
6 reporting signatories
27
8
15
5
1
1
4
3
1
14
12
African Group Asian Group
15
16
15
Eastern
European
Group
GRULAC
WEOG
30
30
Overall technical assistance needs
31
31
The Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative
(StAR)
Launched in New York by the World Bank and UNODC on 17 September 2007
32
32
StAR: can do’s and can’t do’s
 Provide training on asset recovery
 Provide technical assistance to help collect and analyze

information on cases: financial analysis, legal research,
planning
Facilitate collaboration between states
 Finance legal representation
 Manage cases or make decisions on the conduct of cases
33
33
StAR’s three components
Global knowledge and
advocacy
Capacity building
40%
30%
30%
Recovery of stolen assets
34
34
UNCAC and its review mechanism
in the making
35
35
The review mechanism in the making
The Conference of the States Parties shall acquire the necessary
knowledge of measures taken by States Parties in implementing this
Convention through information provided by them and through such
supplemental review mechanisms as may be established by the Conference
(Art. 63, 5)
First Conference (Jordan, 2006): Political Decision
It is necessary to establish a mechanism to assist in the review of
implementation of the Convention
Second Conference (Indonesia, 2008)
The effective and efficient review of the implementation of the Convention is of
paramount importance and urgent (Res. 2/1)
36
36
Implementing resolution 2/1
 CoSP called for proposals for TORs
33 States had submitted proposed TORs
Secretariat consolidated proposals
Working Group on Review of Implementation met in Vienna from 22 to
24 September and from 15 to 17 December 2008
Provisional headings formulated
Informal meeting held on 26 and 27 February 2009
Next meeting: Vienna, 11-13 May 2009
37
37
Terms of reference – provisional headings
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Composition
Guiding Principles
Relationship with the Conference of the States Parties
The Review Process
A. Goals
Current
B. Conduct of the Review
negotiations
C. Outcome of the review Process
V. Implementation Review Group
VI. Secretariat
VII. Funding
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For further information:
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Vienna International Centre
PO Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43-1-26060-4534
Fax: +43-1-26060-5841
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/crime_conv
ention_corruption.html
THANK YOU
dimitri.vlassis@unodc.org
FOR YOUR ATTENTION
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
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