17 November 2000

New U.N. Treaty Targets International Crime

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The first major international treaty of the new millennium -- the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime -- signals a new willingness of countries to work together to crack down on organized crime groups that deal in drugs, firearms, and the trafficking of human beings, Pino Arlacchi, the director of the U.N. office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, said November 16. He spoke at a press conference after the General Assembly unanimously adopted the convention on November 15.

Arlacchi, who himself called for an international convention against organized crime 14 years ago, said that "this convention put together the most advanced tools we have in fighting organized crime. My experience tells me there is nothing better than confiscation of assets, witness protection programs, (and) abolition of bank secrecy. It means the abolition of all areas of impunity for criminal money all around the world."

"If you ask any investigator, any expert in the world today, I think that nobody will tell you that we should have done something else or something better. This is the very top -- or state of the art -- of fighting organized crime worldwide," he continued. "I believe this convention will not be just a piece of paper."

"The degree of consensus and support for this convention and the protocols....is such that we'll get along with this convention for several decades," Arlacchi told reporters.

The convention and protocols will be open for signature at a special conference in Palermo, Italy, December 12 to 15. More than 100 countries are expected to attend the treaty signing, several represented by their heads of state or government.

The treaty will enter into force after 40 countries have ratified it. The convention has the support of nations large and small; rich and poor, Arlacchi said. The United States "was one of the main supporters of the convention and one of the most active negotiators."

The convention won UNGA approval in response to new patterns of criminal activity that have emerged over the last decade. Open borders and advanced technology that have opened trade and commerce have also enabled expansion of criminal groups engaged in the illicit drug trade, migrant smuggling, and the trafficking of women and children in the sex industry.

"Never before has there been so much economic opportunity for so many people," Arlacchi said. "And never before has there been so much opportunity for criminal organizations to exploit the system."

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime is the first legally binding U.N. treaty to fight organized crime. The effectiveness of the convention will rest in the adoption of complementary laws by all countries so that there can be no uncertainty that a crime in one country is also a crime in another, U.N. officials explained. Also, by passing new or updating existing laws, all countries will be in a position to cooperate with each other in investigation and prosecution. According to the treaty, countries must criminalize four types of offenses: participation in an organized crime group, money laundering, corruption, and obstruction of justice.

For the first time, an international convention will also hold companies and corporations liable for taking part in serious crimes involving organized criminal groups. Criminal acts of corruption, which in some countries have greatly aided the rapid growth of organized crime, will now be covered under an international treaty.

The new convention will require governments to criminalize money laundering, corruption, and obstruction of justice; take measures to establish the liability of corporations when they are involved in organized crime; speed up and widen the reaches of extradition; protect witnesses testifying against criminal groups; and tighten cooperation to seek out and prosecute suspects. The treaty also provides for assistance to countries that need economic help and technical assistance to join the fight against transnational organized crime.

Countries will also have the opportunity to sign two protocols to the convention. One is aimed against trafficking in persons, particularly women and children, and the other against the smuggling of migrants.

The convention and its protocols take the international community well beyond the crime-fighting abilities it first had with the Drug Trafficking Treaty approved in the 1980s providing stronger measures in the areas of money laundering, ease of extradition, and enhanced judicial cooperation.

"There is nothing better today in fighting organized crime than this convention, Arlacchi said.

The protocols are "very concrete -- they are actually mini conventions," he pointed out.

Arlacchi was optimistic that the treaty will get the necessary ratifications and become law within two years as well as have an effective "conference of the parties to the convention" to ensure that the treaty is fully implemented. Countries are already volunteering to host the four regional meetings that are to be held over the next two years on the treaty's implementation, he pointed out.

"There was unanimous agreement that using the proper tools, sophisticated tools, there is not risk of infringement of national sovereignty or even human rights," he said.

"When you speak of organized crime, you always have the big issue of how to fight criminals without harming honest people...and from this point the convention is on the side of increasingly sophisticated investigation (and) judicial work in order to be very precise in striking criminals and not touching honest and ordinary citizens," he said.

Small countries were some of the more active supporters of the treaty, Arlacci said, despite concerns about how they would be able to implement the treaty. Developing countries realized "that this was a very advanced instrument that really they could not afford," Arlacchi said. "But this was only because they realized that some of these measures required major improvement of their national bodies."

But, he stressed, assets seized from criminal groups can be used to finance an investigation, and some countries are already starting to substantially finance their own law enforcement bodies from the proceeds of confiscated assets.

Arlacchi said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates the size of the illegal economy between 3 and 5 percent of the world's gross national product (GNP). But beyond the amount of money involved, this criminal activity damages a country by increasing the instability of international financial systems, corrupting public officials, and impeding a nation's legal economy and its development process, he explained.

Arlacchi said estimates on trafficking in persons put the figure at some 27 million people who are being smuggled across borders worldwide. However, that number increases to about 100 million if people who are taken into economic slavery (forced labor, children exploited in sweat shops) are included.

Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs. U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov

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