Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

192 winer and rouleprinciples for international cooperation against money laundering tothat involving the proceeds of illicit extraction of natural resources. Anintergovernmental mechanism may also be needed to exercise oversightover the implementation of such a framework and to integratework undertaken by international financial institutions and developmentagencies by existing intergovernmental organizations such as theWorld Customs Organization, CITES, and Interpol. Such a frameworkand mechanism could cover a group of commodities, including gemstones,oil and gas, precious metals, and timber, and establish standarddocumentation and disclosure mechanisms that would be universallyapplicable. Just as the Vienna convention and the Palermo conventionestablished national requirements for money laundering regulationand enforcement and judicial cooperation covering narcotics and organizedcrime, this framework and mechanism would focus on building acommon approach to handling both the commodities and the fundsthey generate. The framework would resemble the recent Organizationof American States firearms convention and the UN firearms protocol,as well as existing efforts by the World Customs Organization, byrequiring standard documentation for the commodities covered, anapproach outside the two UN conventions. Notably, the UN firearmsprotocol and existing certification requirements of the World CustomsOrganization focus on documenting licit movements of goods acrossborders, highlighting illicit activity in the process. The firearms protocoland the existing certification initiatives are to be implementedlargely by the private sector. A framework covering both the movementof commodities-in-transit through certifications and the correspondingfinancial movements would rely not only on the private sector involvedin handling the commodities but also on the financial institutionsalready laboring to deal with drug money laundering, terrorist finance,criminal money laundering, and the proceeds of corruption.As this study suggests, there are very significant differences in themarket structure for different commodities in different situations. Themarket for oil and gas tends to be concentrated, with few players.Tropical timber has some concentration of markets among the endusers, but many players are capable of exploiting the timber. Coltan,diamonds, and tanzanite more nearly resemble timber than energy,with an extremely deconcentrated set of suppliers and an increasinglynarrow band of purchasers as the products move to the end users. Accordingly,a framework covering all these commodities would need tofocus on the potential choke points through which each type of commodity,and its financing, would be likely to pass.Certain financial mechanisms used to handle the proceeds of illicitextraction are already being addressed by initiatives to handle money