View/save PDF version of this document - La Strada International

On the recommendation of the Commission at its fifth session, the General Assemblyalso adopted the United Nations Declaration on Crime and Public Security (resolution51/60, annex). In accordance with that Declaration, Member States undertook to seek toprotect the security and well-being of all their citizens by taking effective national measuresto combat serious transnational crime, including organized crime, illicit drug and armstrafficking, smuggling of other illicit articles, organized trafficking in persons, terroristcrimes and the laundering of proceeds from serious crimes; to promote bilateral, regional,multilateral and global law enforcement cooperation and assistance; to take measures toprevent support for and operations of criminal organizations in their national territories,and, to the fullest extent possible, to provide for effective extradition or prosecution ofthose who engaged in serious transnational crimes in order to ensure that they found nosafe haven.States also undertook to take measures to improve their ability to detect and interdictthe movement across borders of those who engaged in serious transnational crime, as wellas the instrumentalities of such crime, and to protect their territorial boundaries; agreed toadopt measures to combat the concealment or disguise of the true origin of the proceedsof serious transnational crime and the intentional conversion or transfer of such proceedsfor that purpose, to require adequate record-keeping by financial and related institutionsand the reporting of suspicious transactions and to ensure effective laws and proceduresto permit the seizure and forfeiture of the proceeds of serious transnational crime; and recognizedthe need to limit the application of bank secrecy laws, if any, with respect to criminaloperations and to obtain the cooperation of financial institutions in detecting those andother operations which might be used for the purpose of money-laundering.The issue of a convention against transnational organized crime came to the forefrontof international attention as a result of General Assembly resolution 51/120 of 12 December1996, on the question of the elaboration of an international convention against organizedtransnational crime, following the initiative of the Government of Poland to submit to theAssembly the text of a draft United Nations framework convention against organized crime(A/C.3/51/7, annex). 20 The Assembly requested the Secretary-General to invite all Statesto submit their views on the question of the elaboration of an international conventionagainst organized transnational crime, including their comments on the proposed draftUnited Nations framework convention; requested the Commission on Crime Preventionand Criminal Justice to consider, as a matter of priority, the question of the elaboration ofsuch an international convention, with a view to finalizing its work on that question assoon as possible; and also requested the Commission to report through the Economic andSocial Council to the Assembly at its fifty-second session on the results of its work onthat question.At its sixth session, from 28 April to 9 May 1997, the Commission on CrimePrevention and Criminal Justice considered the report of the Secretary-General on the questionof the elaboration of an international convention against organized transnational crime(E/CN.15/1997/7/Add.1), which contained the views on the question, as well as substantivecomments on the draft framework convention proposed by the Government of Poland,submitted by 24 Member States.20The text of the draft United Nations framework convention against organized crime contained provisions on thescope of application and related definitional issues, including a definition of “organized crime”, as well as a list of offencesbased on the terminology used in previous international conventions (art. 1); criminalization (art. 2); criminal liability ofcorporate persons (art. 3); recognition of foreign convictions (art. 4); jurisdiction (art. 5); international cooperation, includingextradition, mutual legal assistance, law enforcement cooperation and cooperation in establishing and implementing witnessprotection programmes (arts. 6-13); national implementation (art. 14); and implementation mechanism of the convention(arts. 15 and 16).xix