Key Provisions

The Convention contains specific provisions for preventing, investigating and prosecuting these offences as well as serious crimes when they are transnational in nature and involve an organized criminal group.

States Parties to the Convention are obliged to adopt domestic laws and practices which would prevent or suppress certain types of organized-crime-related activities. To combat money-laundering, countries would have to require their banks to keep accurate records and make them available for inspection by domestic law enforcement officials. It should be noted that bank secrecy could not be used to shield criminal activities.

States Parties to the Convention are also required to take appropriate action to confiscate illicitly acquired assets. In particular, the Convention created an asset sharing mechanism under which States Parties are encouraged to contribute confiscated assets to bodies working for the fight against organized crime.

One of the most important international cooperation components of the Convention is its extradition provision. This provision is vital to ensuring that there are “no safe havens” to which offenders can flee. Under the Convention, fiscal matters should not be a sole ground for refusing extradition.

Mutual legal assistance is another important judicial cooperation tool provided for by the Convention. Under this article, it is highly recommended that assistance be channeled through central authorities to regulate the process. One of its innovative elements is that the Convention allows for electronic transmission of requests for quicker processing. Bank secrecy should not be a ground for refusing assistance. In specific areas, such as law enforcement action, international cooperation could take much more direct and less formal form to enhance its effectiveness.

The nature of transnational organized crime makes the protection of victims and witnesses a matter of such importance that the Convention also requires States Parties to adopt appropriate measures to protect witnesses from potential intimidation or retaliation. This includes physical protection, relocation, and within legal constraints, concealment of identities.

The Convention further calls on States to support the efforts of developing countries to fight transnational organized crime and assist them to implement the Convention through technical cooperation as well as financial and material assistance.

As regards the implementation mechanism, the Convention establishes a Conference of the Parties to improve the capacity of States Parties to combat transnational organized crime. The Conference will first meet within the first year of the entry into force of the Convention.