PLAN TO COMBAT TRANSNATIONAL CRIME ISSUED BY LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN MINISTERS
Press Release
SOC/CP/176
PLAN TO COMBAT TRANSNATIONAL CRIME ISSUED BY LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN MINISTERS
19951207 (Delayed in transmission.)VIENNA, 7 December (UN Information Service) -- High-level delegations from 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries, meeting from 27 to 30 November at a regional workshop in Buenos Aires, pledged to combine national efforts to produce a coordinated response to transnational organized crime.
The Buenos Aires Declaration on Prevention and Control of Organized Transnational Crime expresses interest in continued exploration of the possible formulation of a global convention on organized transnational crime and specifies the elements such a convention should contain. It confirms participants' strong commitment to fight together against any criminal activity in the region which might threaten democracy, undermine the legitimacy of governments and institutions, hamper sustainable development and affect citizens' security.
The Buenos Aires Declaration further urges:
-- Review and strengthening of legal systems and public administration, especially to encourage good governance and reduce corruption;
-- Increased exchange of information between competent national authorities regarding judicial proceedings and investigations, as well as successful crime prevention strategies;
-- Ratification of the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances by those States which are not yet party to it;
-- In a like manner, ratification of the 1994 Inter-American Convention on International Trafficking in Minors, as well as consideration by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice of the possibility of undertaking a survey of the extent of this activity;
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-- Measures by the Crime Commission to reduce illicit international traffic in vehicles and firearms as well as to prevent employment of minors in organized criminal activities; and
-- Support of donor countries and cooperating and funding agencies for proposals for projects to promote good governance by addressing organized transnational crime and corruption in the region.
The Declaration also acknowledges the need to adopt a coordinated hemispheric strategy on money laundering, including consideration of a convention on this subject.
The Buenos Aires meeting was designed as a follow-up to the World Ministerial Conference on Organized Transnational Crime, which was held in Naples, Italy, in 1994, as well as to the Ninth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held in Cairo earlier this year.
The drafting of an international convention on organized crime had been proposed at the Naples Conference, according to Eduardo Vetere, Chief of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch.
The Ministerial Regional Workshop was organized by the Crime Branch and hosted by the Argentine Government. The Minister of Justice of Argentina, Carlos Rodolfo Barra, was elected Honorary President of the meeting; the Minister of Justice of Bolivia, René Blattman Bower, was elected as Vice- President; and the Minister of National Security and Justice of Jamaica, K.D. Knight, as Rapporteur. The Secretary of State in the Justice Ministry of Argentina, Elías Jassan, served as Executive President.
The Workshop was attended by government representatives at the following levels: Antigua and Barbuda (Attorney-General), Argentina (Minister of Justice), Barbados (Attorney-General), Bolivia (Minister of Justice), Chile (Deputy Minister of Interior), Colombia (Vice-Minister of Justice), Costa Rica (Vice-Minister of Justice), Cuba (Minister of Justice), Dominica (Attorney- General), Guatemala (Vice-Minister of Justice), Guyana (Minister of Home Affairs), Haiti (Secretary of State of Justice), Jamaica (Minister of National Security and Justice), Mexico (Minister of Justice), Nicaragua (Attorney- General), Panama (Supreme Court Justice and Prosecutor General), Paraguay (Vice-Minister of Justice), St. Kitts and Nevis (Minister of Justice), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Attorney-General), Suriname (Police Commissioner), Uruguay (Director of Legal Affairs, Minister of Interior) and Venezuela (Minister of Justice). Representatives of Brazil, Ecuador and Honduras also took part.
Also attending the Buenos Aires workshop were representatives of the United Nations Department for Development Support and Management Services and the United Nations Development Programme, as well as the Organization of American States and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
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