International Crime Control Strategy - June 1998International Crime Control Strategy - June 1998We have to . . . understand what American foreign policy is about. It is to protect the security of [America] and the American people and our way of life. We have to develop a set of partnerships with countries in order to deal with global threats that we have not seen before.
Madeleine K. Albright
Secretary of State
January 7, 1998
Many threats to U.S. interests are truly international in nature, whether from smuggling across our borders and shores, from distant safe havens around the globe, or via the borderless, technological web that harnesses the world's communications and financial systems. To respond to these threats, we must not only act in an efficient and effective way at home, but in bilateral and multilateral venues as well. Without effective law enforcement throughout the international community, criminals will continue to threaten U.S. interests simply by conducting their activities from and through those jurisdictions where law enforcement is weak. The Strategy calls for bringing bipartisanship and adequate resources to bear in cooperative initiatives with our international partners. It also calls for working with like-minded governments and international institutions that are able to exert influence in those parts of the world where our influence is particularly limited.
The Strategy aims to foster international cooperation and the rule of law as a means to attack the phenomenon of globalized criminal activity. As this criminal activity cuts across national borders and jurisdictions, it is essential that institutions within and among the states of the world be committed to, and capable of, combating this phenomenon. For such institutions to be successful, it is crucial that the societies in which they function adhere to the rule of law as a rule, not an exception. This goal can be achieved by working with our international partners to create common norms to fight international crime, promote compliance with those norms, encourage collaboration on law enforcement efforts, and enshrine in societies worldwide a dedication to principles of lawfulness.
Establish international standards, goals and objectives to combat international crime by using bilateral, multilateral, regional and global mechanisms, and by actively encouraging compliance;
Improve bilateral cooperation with foreign governments and law enforcement authorities through increased collaboration, training and technical assistance; and
Strengthen the rule of law internationally as the foundation for democratic government and free markets in order to reduce societies' vulnerability to criminal exploitation.
1. Establishing International Standards, Goals and Objectives to Combat International Crime
Establishing international norms, securing agreements to promote compliance with those norms, forming cooperative operational mechanisms and overcoming political resistance opposed to cooperative operations are the core of the Administration's strategy to foster international cooperation and the rule of law. The United States is a leading member of important regional and international crime control organizations and is a signatory to numerous agreements dedicated to fighting international crime. The Administration seeks to craft not only workable solutions to international crime problems, but also to create cohesive, multilateral pressure against governments that fail to combat international crime.
Key International Venues
The G-8. At the June 1997 Denver Summit, the participants recommitted themselves to fighting international crime. During the 1997 U.S. chairmanship, the G-8's Senior Expert Group on Transnational Organized Crime (the Lyon Group) substantially implemented its Forty Recommendations. The Group endeavored to gain worldwide acceptance of its recommendations as principles for combating all aspects of international crime. Four of the Group's recent key accomplishments include: (1) denying safe haven to criminals by strengthening prosecutorial processes, information sharing, and extradition and mutual legal assistance arrangements; (2) combating weapons smuggling with advanced tracing techniques and joint training programs; (3) protecting national borders with improved security and anti-fraud measures; and (4) preventing and detecting high tech crime by building consensus on crucial legal and technological issues.
Another ministerial working group on financial crime has made strides toward improving international cooperation between law enforcement agencies and financial regulators to curb serious financial crimes and regulatory abuse. The Administration will continue to participate vigorously in this productive, multilateral anti-crime effort at the May 1998 Summit in Birmingham, England and beyond.
UN Crime Commission. The United States is actively involved in the UN Crime Commission, a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council, and the related Center for International Crime Prevention (UNCICP). UNCICP will move from merely undertaking research projects that promote international law enforcement standards to providing technical assistance and institution building programs addressing high priority criminal activities such as organized crime and corruption. In addition, through UNCICP, the Administration will seek to persuade other states to adopt legislation addressing mutual legal assistance and extradition issues, and it will pursue an international convention against international organized crime.
UN Drug Control Program. The United States works with the UN Drug Control Program (UNDCP) and the related Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to advance the goals of the 1988 UN Drug Convention. The United States is a major donor to the UNDCP and through the UNDCP seeks to develop and implement programs that reinforce and complement our international drug control efforts, especially in those countries where our influence is limited. Through UNDCP, the Administration is seeking to: (1) implement counternarcotics programs in Burma and Afghanistan, the world's largest illicit opium producers; (2) leverage Western European support for international anti-drug efforts; (3) establish drug control institutions and regional cooperation in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe (NIS); (4) strengthen host government law enforcement and judicial institutions; (5) provide advice on drafting national legislation to implement the UN Drug Convention; (6) provide training and technical assistance to help countries implement chemical control regimes; and (7) continue our maritime cooperation training program. The Administration support delivery of these programs through UNDCP and to play a leadership role in the CND as the Commission prepares for the June 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session on International Drug Control.
Because international criminals respect no law or border it is in every nation's interest to fight them together.
Madeleine K. Albright
Secretary of State
July 28, 1997
Summit of the Americas. At the Summit of the Americas in December 1994 hosted by President Clinton in Miami, the Heads of State and Government of the Western Hemisphere agreed there was a need for intensified action by all their governments, individually and collectively, to address the problems of illicit production and trafficking of drugs and their illegal use. Plans of action were developed in the Summit of the Americas process to bar laundering of the proceeds, property and instrumentalities of criminal activities. At the April 1998 Summit held in Santiago, Chile, the Administration worked closely with its hemispheric partners to improve further regional anti-crime cooperation. In addition, they committed to develop under OAS auspices a multilateral counterdrug evaluation mechanism.
Dublin Group. Through the Dublin Group, which meets annually, the Department of State disseminates information to other governments about U.S. counternarcotics policies and objectives and tries to enlist support for them. In addition to the United States, Group members include Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Mini-Dublin Groups, which operate around the world in smaller regional groupings sponsored by individual host nations, provide excellent forums to examine host country counternarcotics programs and to identify areas for improvement. Continued U.S. support will be provided for these initiatives.
Colombo Plan. United States participation in the Colombo Plan Drug Advisory Program -- a regional organization based in Sri Lanka and comprising over 20 Asia-Pacific jurisdictions -- bridges the supply and demand sides of the international drug problem, complementing bilateral U.S. assistance for regional law enforcement narcotics training throughout South Asia with drug prevention programs in Southwest and Southeast Asia. The United States will maintain its involvement in the Colombo Plan, which helps achieve U.S. goals in countries where direct American influence has been limited.
CICAD. The United States is also the principal financial sponsor of the Inter-American Drug Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States, which was founded in 1986 as both a program and policy body to address issues of drug supply and demand in the Western Hemisphere. Through CICAD, OAS members work together to reduce the supply of illegal drugs and to control chemicals used to manufacture them. CICAD also promotes education about the harmful effects of drug use and encourages treatment of drug problems. Active U.S. participation in CICAD will continue.
FATF. Encouraging worldwide adoption of internationally accepted anti-money laundering standards is another key to the Strategy. The United States is a leading member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Comprising 26 jurisdictions plus two regional bodies that represent the world's major financial centers, FATF is the global leader in its field. Under the U.S. presidency of FATF in 1996, the organization revised and reissued its Forty Recommendations on combating money laundering to extend their scope beyond the laundering of illegal drug proceeds to include monies derived from all serious crimes and to mandate the reporting of suspicious transactions by financial institutions. A second round of mutual evaluations -- assessments of a member state's anti-money laundering measures by representatives from fellow members -- also started last year and will continue through the next several years. In the coming years, the FATF will promote the development of regional FATF-style bodies and will likely increase its own membership to expand its effectiveness. As FATF norms continue to gain prominence throughout the world, so too do the anti-money laundering practices that the United States and other FATF members are continuing to develop and implement.
CFATF. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) comprises 24 regional jurisdictions and is supported by five Contributing and Supporting Nations including the United States. CFATF has not only adopted FATF's Forty Recommendations, but also has developed and adopted 19 additional region-specific recommendations and is in the process of conducting a first round of mutual evaluations of its members. As technology improves and continues to provide new ways to steal and launder money, CFATF is attacking these problems by bringing together experts on issues such as cyberpayment systems and Internet gaming. With the active support of the United States and our international partners, CFATF is emerging as a model for development of other regional anti-money laundering organizations around the globe.
Multilateral Groups to Combat Alien Smuggling. In addition to the G-8 and the UN Crime Commission, the United States is involved in other multilateral efforts to combat alien smuggling. These groups include the Inter-Governmental Consultations Group on Asylum, Refugee and Migration policies (IGC), the Budapest Group and the Puebla Group. The IGC is composed of immigration experts from 15 countries in North America, Australia and Western Europe, and its focus is alien trafficking and returns. The Budapest Group, composed primarily of European countries, has a similar mandate and focuses on illegal immigration through Central and Eastern European states. The Puebla Group, established in March 1996, consists of Central and North American immigration officials who cooperate in the areas of migration, alien smuggling, migrants' human rights, and technology applications. The United States will continue to use its membership in these multilateral groups to exchange information on smuggling trends, coordinate bilateral and multilateral operations, and encourage countries to enact and update their statutes criminalizing alien smuggling.
WCO. The United States is the principal financial sponsor of the World Customs Organization (WCO), which has over 145 member countries spanning the globe. In addition to facilitating international trade -- which serves our national interest, economic security and foreign policy objectives -- the WCO's enforcement and training activities serve our crime fighting goals. These activities include interdicting illegal drugs and other contraband, promoting anti-smuggling and anti-money laundering initiatives, reducing commercial fraud, promoting effective enforcement of intellectual property rights, and fighting emerging crime problems, such as Internet-related crimes. During the coming year in the WCO, the United States will promote improved information exchange on measures for detecting and responding to illicit trafficking in radioactive materials, encourage the development of a WCO-UNDCP-INTERPOL project to share seizure information on illicit drugs, and promote the establishment of a model code of conduct to guide WCO members in customs transactions and to maintain transparent customs administrations.
Crime does not respect international borders. That is why it is so important that our nations work together to prevent criminal activity and pursue criminals wherever they may flee.
Janet Reno
Attorney General
November 17, 1997
INTERPOL. The continuing U.S. role in the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) also furthers the Strategy. INTERPOL serves as a conduit for the rapid and secure exchange of international criminal investigative information among the police forces of the member countries. As stated in its constitution, the organization's goals are "to ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between criminal police authorities within the limits of laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." INTERPOL is currently expanding its criminal database, and improving data capture, query methods and response time. The Administration fully supports these goals, and the United States will continue to participate actively in INTERPOL.
EUROPOL. Under our New Transatlantic Agenda with the European Union, we are considering cooperative efforts with EUROPOL, an intelligence analysis center that is being created by agreement of the members of the European Union. As this police organization becomes fully operational, the United States will seek to negotiate cooperative agreements between EUROPOL and U.S.-based law enforcement authorities.
Key International Agreements
Our bilateral agreements on extradition, mutual legal assistance, maritime drug smuggling, stolen vehicles, and other anti-crime measures are critical to implementing the Strategy. So too are the multilateral agreements into which the United States has entered. While multilateral agreements underlie the majority of the regional and international organizations in which the United States participates, a few are of special importance to the Strategy.
UN Drug Convention. The 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988 UN Drug Convention) is the principal international agreement underlying the world's efforts to stop the production and transportation of illegal drugs. Approximately 150 nations and jurisdictions around the world have signed, ratified or acceded to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, which also serves as the basis for global precursor chemical control, anti-money laundering measures, asset seizure provisions, extradition and mutual legal assistance. An original Convention signatory, the United States actively continues to promote its goals and objectives whenever possible.
Chemical Precursor Agreement. In May 1997, the Administration signed the Chemical Precursor Agreement with the European Union. The agreement provides for advance notification of chemical shipments between the parties so that the importing country can verify the legitimacy of the proposed end use and end user. For some chemicals, shipment will not be permitted absent the authorization of the importing country. Further, the agreement provides for information exchange on suspicious shipments to third countries. A joint U.S.-European working group met in November 1997 and established concrete measures and procedures to implement the agreement. As a result, law enforcement and regulatory authorities are now exchanging information on proposed shipments of controlled chemicals to identify and halt potentially suspect shipments.
Multilateral Chemical Reporting Initiative (MCRI).
The MCRI is a U.S. initiative, launched in 1997, to promote information exchanges between major chemical trading nations, which are essential to preventing diversion of chemicals from legitimate commerce to illicit drug manufacture. Information sharing limits traffickers' ability to "shop" among chemical source countries until they obtain chemicals from a country unaware of their intention to divert it for illicit purposes. With information exchange, chemical source countries can share information on the identities of illicit customers and curtail such shopping. The MCRI, an informal, voluntary cooperative arrangement, promotes the participation of all chemical source countries in the information exchange process to the extent permitted by their commercial confidentiality policies and regulations.
OAS Mutual Assistance Treaty. The Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and its accompanying Optional Protocol (which allows for cooperation in international tax cases) were signed by the United States in 1995 and advance the Strategy's goals. Awaiting Senate ratification, these instruments are the first multilateral treaties among OAS members for international judicial cooperation.
IPR Treaties. The Administration promotes improved protection of U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR) through the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty, and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Collectively, these three treaties set international norms for protecting copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and semiconductor designs, as well as protecting copyrighted materials when they are transmitted over electronic networks such as the Internet.
UN Aircraft Convention. The United States is a party to three, long-standing UN conventions and one protocol aimed at preventing crimes against civilian aviation, including acts of terrorism: the Convention on Offenses and Certain Other Acts Committed Onboard Aircraft, the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, the Convention for the Suppression of Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation, and the Protocol for the Suppression of Violence at Airports Serving International Civil Aviation. The United States has also included provisions on cooperation against threats to civil aviation in its more than 100 bilateral aviation agreements.
I intend to keep us involved with every freedom loving country in the world that will stand up to the terrorists and the thugs that would rob innocent people of their future.
President Bill Clinton
March 23, 1996
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. To protect Americans from the devastating consequences of weapons of mass destruction, the Administration vigorously and successfully negotiated extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention during the past year. While often thought of in strictly military terms, these and related treaties also serve to reduce the ability of international criminals and criminal syndicates to obtain, transport and use deadly radioactive and chemical substances. The Administration will work together with the other signatories to these international agreements in reducing the threat from criminal use of these substances.
OAS Firearms Treaty. The Administration has been at the forefront of creating a system for international cooperation to combat illicit trafficking in firearms. We are working to ensure that international efforts are consistent with our laws, and we are providing specific instruction to law enforcement officials in the Americas, Asia and Europe in techniques to identify and combat arms smugglers, and to facilitate prosecutions against specific gun smuggling criminal organizations.
In October 1997, after five months of negotiations in which the United States and Mexico played a leadership role, a working group of OAS member states reached final agreement on the text of a hemispheric convention to combat the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives and related materials. The convention was adopted by the OAS and signed by a number of countries, including the United States, in November 1997. The convention contains specific provisions requiring the signatories to, among other things, ensure that all firearms are marked by the manufacturer and importer, designate a point of contact for cooperation and information exchange, make the crimes of illicit manufacturing and trafficking extraditable offenses, and pledge to exchange technical information to improve the signatories' respective efficiencies in combating these crimes. The Administration expects to forward this convention to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification in mid-1998.
International Bomb Convention. On December 15, 1997, the UN General Assembly opened for signature a new and important law enforcement treaty, the International Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings. The United States signed the Convention on January 12, 1998. The United States had initiated the negotiation of this convention in July 1996 in the aftermath of the June 1996 bombing attack on U.S. military personnel in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, in which 17 U.S. Air Force personnel were killed. That attack followed other terrorist attacks in 1995-96, including poison gas attacks in Tokyo's subways, bombing attacks by Hamas in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and a bombing attack by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Manchester, England. The Convention fills an important gap in international law by expanding the legal framework for international cooperation in the investigation, prosecution and extradition of persons who engage in such bombings. The Convention will be sent to the Senate in the near future for advice and consent to ratification.
2. Improving Cooperation With Foreign Governments and Law Enforcement Authorities
Training and Technical Assistance
United States law enforcement officials need capable, reliable counterparts overseas. Our training efforts have been devoted to: building relationships and capabilities in such areas as fighting organized crime; supporting counterterrorism capabilities through forensic, investigative and other specialized police training; teaching law enforcement forensics and investigative techniques; providing legal and investigative training in intellectual property rights enforcement; recognizing and investigating white collar crime; teaching anti-smuggling techniques at ports and borders; enhancing internal security to combat corruption; strengthening prosecutorial and judicial systems; providing firearms tracing and identification training; combating fugitive issues through enhanced understanding and implementation of extradition regimes; and providing a range of specialized courses for middle and senior management law enforcement officials on how to develop lasting law enforcement institutions. Through these programs, we have trained thousands of foreign law enforcement officials all over the world.
Federal officials work closely with each other and with their foreign counterparts to ensure that training and technical assistance programs meet our anti-crime goals, our overall national interests and foreign policy objectives, and the needs of host governments. Our programs emphasize institution building in the host country for the best, long term results, maximizing our ability to reduce training and technical assistance costs over the long run. For example, INS offices overseas continue to provide training and technical assistance relating to anti-smuggling and fraudulent document detection to host country law enforcement officials worldwide. To date, in fiscal year 1998, 2,400 officials have been trained, resulting in 1,597 intercepts of criminals seeking to enter the United States.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) anticipates that in fiscal year 1998 it will respond to over 60,000 requests for gun traces from foreign law enforcement agencies. ATF and Customs are actively involved in training foreign law enforcement officers in seizure, identification and tracing of firearms, as well as providing technical advice on how to establish government offices regulating firearms, laboratories and other organizations to support host country illegal firearms interdiction efforts.
These programmatic activities will continue to be expanded as rapidly as possible. Five years ago, the President asked Congress to provide resources for a coordinated effort to combat international crime. With those funds, the Administration is making great progress both regionally and on a crime-specific basis.
Providing Regional Training and Technical Assistance to Enhance Foreign Cooperation
ILEA: Teaching Effective and Ethical Crime Control. The International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA), established in April 1995 in Budapest, Hungary is a prime example of U.S.-provided training and technical assistance. Nine federal agencies provide instruction at the academy, which offers two types of programs. One is an eight-week program for mid-level police managers focusing on personnel, financial and investigative management, leadership, ethics and the rule of law. The other program is for criminal justice officials and focuses on combating organized crime, financial crime, nuclear smuggling and narcotics trafficking. Over 1,000 law enforcement officers and prosecutors have attended ILEA in just two years.
The Administration is in the process of establishing an ILEA for Latin America. The first pilot overseas course was held during November and December 1997. It was attended by 32 senior law enforcement officials from eight foreign countries, and it featured instructors from Justice and Treasury who provided instruction on advanced investigative techniques in money laundering and drug trafficking.
The Administration intends to replicate these initiatives by establishing a comparable academy in East Asia.
Other Regional Training Initiatives. Throughout the Caribbean and Central America, the Administration is working closely with senior foreign officials to develop regional training and technical assistance strategies to combat international crime. Increasing communication among the varying legal systems in the region, exchanging tactical law enforcement information, improving detection of false documents and smuggling activities, and increasing the speed and intensity of mutual legal assistance against criminals are central aspects of this effort.
In West Africa, American law enforcement and foreign policy agencies are working closely to disrupt and curtail West African criminal operations often involved in narcotics trafficking, money laundering and business fraud. The range of initiatives includes expanded use of diplomatic demarches -- formal diplomatic presentations of our policies to a foreign government -- implementation of stricter guidelines for visa issuance, enhancement of immigration and extradition proceedings, and development of public information documents.
With $49.4 million in Freedom Support Act funds used in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS), as well as Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Act funds in Central and Eastern Europe, the Administration has expanded rule of law and criminal justice reform programs in the NIS and in Central and Eastern Europe, providing training to promote human rights and professional integrity to nearly 10,000 law enforcement officials in those regions. The Administration will continue to promote joint case work between U.S. law enforcement agencies and their foreign counterparts and has institutionalized cooperative agreements that allow information sharing and collaboration in crime prevention, investigations and prosecutions. The Administration also has implemented programs in these regions using the U.S. "strikeforce" approach, which combines the efforts of prosecutors, judges and law enforcement agents, as a model for criminal investigation and prosecutorial training.
Federal efforts also have strengthened criminal justice systems in the NIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Central America, the Middle East and Africa to combat the weak law enforcement that has long benefited criminals in those regions. Comparable efforts have enhanced civil law enforcement capabilities and local policing in the NIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Lebanon and South Africa. These efforts have included support for units designed to investigate and prosecute human rights violations by law enforcement officials, develop institutional mechanisms to combat corruption, and discourage financial crime. Techniques include on-site auditing, inspection of financial institutions, and openness in public contracting. Similarly, battling corruption in developing countries and in countries in transition in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and the Americas is a consistent focus of the Strategy. All these programs will continue to advance American interests not only by reducing prospects that U.S. nationals and businesses will become direct victims of criminal activities, but also by improving U.S. government interaction with stronger and less corrupt foreign governments.
Providing Crime-Specific Training and Technical Assistance to Enhance Foreign Cooperation
Terrorism. International terrorism takes many forms and can strike anywhere. Counterterrorism cooperation has been enhanced by the Department of State's Anti-Terror- ism Assistance (ATA) program under which foreign security officials have received training in explosive detection and deactivation, hostage negotiations, airport security, crisis management, personal security protection and human rights. In fiscal year 1997, 65 countries participated in the program. Since 1984, over 19,000 people from 104 countries have participated in the ATA program.
Drug Trafficking. The United States cooperates with its partners in conducting drug interdiction operations. These operations anticipate shifting trafficking patterns in order to disrupt the activities of criminal drug organizations and interdict illegal drugs in source and transit countries. Numerous agencies provide assistance to foreign partners to further their operational goal of drug interdiction. The Coast Guard provides assistance to our foreign partners to develop multi-mission maritime organizations, including organizational management, resource development, training, and standardization of procedures and interoperability capabilities that enhance international cooperation. The Department of Defense provides extensive detection and monitoring capabilities to U.S. and partner nation interdiction efforts through the Joint Interagency Task Forces (JIATFs), which facilitate interdiction operations between U.S. agencies and their foreign counterparts. The Customs Service provides assistance to partner nations and private shipping concerns to help develop port security mechanisms and systems to provide for exchange with other nations of drug trafficking information, as well as to train foreign government officials in contraband interdiction methods.
The Department of State coordinates programs to strengthen the criminal justice sectors of foreign governments to enable them to break up the full range of major trafficking activities and organizations and to enhance their ability to investigate, prosecute and convict major narcotics criminals. The State Department Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) funds a broad spectrum of drug and crime control programs around the world designed to strengthen host nation institutions and to help build the capabilities to carry out the full range of law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial activities, and these programs will continue to receive major emphasis by the Administration.
Alien Smuggling. The Administration has created regional anti-alien smuggling capabilities in Central America and the Caribbean, suggested replacement of corrupt foreign immigration and customs officials, strengthened data sharing with and among European countries on global networks of alien smugglers, secured the repatriation of hundreds of Chinese migrants from smuggling vessels, and facilitated the training of law enforcement officials throughout the world in techniques to identify fraudulent documents. These federal efforts to reduce alien smuggling will continue.
Trafficking in Women. In April 1997, the Departments of Justice and State hosted 50 Russian and U.S. officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations to examine the legal and law enforcement implications of trafficking of Russian women internationally. The Administration is providing criminal justice training in the NIS and Central America to deter migrant trafficking, and trafficking in women and children. Administration efforts to assist countries in combating trafficking in women will expand in the future pursuant to a March 1998 Executive Memorandum from the President. In addition to providing further training to foreign immigration and border patrol officials worldwide, Administration and Ukrainian officials have agreed to use Ukraine as a model for implementing a comprehensive strategy against trafficking in women. The United States would direct a portion of its foreign assistance to Ukraine to focus on three critical areas in the fight against trafficking in women: prevention, enforcement and victim assistance.
Stolen Cars. The quality and supply of automobiles in the United States make them prime targets for thieves who transport them abroad. Approximately one fifth of all cars stolen in the United States find their way to other countries, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. To address this problem, the Administration is currently negotiating bilateral treaties in Central and South America -- several of which we anticipate will be ready to sign in 1998 -- to build upon our long-standing stolen car recovery treaty with Mexico and upon the treaties that we recently have concluded with the Dominican Republic, Belize, Poland and Guatemala. We also have conducted training of foreign law enforcement officials to locate, identify and recover those vehicles, all along working closely with the U.S. private sector to utilize its expertise in combating the international trade in stolen cars. The Administration plans to expand this initiative to recover even more vehicles that are stolen in the United States and then illegally transported out of the country.
Money Laundering. The Administration has created an anti-money laundering and financial crime program with activities that literally span the globe. Working in a coordinated fashion, U.S. diplomats, law enforcement agents, regulators and financial analysts have drafted and reviewed money laundering legislation and regimes in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe and have provided training and technical assistance to countries seeking to strengthen their capabilities against money laundering. In Russia, for instance, U.S. regulatory, law enforcement and foreign affairs specialists are working as a team with their counterparts to develop new laws, regulations and investigative capabilities. The Administration plans to implement new anti-money laundering initiatives in countries in countries throughout the world, including in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Romania. In 1997, the Administration also embarked upon an innovative, multi-year, multilateral training program with the EU in conjunction with CFATF and UNDCP in the Caribbean to address the problem of money laundering in that region.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Violations. The protection of intellectual property rights throughout the world is a priority for the Administration and for U.S. industry. The Department of State, in conjunction with the U.S. Trade Representative, the Departments of Justice, Commerce and the Treasury, and the private sector, has drafted a comprehensive plan to improve foreign investigation and prosecution of IPR violations. The plan will include training foreign customs officials to identify pirated goods and training foreign judges and prosecutors in principles of intellectual property rights prosecutions.
3. Strengthening the Rule of Law Internationally as a Foundation of Democratic Government and Free Markets
The United States will also continue its efforts to promote the rule of law as the foundation for democratic government and free markets. These efforts will focus especially on countries seeking to establish or consolidate democratic institutions, particularly those rebuilding after civil conflict. These emerging democracies are particularly vulnerable to the operations of international criminals. Poverty in many countries has provided ample incentive for the pursuit of illegal forms of enrichment at tremendous cost to overall social and economic development. In the case of Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, part of the legacy of communism has resulted in legal systems inadequate to enforce the rule of law in a free market environment or to serve as the foundation for democracy. The success of all these states in earning the confidence of their citizens through effective law enforcement institutions depends greatly on the development of professional law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges who understand and operate under the rule of law.
Programs to Strengthen the Rule of Law.
The United States has implemented a variety of programs to strengthen, and in many cases to restructure, basic criminal justice systems abroad. Each of these programs entails fundamental changes in the ways in which the courts, prosecutors and police work and the ways in which they relate to one another.
Latin America. A successful transition to an accusatory system of criminal justice is widely believed to hold the key to overcoming historic inefficiencies in the administration of justice in Latin America that have permitted large numbers of crimes to go unpunished. Often overlooked, but equally important to this rearranging of functions, is the creation of an effective legal defense system, both public and private. Through the Department of State and AID, the United States has supported these and other extensive law enforcement and judicial reform efforts, including those to: (1) promote increased transparency and professionalism within the criminal justice system; (2) develop and provide national standards for police recruitment, vetting and training; (3) draft new criminal procedure codes and the implementing regulations for those codes, as well as manuals for use by police officers, prosecutors and judges; and (4) train police and prosecutors in developing investigative techniques and skills. Other programs funded by the State and Defense Departments aim to educate the police and armed forces to strengthen respect for human rights and the rule of law.
Implementation of these efforts will continue to be supported throughout the Western Hemisphere and elsewhere as appropriate. In other parts of the world, different historical contexts present different opportunities and even greater challenges in fundamental institution building.
Bosnia-Hercegovina. The United States is helping to develop competent, ethnically integrated police forces in Bosnia and Eastern Slavonia. In Bosnia, the United States is providing approximately 200 American police officers to the UN International Police Task Force (IPTF) which is monitoring the work of local police and helping to restructure and train the police to implement democratic policing principles and procedures. We also are providing a bilateral assistance program to the local police in support of the UN restructuring effort. This effort includes provision of equipment and training, some of which is implemented by the Justice Department's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). The Administration is participating in judicial institution reforms as well. In Eastern Slavonia, the United States assists the UN Transitional Administration in establishing effective police capabilities, and we also are supporting continued UN police assistance following Eastern Slavonia's January 1998 reintegration under the Government of Croatia.
Albania. In Albania, the United States has initiated a program, largely implemented by ICITAP, to help rebuild an indigenous policing capability that operates within international standards of democratic policing and human rights.
Romania. Working in conjunction with the UNCICP, the Administration is working with the government of Romania to design and implement a long term anti-corruption program to build local institutions and to strengthen Romania's capacity to fight organized crime. Funded by the Department of State, the program focuses on assisting the drafting of anti-corruption legislation by the Romanian parliament, developing and conducting train-the-trainer courses, establishing an anti-corruption commission, organizing visits by senior foreign law enforcement personnel to discuss how other countries address corruption issues, and developing a public information campaign on corruption issues.
South Africa. In support of South Africa's own recent national crime prevention strategy, the United States has provided training to the South African Police Service and the Ministry of Safety and Security in investigative techniques and case building. The United States also will provide expertise to assist judicial training and institutional restructuring along democratic lines, to institute anti-money laundering measures, and to establish a national witness protection program.
Haiti. In Haiti, we are helping to establish and train a civilian police force by funding the operation and development of the Haitian National Police (HNP) Academy and by contributing approximately 38 Creole-speaking Haitian-American police officers to the UN mission to serve as mentors to the HNP. The Administration is also supporting the development of the Haitian Coast Guard and the Counternarcotics Unit to reduce drug trafficking and related crimes. Additionally, we are providing assistance in drafting anti-money laundering laws.
Resident Legal Advisors. In addition, in a cooperative State-Justice program, the United States has dispatched several legal advisors to the NIS and to Central and Eastern Europe to assist governmental efforts to counter criminal activities by creating strong independent judicial systems and by drafting criminal law legislation, as well as by promoting the passage of such legislation. These long term resident legal advisors also coordinate U.S.-funded programs for institutional development, legislative and judicial reform, and training of public prosecutors and judges to apply the new legislation. These programs include all aspects of legal reform from evidence collection to prosecution. Currently, these advisors are stationed in Latvia, Poland, Russia and Ukraine with a new posting planned for Romania.
Building effective institutional mechanisms such as these takes time, and the Administration envisions that these rule of law programs will continue in the years to come.
Global Cooperation Works
The Seychelles felt the influence of the FATF in 1996 when for the first time FATF issued a worldwide press release advising that all financial transactions into or out of that country should be treated with enhanced scrutiny because the government of the Seychelles had approved laws that could have given money launderers the opportunity to launder their ill-gotten gains with impunity. In response to that international pressure, the Seychelles government did not implement the laws in question. With the Administration's support, FATF is also expanding its initiatives and influence in the Pacific Rim through the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering of which the United States is a member. The United States is an active participant in other organizations that address money laundering, including the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units, CICAD, the Council of Europe, and the Offshore Group of Bank Supervisors.
Need for Common Standards: Fighting Corruption and Bribery
The United States has had substantial success in developing international standards to counter international crime. By securing passage of the International Declaration On Crime And Public Security by the UN General Assembly in October 1996, the Administration has established an overall framework for international cooperation against crime. The United States has also focused attention on passing standardized legislation to criminalize alien smuggling, money laundering and intellectual property theft.
The Administration also has worked aggressively for adoption of international standards to thwart corruption in commercial activity, especially bribery linked to organized crime. Organized crime now uses bribery as one of its primary tools to establish front companies aimed at gaining control of legitimate businesses and penetrating the legitimate economy. This corruption can spread like a virus in the public and private sectors. Foreign governments, including our allies and trading partners, can no longer afford to condone bribery and other corrupt practices. In so doing, they not only harm legitimate American businesses, which are legally prohibited by U.S. law from engaging in such activity, but they further the interests of organized crime. Bribery and corruption must be criminalized, investigated and prosecuted both at home and abroad.
In a significant achievement, the United States and other OECD countries recently signed a convention requiring the criminalization of bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. The OECD Council has recommended that member countries take steps to eliminate the tax deductibility of bribes to foreign public officials. The United States has put forward an initiative in the WTO to enhance transparency and openness in government procurement as a means of combating bribery and corruption in government contracts and as a method for ensuring fair international competition.
In 1996, the OAS adopted the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, a hemispheric treaty against corruption that has been signed by the United States and more than 20 other OAS member States. The Convention is now in force and has been ratified by at least eight states. On April 1, 1998, the Administration transmitted the Convention to the U.S. Senate for its advice and consent to ratification. The Convention is intended to create a hemispheric framework for combating public corruption. It contains provisions that call for the enactment of legislation criminalizing specified acts of corruption and for a wide range of international cooperation (such as extradition, mutual legal assistance and property measures) to enhance efforts to prevent, prosecute and punish acts of corruption. Similar work has been undertaken, with U.S. participation, at the 40-member Council of Europe. The Summit of the Americas process has also been productive in promoting common standards, with the United States and its hemispheric partners having signed an anti-corruption agreement in December 1996.
Upholding Integrity Among Justice and Security Officials
In the post-Cold War era, no problem may be more pressing than upholding the integrity of justice and security officials, especially in countries where there have been significant problems with corruption. International crime and other problems will likely prove insurmountable if abetted by corrupt justice and security officials. Worse, internal corruption may, in time, threaten the very fabric of international stability and peace. This vulnerability is particularly evident in certain small countries where narcotics traffickers wield enormous influence over, if not virtual control of, resource-constrained governments.
The United States will call for an international conference within the next six months to frame the problem and develop model approaches for upholding integrity among key justice and security officials worldwide. The conference would collect basic facts on compensation, assess corrupting influences, review relevant standards of ethical conduct, and take stock of ongoing national, regional and global initiatives - all with a view to determining which approaches to promoting integrity work, which do not, and what new approaches might be developed.