Conference of the G8 Ministers of Justice and Interior
Milano, 26-27 February 2001
Communiqué
We, the Ministers of Justice and Interior of the G8, convened
at Italian initiative, in order to assess the present status of mutual legal
assistance and law enforcement cooperation in combating transnational organised
crime and terrorism;
eager to continue the dialogue and the commitments undertaken
during the Ministers of Justice and Interior meeting held in Washington in
December 1997, the video-conference on Organised crime and Terrorism Funding in
December 1998 and the Moscow Ministerial Conference in October 1999 on Combating
Transnational Organised Crime;
working to implement in full the 40 Recommendations to combat
transnational organised crime which were adopted by our Heads of States and
Government at their 1996 Summit in Lyon, and to implement the further mandates
of our leaders jointly issued at subsequent summits, most recently in Okinawa on
23 July, 2000;
having had a thorough discussion on the general issue of
illegal migration, migrant smuggling, trafficking in persons and exploitation of
illegal migrants and trafficked persons; and on the need for further cooperative
efforts to combat the organised criminal involvement in the smuggling and
trafficking of persons, while ensuring that the human rights of migrants are
protected;
considering that the plan of action adopted by the G8 in 1998
contains important principles to combat illegal migration and migrant smuggling;
agreeing on the importance of actions to tackle serious
phenomena of racism, xenophobia and intolerance;
recognising the threat that terrorism poses to the security
of our societies and the need to combat terrorism and its financing and to
develop co-ordinated strategies of prevention;
reaffirming our joint efforts to provide each other the
fullest possible level of international cooperation and mutual legal assistance
in the investigation and prosecution of terrorism;
undertaking the commitment to seek ratification of the UN
International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and
to encourage those States which have not yet done so to sign the Convention;
encouraging the Group of Anti-terrorism Experts rapidly to
achieve further results, with particular enphasis on the operational problems
connected with cyber-terrorism and on the analysis of potentially high-risk
international developments;
welcoming with satisfaction the work of the Lyon Group of
experts concerning judicial cooperation, law enforcement and high tech crime;
underlining the importance of the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organised Crime (hereinafter "the Palermo
Convention") and its Protocols in countering the phenomena of migrant
smuggling and trafficking in persons and enhancing the battle against organised
criminal activities, including money laundering, through measures such as
seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime and co-ordinated measures against
corruption;
IN PARTICULAR, WE EXPRESSED OUR COMMON VIEWS ON THE FOLLOWING
SPECIFIC ISSUES
Outcomes of the Palermo Conference
we express our satisfaction at the success of the Palermo Conference, in
which 148 countries took part, noting that 125 of them signed the Palermo
Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, 80 of them signed the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, 79 of them signed the Protocol against the Smuggling of
Migrants by Land, Sea and Air; and that all three instruments were also
signed by the European Community;
we agree to promptly seek ratification of the Convention and the Protocols
and to undertake, including at the regional and bilateral levels, suitable
action to raise awareness of the Convention and the Protocols and encourage
those States which have not yet done so to seek prompt ratification;
we undertake to mobilise resources to fight against organised crime
through international cooperation and through the assistance mechanisms
foreseen by the Palermo Convention;
we look forward to the rapid conclusion of the negotiations and the
endorsement of the Protocol against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking
in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunitions fulfilling the
mandate of the General Assembly on the Convention and related Protocols in
order to fight transnational organised crime;
Action against high-tech crime, including use of the Internet
in child pornography
we acknowledge the benefits arising from the use of new
technologies, including the Internet, as indicated by leaders in
Okinawa, but
express concern in relation to those who use these technologies for criminal
purposes, in particular for the sexual exploitation of children;
we stress in particular the alarming expansion of child
sexualexploitation through online communications. We agree to attach
high priority to the issues of public awareness and prevention as well as
investigation and prosecution against individuals and criminal organisations
involved in child pornography. Therefore, we note with interest the adoption
during the Millennium Summit of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography, and we welcome the Japanese initiative to host the 2nd
World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Yokohama
from 17th to 20th December 2001;
recalling our agreement in Moscow to develop options to enhance our
abilities to trace criminals' networked communications, we now call upon
experts to build on this work by developing specific traceability
recommendations, taking into account relevant factors, specifically the
protection of privacy and individual freedoms;
we highlight the need to combat high-tech crime which is still on the rise
as globalisation and Information Technology development further advance and we
hereby reaffirm the need to strengthen international co-operation in combating
this growing challenge. We urge the finalisation of the Cyber-Crime Convention
of the Council of Europe;
we urge that a solution be found to locate and identify criminals who use
network communications for illegal purposes; we therefore support the
continuing work by the Lyon Group on this issue and we look forward to early
results;
in particular, being aware of the need to ensure both a prompt localization
and identification of those who,through information technology networks, are
responsible of sexual exploitation of minors on a transnational basis, we deem
it necessary to find new and more effective counteracting measures. Hence, we
encourage experts to explore the possibility of implementing a G8 Database,
co-ordinated by Italy, to be extended to other countries with the aim of
ensuring a real-time exchange of information using also the existing 24h
points of contact network;
we consider that cooperation between government, industry and other
interested parties is essential in tackling high-tech crime. We therefore
applaud the May 2000 G8 Paris Industry Conference and October G8 Berlin
Workshop and look forward to practical results at the G8 Government-Private
Sector High-level Meeting on High-Tech Crime to be held this spring in Tokyo.
Furthermore we note with interest the work done by the Lyon Group in
developing compatible forensic standards for retrieving and authenticating
electronic data;
Money Laundering and confiscation of illegal proceeds
we reaffirm the Principles of the Moscow Communiqué, which stressed the
importance of the fight against money laundering within the strategy of
countering transnational organised crime;
we commend the work of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to identify
jurisdictions whose anti-money laundering systems do not meet the
international standards of the FATF Forty Recommendations, and to take all
appropriate measures to bring those non-co-operative jurisdictions into
compliance with those standards;
we strongly reaffirm the need for legislative and administrative measures
aimed at assuring transparency of the financial systems. We encourage the
development of common principles to remove obstacles, such as bank secrecy, to
the rapid and effective implementation of requests for mutual legal assistance
in banking and tax matters;
we will intensify our joint efforts to improve effective international
co-operation and mutual legal assistance in the confiscation of illicit assets,
including through measures contained in the Palermo Convention and in existing
regional and bilateral agreements;
Corruption
we note that corruption is an increasingly serious problem insofar as it
threatens the stability and security of human societies, undermines democratic
values and the rule of the law, and compromises the development of States;
we confirm our commitment to relevant existing international and regional
instruments and in particular to measures foreseen in the Palermo Convention,
and agree to work with the other countries in developing a new UN Convention
against corruption that would be as global as possible;
we recognise that corruption has many manifestations in addition to the
criminal aspects of the problem. We welcome the mandate given at Okinawa to
the Lyon Group to ensure that G8 contribute actively to the negotiations on
the proposed UN Convention;
we agree to implement rapidly and effectively the principles agreed upon by
the Lyon Group's Judicial Co-operation Subgroup under the Japanese
presidency relating to the obligation to extradite or prosecute nationals, and
to the effective use of video-link technology in mutual legal assistance
practise;
we confirm our commitment to co-operate on these issues and look positively
forward to the upcoming Experts' initiatives under the Italian Presidency.
We, the Ministers of Justice and Interior of the G8 look
forward to concrete results to be submitted to the attention of the Heads of
State and Government at the Genoa Summit next July.