From 26th January to 27th February 2011, the Basel Institute on Governance conducted seven multi-day training workshops on Anti-Money Laundering / Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) in co-operation with the Financial Intelligence Unit Secretariat of Zambia. Over 200 participants from the following areas attended:
We welcome the support, voiced in the Nigeria-US sponsored resolution on "Facilitating international cooperation in asset recovery" adopted at the Conference of State Parties to the UNCAC in Panama on 29 November 2013, for the Lausanne process and the related initiative to develop practical guidelines for efficient asset recovery.
This project has been initiated by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the International Centre for Asset Recovery and with the support from the StAR Initiative.
Before the adoption of UNCAC, there was no policy or international legal framework guiding the disposal and monitoring of repatriated assets. As a result, there were no globally accepted rules to follow when repatriating confiscated assets to requesting countries.
Even after the adoption of UNCAC, global practice regarding the disposal of repatriated assets remains unclear. Indeed Article 57 (5) of UNCAC does not provide clear guidance in relation to the final disposal of confiscated assets.
On 24-25 October 2013, in coordination with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the International Centre for Asset Recovery organised and hosted a two-day workshop on the topic of "Returning Stolen Assets." The workshop took place in Küsnacht (Zürich), Switzerland.
The 2013 edition is the second release of the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index. First published in April 2012, it continues to be the only rating of country money laundering/terrorist financing risk by an independent non-profit institution. A Public Edition of the AML Index is available online free of charge. An Expert Edition facilitates more sophisticated independent risk assessments for financial institutions, which have to comply with AML, counter-terrorism financing (CTF), sanctions, and anti-bribery rules.
In the context of the ICC Assembly of State Parties held in New York in December, the ICC and ICAR jointly organised a side event on financial investigation in the context of investigations into serious international crimes.
In conjunction with the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC), ICAR conducted a 5-day training workshop on mutual legal assistance and misuse of offshore structures for countries of the MENA region in Syracuse, Sicily during the period 3-7 November 2014.
From 24 to 28 November 2014, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network of South Africa (ARINSA), the Government of Kenya and the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) conducted a joint Workshop for prosecutors, investigators and other relevant stakeholders on Recovering the Proceeds of Crime from Wildlife and Forest Offences and Money Laundering in Naivasha, Kenya.
The Basel Institute on Governance has partnered with two non-for-profit organisations in Romania, the Journalism Development Network (JDN) and the Rise Project, to launch a three-year initiative, referred to as the "Mapping and Visualizing Cross-Border Crime Project.”
The International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) and Transparency International jointly and with the support from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs organised a workshop for Civil Society Organisations (CSO) on the topic of Asset Recovery in the MENA region. The workshop was attended by some 30 representatives from 13 CSOs from the MENA region and concerned financial centres.