20th Meeting of Prosecutors General of SCO Member States takes place in Kazakhstan

Tags: International Relations International News

The 20th Meeting of Prosecutors General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Member States was held in Astana, Kazakhstan on September 23.

The next (21st) meeting of the Prosecutor Generals of the SCO member states will be held in China in 2023.

IMPORTANT FACTS -

• From India's side, learned Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta and Additional Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs Dr. Anju Rathi Rana participated in the meeting.

• Mehta highlighted the initiatives taken by the Government of India to address international economic offences at the international level by ratification of two United Nations Conventions.

• These two UN Conventions are - the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNCTOC) and its three protocols and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). 

• He said, in order to curb the threat of international economic crimes at the national level, India has implemented a number of legislative measures to prevent, detect and punish money laundering by special legislation.

• A Protocol incorporating the deliberations of the 20th meeting of the Prosecutor General of the SCO Member States was signed and adopted by the SCO Member States.

Salient features of the Protocol :

• Strengthening cooperation in relation to recovery of proceeds made through money laundering.

• Cooperation on issues relating to dealing with economic offences such as money laundering, search, confiscation and recovery of proceeds of crime from the States.

• Using the forums of bilateral and multilateral gatherings to discuss ways to strengthen the system to deal with economic offences.

• Continuing to exchange information on domestic laws governing the recovery of proceeds of each seizure and offence.

• To develop cooperation between the General Offices of Prosecutors of the SCO Member States in the field of advanced training of prosecutors.

• To conduct and participate in bilateral and multilateral programs to combat economic crimes.