New Technologies for Fighting Cross-border Crime: A Network on Criminal Matters

The task of investigating, prosecuting and punishing crime to guarantee the protection of citizens, and maintaining peace and public order, requires structured and fluid transnational collaboration and communication, capable of confronting the various manifestations of crime around the world. For that reason, the creation and propagation of tools that allow governments to cooperate and fight such common threats together becomes increasingly more necessary, and it is precisely this demand that the Organization of American States (OAS) seeks to address through the Hemispheric Information Exchange Network for Mutual Assistance on Criminal Matters and Extradition (the “Network”).

Certain that mutual assistance on criminal matters is an extremely important mechanism for countries and the international community to effectively fight crime, the OAS has contributed to the development of cooperation mechanisms, the organization of meetings, adoption of agreements and promotion of information exchange, experiences, training and technical cooperation among national authorities of member states on legal and judicial matters.

Since 2007, when the Third Meeting of Ministers of Justice or Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA III) decided to increase and improve information exchanges among member states in the area of mutual assistance on criminal matters, the OAS has worked on establishing, consolidating, maintaining and expanding the Network on Criminal Matters, as well as acquiring financial support for it. The work of the OAS has included providing training to civil servants in the System of Safe Electronic Communication; organizing workshops; and creating online training systems through the “Educational Portal of the Americas.”

Three years later, the Network today is comprised of four components: a public internet site, a private site, a safe electronic communications system, and a safe videoconferencing system. This collection of electronic tools has helped make cooperation more efficient among OAS Member State authorities on international legal matters.

The public component of the Network consists of a virtual library that offers legal information on extradition and mutual assistance by the 34 Member States of the OAS. It offers a detailed description of the legal systems of countries, and a collection of more than 1,600 documents including basic legal documents (Constitutions, Penal Codes, etc.) and the texts of bilateral and multilateral treaties related to mutual assistance on criminal matters and extradition.

The private component contains information for people directly interested in legal cooperation on criminal matters. The site includes information on meetings, contacts in other countries, a glossary of terms and information on training in a safe electronic communications system.

The Safe electronic communications system, the goal of which is to facilitate the exchange of information among central authorities who deal with questions of mutual assistance on legal matters and extradition, offers not only a system of safe instantaneous email service but also a space for virtual meetings and the exchange of pertinent documents.

The Safe Videoconferencing system is a new voice communications tool and video launched in the context of the Eighth Meeting of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA VIII) that recently took place in Brasilia. The hope is that this tool will become a useful element in practice tests and in the gathering of testimonies and declarations that are part of processes implemented by Member States.

In Brasilia, the Director of the OAS Department of Legal Cooperation, Jorge García-González, together with the Director of the Department of Information and Technology Services, Juan José Goldschtein, and with technology specialists of the Organization, presented the mechanisms the OAS has developed to increase and promote the exchange of information on mutual legal assistance and extradition among OAS member states. “We hope the new component launched today will help Member States continue to strengthen their exchange and collaboration. For our part, we will continue to work to be able to respond to the needs of users, who today amount to about 130 in 39 public entities of 30 Member States of the Organization,” said García-González.

The network, which has been considered one of the principal concrete results to come out of the REMJAs, is available in four languages (Spanish, English, French and Portuguese). A total of 39 government institutions are currently using it: 17 Ministries of Justice, 15 Public Ministries, 5 Ministries of Foreign Affairs and 2 Supreme Courts of Justice. The Network may be accessed here.

During REMJA VIII, participating authorities expressed their satisfaction with the development of electronic tools to, in a secure manner, send and respond to requests for mutual assistance on criminal matters, and supported the development of a model draft agreement for the use of videoconferencing during the taking of testimony from witnesses, experts, victims, and the accused. They also agreed to continue to consolidate effective and expeditious hemispheric cooperation on criminal matters through the promotion and implementation of the most important inter-American instruments in areas critical to such cooperation. Furthermore, they agreed to begin developing new international agreements to supplement existing ones, and to facilitate the use of new information and communication technologies in relation to mutual assistance, extradition and joint investigations. The complete text of the conclusions and recommendations is available here.

The meetings of Ministers of Justice begun in 1997 have become the most important inter-American forum for countries of the hemisphere to discuss and adopt practical measures relating to justice and legal and judicial cooperation. Specifically, the meetings address issues such as mutual assistance on criminal matters and extradition; cyber-crime; human trafficking and other forms of organized transnational crime; victim and witness protection and assistance; penitentiary and prison policy; forensic research; and family and child law.

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