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Statement by Counsellor YAO Shaojun at GA High-level Debate on Transnational Organized Crime Panel two: New challenges

2017-06-19 22:36

Mr. President,

China thanks the panelists for their presentations. To address the new challenges in crime prevention and criminal justice, China would like to put forward the following proposals:

First, continue to enhance international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The Convention contains comprehensive provisions on extradition, mutual legal assistance and confiscation of criminal assets. Countries need to apply the Convention more proactively, and take it as the legal basis for extradition, mutual legal assistance and cooperation in hunting down the fugitives and recovering ill-got gains. They should also provide to each other the widest possible cooperation and assistance in investigation of individual cases and return of assets, and remove political and legal obstacles in this regard so as to deprive the criminals and criminal assets of safe havens.

Second, establish an appropriate, practical and efficient review mechanism to reinforce the implementation of the Convention. Resolution 8/2 adopted at the 8th Conference of the Parties reiterates that the review mechanism should respect sovereign equality and refrain from interfering in internal affairs of states parties. It also reaffirms that the review mechanism is intergovernmental in nature and that it should be transparent, efficient, non-intrusive, inclusive, non-punitive, non-political, impartial and non-selective. Parties should effectively put these elements in practice in the negotiation on the procedures and rules of the review mechanism.

The review mechanism should help states parties to better fulfill their obligations under the Convention, and should set as its priorities and focus international cooperation, return of assets and technical assistance. To ensure the smooth and steady conduct of the review, the mechanism should be funded mainly through the regular budget of the UN with voluntary contributions from member states as supplements.

Third, strength international cooperation and legislation against cybercrime. Currently, transnational cybercrime is increasingly rampant, causing immense damages, but there isn’t an international legal framework governing anti-cybercrime cooperation. The international community needs to take a flexible and pragmatic approach, take the Convention as a reference and draw on the successes in its implementation, actively support the work of the United Nations intergovernmental expert group on cybercrime and promote the negotiation of a global legal instrument within the UN framework so as to effectively tackle the challenge of cybercrime.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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