Filler TO: The Delegates Filler FROM: The Foundation for the Development and Protection of Civil Society, Tufts University Filler DATE: March 19, 1999

Below are the issues that will be addressed at "The Convention on Crime and Corruption in Europe and the Soviet Successor States." While there are specific issues listed under each committee, please note that it will be necessary to confer with at least one, if not more, of the other committees in making final recommendations. We are looking forward to your deliberations. ISSUES Committee on Political Transition and Civil Society With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many Eastern European and newly independent states emerged heralding a democratic revolution. Yet, the political transitions have been much more difficult than originally envisioned. Often, the transition to democracy has brought a wave of corruption as legal institutions and the rule of law are established. How can the power of the power of the judiciary and legislative branches be enhanced? Is democracy the most effective form of government to combat corruption? What can be done to assist countries in transition? The dramatic rise of organized crime in Europe and the newly independent states has slowed the political transition in Eastern Europe and halted civil society's growth and influence. The rise of oligarchs has also stunted the growth of the middle class -- a critical element of civil society. What can be done to empower civil society and combat organized crime's considerable power? How can the middle class be developed and empowered? How can states encourage the development of NGOs? How can states empower whistle blowing institutions such as the media? How sacrosanct is sovereignty? If a country is being run by a corrupt leader who is stealing from the country, should the international community have the right to intervene in the country's administration? If a country's leaders are committing gross human rights abuses, should the international community intervene? Within the last month, all 20 members of the executive leadership of the European Union submitted their resignations after an investigation that revealed chronic cronyism and corruption. How can the EU prevent its leaders from taking advantage of their positions and restore confidence in its leadership, both within the EU and with the international community? Committee on Free Markets and Privatization Shock therapy economic policies and privatization have dragged Russia and Eastern Europe into the free market, but have created market instability and rampant inflation. Rapid privatization and the introduction of free markets has often concentrated power in the former political and criminal elites, widening economic disparities. At the same time, an underground economy continues to flourish. Does privatization in many countries need to be re-organized? Re-distributed? What is the viability of sanctions in a globalized economy? How do sanctions and economic embargoes affect the targeted states? Have sanctions imposed on the Former Yugoslavia and Chechnya empowered illicit economies and criminals? Should sanctions be used against rogue states -- such as the Former Yugoslavia -- or should other policies be in place to address unrest in the global community? What recommendations would you make to the Convention on the use of economic embargoes and sanctions? The introduction of free market policies has devastated Russia's economy -- as well as adversely affecting many others -- as capital flight has robbed the country of indispensable revenue. What are the implications of a possible Russian economic collapse? Should the free market be introduced without regulation in developing, vulnerable and potentially corrupt countries? If not, what regulations could be implemented to screen the flows of capital into and out of countries? Should international lending institutions be reformed to aid in this process? Are free markets the best route to prevent corruption from gaining a strong hold? Does globalization call for a different economic cooperation among states than what currently exists? Does globalization call for more transparency? U.S. corporations have been subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act since 1977. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently discussed an effort to prevent its member countries' MNC's from engaging in corrupt business practices in other countries. Does the Committee recommend that a global model be adopted? How might it affect the global economy, international business, international investment, and multinational corporations? How would it be monitored? Committee on Money Flows Tremendous sums of money are smuggled around the world through organized crime networks, cybercrime, capital flight, etc. What are the consequences of these huge amounts of capital leaving their respective countries? Should governments work together to tackle these problems? What policies can be made and enacted to decrease the problems? Are borders still significant? Should intelligence be shared by governments? How will the euro influence the international financial market and money laundering? Following the trails of licit and illicit money siphoned offshore means foreign governments must contend with an onslaught of bank secrecy laws and governmental red tape. How do you propose that the many parties involved can work together on this dilemma without infringing on the sovereignty of countries and the privacy of clients? Should an international organization be created to take responsibility for reform in the banking industry? What are the benefits and what are the costs of an international organization? What recommendations to the Convention about universal bank secrecy laws/regulations would you make? There are many cases of former and current state leaders who are guilty of corruption and stealing money from their countries. This loss of capital adversely affects development and can create turmoil. Should new governments in these countries be helped in their attempts to recover stolen funds? What conditions and mechanisms would be necessary? Who would decide the legitimacy of the new government? When corruption is prevalent in these countries, to whom should the appropriations be returned? Often, much of the money stolen is that from international loans and aid. Should the debts of these countries be forgiven where corrupt leaders have stolen the money? Under what conditions? The licit world of capital flight is comprised of deals from New York to Tokyo, of hedge funds, of international casinos, and the many loopholes that can be used to evade taxes and other regulations and send money out of the country. Is licit activity as dangerous, or possibly more dangerous, than illicit financial activities? Should banks be accountable for the transactions that are made by their clients, as well as for checking the origins of their clients' funds? Should governments work together to eliminate loopholes and provide more transparency? Should tax evasion be illegal globally? Do the delegates recommend international financial standards on the movement of capital? What might those standards be? Committee on International Finance and Financial Aid The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have recently recognized that improper lending policies might have created current economic crises, like those in Russia. The World Bank has conceded that less than ten percent of its loans actually reaches its appointed place. What accountability should exist between these lending institutions and the countries that receive loans? Should there be absolute conditions imposed or should they vary with the country? How can the WB and IMF be reformed to insure that the money received actually is used appropriately? What transparency is necessary? Should the IMF and WB lend money to needy countries with notoriously corrupt regimes? Are the IMF and WB obsolete institutions? Should a new international financial structure be established that takes into account the many ways that loans can be stolen from the receiving country? Should financial aid be distributed at the grassroots level, bypassing many of the corrupt government officials in developing countries? Would a new financial structure better regulate the movement of capital? What are the possibilities for a global central bank? Should international pressure be placed on countries to repay foreign debt or should much of the debt in Eastern Europe and Russia be forgiven? What are the implications of such a policy and how would it affect future loans in the region? Should international lending institutions bear the responsibility for making unregulated, unsupervised or bad loans to these countries? International aid is provided both in currency and in provisions. Many times aid provisions -- such as food, clothing, medicines, vaccines -- are prevented from reaching their intended destinations, diverted to the black market by corrupt officials. How can international aid organizations insure that their aid is used properly? How can its distribution be monitored? Is it better not to provide aid than to risk having a large percentage stolen? Committee on National/Global Security The Bosnian conflict is at a lull and repatriation of the more than 2,000,000 refugees has begun. The Ad Hoc War Crimes Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia has issued arrest warrants for many of those still at-large in Bosnia. Many of those, such as former Bosnia Serb leader Radovan Karadicz and Bosnian Serb Military Commander Ratko Mladic, are accused of crimes against humanity -- genocide. Does the international community have an obligation to forcibly arrest these alleged perpetrators? Would members of the Convention be willing to send their troops in to Bosnia to seek out and arrest war criminals? How does the illicit trafficking of chemical, biological, and nuclear arms and technology threaten regional security? How can it be contained? Are the nations gathered at the Convention concerned about the specter of "loose nukes"? Should unemployed Soviet scientists be subsidized, employed by other nations? What protocols and other initiatives do the delegates recommend to contend with this growing concern? With the on-going conflicts in Kosovo and Chechnya, as well as isolated insurgent and terrorist attacks from a number of independence movements across the region, the trafficking of conventional arms and explosives is of special concern. How can the arms trade be controlled and arms embargoes be enforced? Given that the world arms trade is based on only a few major suppliers, what responsibility, if any, do supplier nations have? Transnational criminal organizations and other groups have, or soon will have, the capability to use computers for a multitude of illegal activities: for instance, "hacking" or "cracking" into the computer systems of corporations and countries, accessing valuable information and then extorting corporations and countries by threatening to destroy data. With the recent formation of the EU and as states develop information technology infrastructures, what regimes need to be created to prevent potential threats of terrorism and crime on the Internet and within computer networks? How can sensitive information be protected? Would this be at odds with protecting individual rights to privacy? Also, what are the benefits and the risks of sharing information among states? Is intelligence sharing a threat to national security? What is the potential for cooperation and what resources are available? Would the states consider a regional, supra-national police force with investigative powers across borders? Is a EUROPOL -- to contend with organized crime, trafficking, and cybercrime -- feasible and/or necessary? Committee on Transnational Organized Crime (and Illicit Trafficking) Cooperation among transnational crime organizations, already a major factor in the new world order of crime, is expected to continue and expand. Partnerships, bartering arrangements, and alliances, either short or long term, allow these syndicates to better evade law enforcement agencies, to share existing infrastructure, and to improve risk management. What scale of threat does transnational crime pose to the states participating in the Convention? Has the globalization of organized crime out-paced the ability of individual state's efforts to control it? Who is to take responsibility for investigating and prosecuting international crime? Are there cooperative measures that states can institute to contend with these increasingly integrated networks? What resources are available and what resources would you be willing to commit? The delegates are asked to outline creative ways to contend with this issue. The growth of illegal trafficking -- in arms, drugs (especially synthetic drugs), humans, and other goods and substances -- highlights the permeability of borders and continues to challenge state sovereignty. Organized crime groups are increasing their operations and their profits through illicit trafficking. What recommendations for controlling illicit trade can the Committee make to the Convention? Is the trafficking of one good more dangerous than another? Who controls supply and demand? Is it the supply side, the demand side, or both that need to be addressed? Should states try to address these problems unilaterally? Should an international governing body be organized? Cyber-crime has emerged as a proven weapon in the arsenal of transnational criminal organizations, and it is expected to play a bigger role in years to come. The growth of global, computerized financial networks has allowed these organizations to launder the profits of their illegal ventures quickly and easily through transactions that are instantaneous and virtually untraceable. The United Nations estimates that at least $200 billion in drug money is laundered every year largely via international electronic bank transfers. With law enforcement efforts struggling to keep pace with the criminal syndicates, how should this type of cybercrime be addressed? What effective means of law enforcement, transparency, etc. can the Convention participants recommend? Legitimization is another trend among transnational criminals. Some are attempting to distance themselves from the illegal aspects of their operations by involving themselves in legitimate business ventures which are funded by the almost bottomless profits acquired through their criminal activities. Others seek civic legitimacy by making donations to community hospitals, charities, universities and political parties. Does this legitimization -- in conjunction with the growing sophistication of transnational criminals (many are now university-educated with degrees in law, business, and accounting) pose a threat to civil society? Do countries need to develop shared guidelines of disclosure for donations, new businesses, etc.? Is this a concern if the money is being re-invested into society? Committee on Global Justice: Human Rights and Environment The establishment of the Ad Hoc Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda have set important precedents that have, in theory, strengthened the jurisdiction of international law. These changes may pose a more permanent challenge to the sovereignty of nations. Should a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) be established? What crimes should the ICC have jurisdiction over? The delegates are asked to outline the parameters of an ICC: jurisdiction, who could be tried, who would sit in judgment, under what range of laws, etc. How will the Convention define human rights and how they should be upheld? Is the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights still the standard? What are the rights of migrant workers and how can they be protected in this era of growing globalization? With the continuing trend of globalization and the increasing fluidity of borders, the question of responsibility often arises. This is especially becoming evident with environmental issues. Should damage to the environment be considered a crime? Could environmental crimes be prosecuted by the ICC eventually? What is the likelihood of the international community reaching a wide enough consensus to take collective and concrete action for the environment? Should the environment fall under international jurisdiction? What about trafficking in toxic waste? What are the Committee's recommendations for contending with environmental degradation and the misuse of resources?