Journal of Financial Crime

International initiatives against corruption and money laundering: an overview

Abdullahi Y. Shehu
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Abdullahi Y. Shehu, (2005),"International initiatives against corruption and money laundering: an overview", Journal of Financial
Crime, Vol. 12 Iss 3 pp. 221 - 245
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International Initiatives Against Corruption
and Money Laundering: An Overview
Abdullahi Y. Shehu
INTRODUCTION
The transnational nature of corruption and money
laundering is a compelling reason to develop instru-
ments for combating these phenomena at the global
level. The overall concept and fundamental principle
of international cooperation is based on the functional
theory of collective security. The assumption that
nations could deal with common problems through
collective and concerted e€orts is better than acting
in isolation. The concept of collective security is a
proven approach, but it is necessary that international
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cooperation be premised on at least a theoretical
understanding and knowledge of the problem which
such cooperation seeks to deal with. The necessity
for a consensus about the problem, in order to facilitate
collective action, cannot be over-emphasised. This
consensus has not been achieved fully and it cannot
be achieved in principle, yet nations have agreed to
come together to develop ways and means of facilitat-
ing meaningful action against transnational crime.
This paper examines the various international,
legal, policy and institutional initiatives that have
been created to deal with these problems. Of particular
importance are the initiatives of the United Nations
Organisation (UNO), the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, the Financial Action
Task Force (OECD/FATF), the World Bank, the
International Money Fund (IMF), Interpol and other
cross-national initiatives by both government and
non-governmental organisations. The importance of
these international frameworks is that they provide
the basis for a global approach to the prevention and
control of these problems. The objective here is to
identify and discuss these instruments in the context
of the North±South approaches to the combat of cor-
ruption and money laundering. Since the United
Nations (UN) has been the lead multilateral institution
in this regard, the work of the UN will come ®rst.
THE UNITED NATIONS INITIATIVES
International concerns about global problems date
as far back as the League of Nations, which was
formed as a result of the experience of the First
Journal of Financial Crime Ð Vol. 12 No. 3
World War Ð 1914±1919. The experiment of the
League of Nations in collective security collapsed
with the outbreak of the Second World War in
1939, consequent upon which the UN was formed
in 1945. The UN mandate covers the whole spectrum
of human endeavour and its Charter embraces notions
of both self-determination and mutual respect. And
although there may have been e€orts to address pro-
blems related to crime as far back as the 1950s, the
®rst recorded signi®cant involvement of the UN in
organised crime issue was in 1975, when the Fifth
UN Congress held in Geneva on 1st±12th September,
1975, examined the changing nature and problems of
organised crime. Subsequently, the Seventh Congress
held in Milan, Italy, 26th August±6th September,
1986, examined the problem of crime and criminality
in the context of human development and adopted the
Milan Plan of Action. The UN General Assembly in
1990 adopted a model treaty on Extradition, Treaties
and Transfer of proceedings in criminal matters;
mutual assistance in criminal matters; and on Transfer
of Supervision of O€enders. In pursuance to the UN
General Assembly Resolution 45/108, the ministerial
meeting on the creation of an e€ective UN crime pre-
vention and criminal justice programme was held in
Versailles on 21st±23rd November, 1991. It is impor-
tant to note that this meeting set the priority goals
for the ministerial conference that was held in
Naples, Italy, following which the political Declara-
tion and Global Plan of Action against Organised
Crime was adopted on 23rd November, 1994.
Furthermore, in its Resolution 55/188, titled `Prevent-
ing and Combating Corrupt Practices and Illegal
Transfer of Funds and Repatriation of Such Funds
to Countries of Origin', the General Assembly called
for increased international cooperation to achieve
the objective of combating corruption and related
money laundering. Under this objective, the General
Assembly invited the inter-governmental open-
ended expert group to examine the issue of illegal
transfer of funds and repatriation of such funds in an
appropriate legal instrument. The active role of the Journal of Financial Crime
UN against corruption and money laundering is Vol. 12, No. 3, 2005, pp. 221±245
# Henry Stewart Publications
aimed at the harmonisation of relevant legal and ISSN 1359-0790
Page 221
 Shehu
policy countermeasures, as well as the strengthening of
international cooperation. The rationale behind these
initiatives is to attack criminals at their weakest or vul-
nerable points: in other words, to deny them the
bene®t of illegal gains. The UN initiatives are cate-
gorised into resolutions, legal instruments, global pro-
grammes of action, and policy guidelines. Since the
resolutions led to the development of legal and action-
able programmes, this paper will concentrate on the
legal and global programmes while making references
to the resolutions and policy guidelines that emanated
therefrom.
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL
INSTRUMENTS
The UN initiatives against corruption and money
laundering were developed in a number of Conven-
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tions, principal of which are the Convention against
Illicit Trac in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Sub-
stances (1988); the Transnational Organised Crime
Convention (TOC, 2000); the Convention against
Corruption (2003); and the Universal Anti-Terrorism
Conventions and Protocols.1
The 1988 Convention
The 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Trac in
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances,2 which
improved on both the Single Convention of 1961 on
Narcotic Drugs (as amended by the 1972 protocol),
and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances
of 1971, is on record as the ®rst signi®cant interna-
tional instrument to address the proceeds of crime.
Adopted in Vienna, Austria, on 19th December,
1988, the Convention creates o€ences and spells out
speci®c sanctions and procedures for the con®scation
of the proceeds of crime in Articles 3 and 5 in particu-
lar. Article 3(b)(i) provides a legal de®nition of what
constitutes money laundering.
Article 5(1±9) enjoins member states to adopt such
measures as may be necessary to enable the con®sca-
tion of the proceeds derived from the o€ences estab-
lished under Article 3. In particular, parties are
enjoined to adopt necessary measures to identify,
trace, and freeze or seize proceeds, property, instru-
mentalities or any other thing referred to under the
de®nition in paragraph b(i) of Article 3. It is based
on the provisions of the 1988 Convention, on which
many national laws against money laundering are
modelled, albeit with modi®cations to suit domestic
peculiarities.
Page 222
However, following realisation of the inadequacies
and limitations of the 1988 Convention, and to address
the problems of corruption and money laundering in a
comprehensive manner, the UN General Assembly
authorised the Secretary General to establish an Ad
Hoc Committee to elaborate a comprehensive Con-
vention that would address the lacuna observed in
the 1988 Convention. The Ad Hoc Committee,
which commenced work in 1999, was mandated to
develop through consensus a workable instrument
that would address the proceeds of crime.3 The Ad
Hoc Committee worked for over two years (1999±
2000) and produced a draft Convention that was
adopted by the Heads of State and Governments of
member states in Palermo, Italy on 12th±15th Decem-
ber, 2000 (the TOC).
The 2000 Convention
`Criminal groups have wasted no time in embra-
cing today's globalised economy and the sophisti-
cated technology that goes with it. But our e€orts
to combat them have remained up to now very
fragmented and our weapons almost obsolete.
The Palermo Convention gives us a new tool to
address the scourge of crime as a global problem.
With enhanced international cooperation, we can
have a real impact on the ability of international
criminals to operate successfully, and help citizens
everywhere in their often struggle for safety and
dignity in their homes and communities.'4
The UN Convention Against Transnational Orga-
nised Crime (hereafter, the 2000 Convention) repre-
sents the response of the international community to
the need for a truly global approach to the problem
of transnational crime. Its purpose is to promote coop-
eration, both for the prevention of crime and for e€ec-
tive combat against it. Like any UN instruments, it
accommodates the di€erences and speci®cities of
diverse legal traditions and cultures, but at the same
time promoting a common language and helping to
overcome some of the barriers to e€ective interna-
tional cooperation. Speci®cally, the Convention: (i)
de®nes and standardises certain terms that are used
with di€erent meanings in di€erent countries; (ii)
requires states to establish speci®c o€ences as crimes;
(iii) requires introduction of certain speci®c control
measures, eg victims and witnesses protection; (iv)
provides for the con®scation and forfeiture of pro-
ceeds of crime (ie promotes international cooperation,

through extradition, joint investigations and other
mutual legal assistance); (vi) provides for the extension
of technical assistance in training, research and infor-
mation sharing; (vii) encourages preventive policies
and measures; and (vii) contains technical provisions
eg for signature, rati®cation and implementation
mechanisms, among others.
For the purpose of rati®cation, states are required to
report to the Secretary General that they have made
laws and complied with a checklist which includes
criminalisation of participation in an organised crim-
inal group5 (Art. 5); criminalisation of the laundering
of proceeds of crime (Art. 6); international coopera-
tion for the purposes of con®scation of proceeds of
crime (Art. 13); extradition (Art.16); mutual legal
assistance (Art. 18); prevention (Art. 31); settlement
of disputes (Art. 35); signature, rati®cation, accep-
tance, approval and accession (Art. 36); amendment
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(if any) (Art. 39); and denunciation (Art. 40).
Upon meeting the benchmark of 40 rati®cations,
the General Assembly (UNGA) through Resolution
55/25 adopted the Convention and it came into
force on 29th September, 2003.6 Consequently, the
GA adopted the Convention with speci®c provisions
criminalising the laundering of the proceeds of crime
and not just those arising from illegal drugs. In parti-
cular, Article 6(1±2) speci®cally elaborated on the
de®nition of money laundering contained in the
1988 Convention and expanded what constitute pre-
dicate o€ences to include `serious o€ences committed
both within and outside the jurisdiction of the state
party in question'.
However, Article 6(2)(b) provides that o€ences
committed outside the jurisdiction of a state party
shall constitute predicate o€ences only when the rele-
vant conduct is a criminal o€ence under the domestic
law of the state where it is committed and would be a
criminal o€ence under the domestic law of the state
party seeking to apply this Article. It is necessary to
note that this is one of the controversial issues involved
in the recovery of funds stolen by political leaders and
kept in foreign bank accounts. This will be appraised
shortly.
Article 7 of the 2000 Convention introduces addi-
tional measures aimed at enlisting the support of ®nan-
cial institutions and others, in preventing the use of the
®nancial system to launder illicit funds and for detect-
ing and facilitating the tracing of suspected funds of
criminal origin. Such measures include a reporting
requirement for individuals and businesses that move
substantial amounts of cash and negotiable instru-
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
ments across borders. Article 10 de®nes the liability
of legal `persons' engaged in such transfers to be
subject to e€ective, proportionate and dissuasive crim-
inal or non-criminal sanctions, including monetary
sanctions. Whereas Article 11 provides for the prose-
cution, adjudication and application of sanctions,
Article 12 provides for appropriate procedures for
the possible con®scation and seizure of the proceeds
of criminal activities. This is supplemented by provi-
sions of Article 13(1±9) with regard to facilitating
international cooperation for purposes of con®scation.
Article 27(1±3) of the Convention provides for law
enforcement cooperation in combating money laun-
dering. It includes the adoption of special investigative
techniques, such as controlled deliveries and other
forms of surveillance on the movement of the proceeds
of crime or property associated with serious crime. It
emphasises, inter alia, the imperative need for the
exchange of information and the coordination of
administrative and other measures to detect the pro-
ceeds of crime. It provides for member states to enter
into bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrange-
ments on direct cooperation between their law enfor-
cement agencies where necessary and appropriate. In
other words, it encourages states to adopt mutual
legal assistance as a mechanism for crime control.
Article 29 addresses the problem of technical capa-
city, noting the di€erences in levels of development,
and provides for cooperation in training and technical
assistance. In furtherance of this, Article 30(ii)(a)
enjoins developed countries to support and assist
developing ones both ®nancially and materially,
including technical assistance.
The Convention has three protocols, namely: the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Tracking
in Persons, especially women and children; the Proto-
col Against the Smuggling of Migrants; and the
Protocol Against Illegal Manufacturing of and Traf-
®cking in Fire Arms, their Parts and Components.
At the heart of the Convention is the principle that rati-
fying countries will be able to work together with
greater ease. But what does this really mean to the
expanding world of international law enforcement?
First, it will help eliminate the inconsistencies among
states that criminal networks are currently exploiting.
Secondly, it brings together the best practices in com-
bating criminal powers developed in several parts of
the globe. And thirdly, it contains the most advanced
toolkit ever to be made available to policy makers,
investigators and civil society to prevent large-scale
crimes . . . the con®scation of illicit assets, witness
Page 223
 Shehu
protection programmes, the criminalisation of mem-
bership in an illegal organisation, limitation on bank
secrecy, establishment of ®nancial intelligence units,
and other `state of the art measures'. Together, they
comprise a powerful global weapon to ®ght the
ma®as of the world during the coming decades.7
In spite of the comprehensiveness that the Conven-
tion sought to achieve, it is still far from being all-
encompassing. Soon after the adoption of the Con-
vention, two critical issues that were raised by repre-
sentatives of some countries, namely, corruption and
international terrorism, neither of which were fully
addressed by the Ad Hoc Committee, had to be
addressed in separate instruments.8 This is precisely
the background to the Convention against Corrup-
tion.
The UN Convention Against
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Corruption (UNCAC)
The UNCAC, signed by 96 countries at a high-level
political conference on 9th±13th December, 2004 in
Merida, Mexico, is the ®rst binding multilateral
treaty to address the problem of corruption on a
global basis. The new UNCAC is one of the remark-
able achievements of the UN in creating the necessary
framework for the ®ght against this menace and it
compliments the UNTOC. In the words of UN
Secretary General Ko® Annan, `It is balanced, strong
and pragmatic, and it o€ers a new framework for
e€ective action and international cooperation. The
Convention introduces a comprehensive set of stan-
dards, measures and rules that all countries can apply
in order to strengthen their legal and regulatory
regimes to ®ght corruption.'9
The Adoption10 of the Convention against Corrup-
tion provides the opportunity for a global response to
the problem. The level of support it has received, mea-
sured by the number of countries that have already
signed (more than 111) and rati®ed (6 countries),
indicates both an acute awareness of the severity of
the problem and a remarkable political commitment
to tackle it. This commitment must be harnessed.
UNODC has limited resources: building on the fra-
mework of the Convention, it must lever change in
areas where it has acquired expertise and experience
and in societies where the problem is most severe.
And, critically, it must work with others to ensure a
uni®ed response that maximises the impact of interna-
tional assistance.
A critical focus of the Convention is prevention Ð
providing the institutional and regulatory framework
Page 224
to reduce the likelihood of corrupt practices in the ®rst
instance. Ensuring that this preventive framework is
in place in societies severely a€ected by corruption
constitutes the foundation for the technical assistance
activities of the UNODC. Interventions by
UNODC on its own can achieve little. What is
required is a multidisciplinary approach drawing on
the resources and expertise of all agencies involved
in the ®ght against corruption.
In brief, the Convention is divided into eight chap-
ters dealing with speci®c issues of international law.
Chapter One contains general provisions such as the
purpose of the Convention, use of terms, scope of
application, and protection of sovereignty (Articles
1±4). Speci®cally, Article 1 states that:
`The purposes of this Convention are:
(a) To promote and strengthen measures to
prevent and combat corruption more e-
ciently and e€ectively;
(b) To promote, facilitate and support interna-
tional cooperation and technical assistance in
the prevention of and ®ght against corruption,
including in asset recovery;
(c) To promote integrity, accountability and
proper management of public a€airs and
public property.'
Chapter Two deals with preventive measures, includ-
ing the adoption of preventive anti-corruption policies
and practices, the establishment of anti-corruption
bodies, preventive measures in the private sector,
codes of conduct for public ocials, public procure-
ment and management of public ®nances, public
reporting of corrupt practices, measures relating to
judiciary and prosecution services, and participation
of the civil society in anti-corruption activities
(Articles 5±13).
Chapter Three is the `heart' of the Convention and
it covers criminalisation and law enforcement. Speci-
®cally, it creates o€ences of bribery of foreign public
ocials and ocials of public international organisa-
tions; embezzlement, misappropriation and other
diversion of property by a public ocial; trading in
in¯uence; abuse of oce/functions; illicit enrichment;
bribery in the private sector; embezzlement of prop-
erty in the private sector; the laundering of proceeds
of crime; concealment; obstruction of justice; liability
of legal persons; participation and attempt to consti-
tute corruption o€ences; knowledge, intent, and

purpose as elements of an o€ence; statute of limita-
tions; prosecution, adjudication and sanctions; protec-
tion of witnesses, experts and victims; protection of
reporting persons; consequences of acts of corruption;
compensation for damage; specialised authorities for
liaison purposes; cooperation with law enforcement
authorities; cooperation between national authorities;
cooperation between national authorities and the
private sector; bank secrecy; criminal records; and jur-
isdiction (Articles 14±42). Without going into a
detailed analysis of these Articles, suce it to point
out that Articles 20, 28, and 40 are crucial and worth
stating in detail.
Article 20 deals with illicit enrichment and it intro-
duces a novel international law drawing from legisla-
tion such as the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance
(POBO) of Hong Kong and it states that:
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`Subject to its constitution and the fundamental
principles of its legal system, each state party shall
consider adopting such legislative and other mea-
sures as may be necessary to establish as a criminal
o€ence, when committed intentionally, illicit
enrichment, that is, a signi®cant increase in the
assets of a public ocial that he or she cannot reason-
ably explain in relation to his or her lawful income.'
Article 28 establishes knowledge, intent and purpose as
elements of an o€ence similar to what is established for
money laundering in the Nigeria Money Laundering
Prohibition Act and more speci®cally the Organised
and Serious Crimes Ordinance (OSCO) of Hong
Kong, which stresses both the `know' and `having rea-
sonable grounds to believe' that property represents
the proceeds of crime. This Convention states that:
`Knowledge, intent or purpose required as an
element of an o€ence established in accordance
with this Convention may be inferred from objec-
tive factual circumstances.'
Seeking to address the contentious issue of bank
secrecy, Article 40 states that:
`Each state party shall ensure that, in the case of
domestic criminal investigations of o€ences estab-
lished in accordance with this Convention, there
are appropriate mechanisms available within its
domestic legal system to overcome obstacles that
may arise out of the application of bank secrecy
laws.'
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
As a powerful international instrument, Chapter Four
deals with international cooperation. Speci®cally,
states are urged or encouraged to adopt measures for
e€ective extradition; transfer of sentenced persons;
mutual legal assistance; transfer of criminal proceed-
ings; law enforcement cooperation; joint operations;
and the use of special investigative techniques11 (Arti-
cles 43±50).
By far the greatest innovation of the Convention is
contained in Chapter Five. Speci®cally, asset recovery
and the return of such assets to countries of origin is a
fundamental principle of this Convention. In this con-
nection, this chapter contains provisions including
prevention and detection of transfers of proceeds of
crime; measures for direct recovery of property;
mechanisms for recovery of property through inter-
national cooperation in con®scation; international
cooperation for the purposes of con®scation; return
and disposal of assets; the requirement for the estab-
lishment of ®nancial intelligence unit; as well as bilat-
eral and multilateral agreements and arrangements
(Articles 51±59). Speci®cally, Article 51 states that:
`The return of assets pursuant to this chapter is a fun-
damental principle of this Convention, and states
parties shall a€ord one another the widest measure
of cooperation and assistance in this regard.'
And on matters of direct recovery of property, the
Convention provides (Article 53) that:
`Each state party shall, in accordance with its
domestic law:
(a) Take such measures as may be necessary to
permit another state party to initiate civil
action in its courts to establish title to or owner-
ship of property acquired through the commis-
sion of an o€ence established in accordance
with this Convention;
(b) Take such measures as may be necessary to
permit its courts to order those who have com-
mitted o€ences established in accordance with
this Convention to pay compensation or
damages to another state party that has been
harmed by such o€ences; and
(c) Take such measures as may be necessary to
permit its courts or competent authorities,
when having to decide on con®scation, to
recognise another state party's claim as a legit-
imate owner of property acquired through
Page 225
 Shehu
the commission of an o€ence established in
accordance with this Convention.'
Furthermore, on mechanisms for recovery through
international cooperation, Article 54(a-c) provides
that:
`Each state party, in order to provide mutual legal
assistance pursuant to Article 55 of this Convention
with respect to property acquired through or
involved in the commission of an o€ence estab-
lished in accordance with this Convention, shall,
in accordance with its domestic law:
(a) Take such measures as may be necessary to
permit its competent authorities to give e€ect
to an order of con®scation issued by a court
of another state party;
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(b) Take such measures as may be necessary to
permit its competent authorities, where they
have jurisdiction, to order the con®scation of
such property of foreign origin by adjudication
of an o€ence of money-laundering or such
other o€ence as may be within its jurisdiction
or by other procedures authorised under its
domestic law; and
(c) Consider taking such measures as may be neces-
sary to allow con®scation of such property
without a criminal conviction in cases in which
the o€ender cannot be prosecuted by reason
of death, ¯ight or absence or in other appropri-
ate cases.'
On return of assets, Article 57(3)(a & c)(4) and (5)
stipulates that:
`(3) In accordance with Articles 46 and 55 of this
Convention and paragraphs 1 and 2 of this
Article, the requested state party shall:
(a) In the case of embezzlement of public funds
or of laundering of embezzled public funds
as referred to in Articles 17 and 23 of this
Convention, when con®scation was exe-
cuted in accordance with Article 55 and
on the basis of a ®nal judgement in the
requesting state party, a requirement that
can be waived by the requested state
party, return the con®scated property to
the requesting state party; . . .
(c) In all other cases, give priority considera-
tion to returning con®scated property to
Page 226
the requesting state party, returning such
property to its prior legitimate owners or
compensating the victims of the crime.
(4) Where appropriate, unless states parties decide
otherwise, the requested state party may
deduct reasonable expenses incurred in investi-
gations, prosecutions or judicial proceedings
leading to the return or disposition of con®s-
cated property pursuant to this Article.
(5) Where appropriate, states parties may also give
special consideration to concluding agreements
or mutually acceptable arrangements, on a case-
by-case basis, for the ®nal disposal of con®s-
cated property.'
Recognising that some states do not possess the tech-
nical capacity to implement the Convention e€ec-
tively, Chapter Six deals with technical assistance
and information exchange.12 It makes provisions for
training and technical assistance; collection and
exchange and analysis of information on corruption;
and other technical assistance such as implementation
of the Convention through economic development
and technical assistance (Articles 60±62). Chapter
Seven of the Convention provides implementation
mechanisms. These conclude conference of states
parties to the Convention and the responsibilities of
the Secretariat to provide services for conference of
parties (Articles 63±64). Chapter Eight contains ®nal
provisions including implementation of the Conven-
tion; settlement of disputes; signature, rati®cation,
acceptance, approval and accession; entry into force;
amendment; denunciation; as well as depository and
languages (Articles 65±71).13
However, the Convention has been criticised in a
number of ways: ®rst, that even though it starts with
some sort of mandatory provisions, most of the critical
provisions highlighted above are left to the discretion
of states parties. In other words, it relies heavily on
non-mandatory wordings. Secondly, the Convention
does not adequately deal with cases involving ocials
of international organisations.14 Thirdly, evidence
suggests that many developed countries would
prefer to continue to use their bilateral and multilateral
agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance,
rather than rely on the provisions of the Convention.
Fourthly, whilst developing countries are concerned
that developed countries may not do their best to facil-
itate mutual legal assistance (due to the fact that they
do not have such o€ences under their domestic
laws), some developed countries, on the other hand,

suspect that the legal systems and human rights norms
in some developing countries may not be adequate to
ensure a fair trial. Finally, it has been alleged that the
Convention does not adequately address the issue of
political corruption, and with regard to international
cooperation, it has tended to replicate the provisions
of the TOC, rather than improve on it.
The UN Convention for the Suppression
of the Financing of Terrorism15
Most crimes are committed for ®nancial gain. The
motive of terrorism is not, however, ®nancial.
While there are some di€erences between money
laundering and the way terrorist ®nancing is con-
ducted, in terms of prevention and control, sound leg-
islation and regulations are required in both cases.
Precisely the tools that are required to trace and con®s-
cate proceeds of crime are also useful for combating
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terrorist ®nancing. This fact has been recognised
particularly following the devastating attack on
America on 11th September, 2001. In response, on
28th September, 2001, the UN Security Council
(UNSC) adopted Resolution 1373 (UNSC 1373).
The UNSC 1373 requires members to take certain
speci®ed measures to prevent and combat terrorism.
Speci®cally, states are required to take action to
freeze without delay funds, ®nancial assets or other
economic resources of persons who commit, attempt
to commit, facilitate or participate directly or indir-
ectly in the commission of terrorist acts;16 to prohibit
their nationals or any persons and entities within their
territories from making any funds, ®nancial assets or
economic resources or other related services available
for the bene®t of persons who commit, attempt to
commit, facilitate or participate in the commission
of terrorist acts; to ensure that terrorist acts are estab-
lished as serious criminal o€ences in domestic laws
and regulations and that punishment duly re¯ects the
seriousness of such terrorist acts; and to ensure that
any person who participates in the ®nancing, plan-
ning, or preparation of terrorist acts is brought to
justice. The Resolution further calls on states to
exchange information and intelligence for the preven-
tion and combat of terrorist activities.
In furtherance of UNSCR 1373, a Counter Terror-
ism Committee (CTC) was established to monitor
implementation of the resolution and to receive
reports from states on steps and measures they have
taken to implement the resolution. By the end of
2003, all the 191 member states had submitted reports
detailing the steps and measures they had taken to
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
implement the resolution. Furthermore, by early
2004, 158 members had submitted follow-up second
reports and 99 had submitted their third reports.17
The UN initiatives against terrorism date as far back
as 1963, when the Convention on O€ences and
Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft
was enacted, to the 1999 Convention of the Suppres-
sion of Financing of Terrorism.18 The main compo-
nents of the 1999 Convention include general
provisions for strengthening the legal regime against
terrorism, and development of anti-terrorism instru-
ments.19 Other substantive components include:
(a) Penalisation requirements: for example, o€ences
related to civil aviation, o€ences based on the
status of the victim, o€ences related to dangerous
materials, and most importantly, o€ences related
to the ®nancing of terrorism.20 Article 18 of the
Convention requires states parties to cooperate
in the prevention of terrorist ®nancing by adapt-
ing their domestic legislation. To that extent, the
same Article encourages implementation of
numerous measures consistent with the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Launder-
ing recommendations, in particular, the last
eight that deal with terrorist ®nancing.21
(b) Other core elements of the Convention include
establishment of jurisdiction over the o€ence,
obligation to conduct an inquiry, report ®ndings
and to advise of intent to exercise jurisdiction,
obligation to submit for prosecution, elements
of knowledge and intent, o€ences of participa-
tion, mutual legal assistance, extradition, as well
as exceptions made on grounds of political
o€ences, and ®nally rights of the alleged o€ender
to communicate and to fair treatment.22
As at June 2004, 109 states had become parties to the
Convention; 25 others had signed, but not rati®ed. It
entered into force on 9th April, 2002. To strengthen
the capacity of states to implement these instruments,
the UNGA calls for sucient funding by member
states, particularly to the UN Oce on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC)23 to provide technical assistance
to members upon request. In addition, implementa-
tion mechanisms are provided in each of the instru-
ments with a provision for conference of parties to
agree on implementation modalities. The UNODC
issues speci®c guidelines to assist members in develop-
ing appropriate domestic legislation to meet the
requirements of these Conventions. Some of the
Page 227
 Shehu
problems associated with these initiatives will be
addressed brie¯y in the subsequent sections below.24
As part of implementation mechanisms, the UN has
launched Global Programmes in these speci®c areas. In
the following section, the Global Programmes against
Money Laundering, Corruption, Terrorism, Orga-
nised Crime and Human Tracking will be exam-
ined, as they relate to the global approaches to the
prevention and control of corruption and laundering
of the proceeds of crime. The main objective of
these programmes is to provide technical assistance
to states.
Global Programme against
Money Laundering (GPML)
The UN Global Programme against Money Launder-
ing (GPML) was launched in 1995. Under the pro-
gramme, the UNODC carries out the UN action
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against the laundering of the proceeds of crime
through the conduct of research and the provision of
technical assistance to states upon request.
The UNODC has the proven expertise and experi-
ence to provide anti-money laundering assistance to
states to assist them to comply with the above Con-
ventions and other instruments to obliterate money
laundering. Since 2001, the GPML has broadened its
scope to address the ®nancing of terrorism.25 In
2003, the GPML completed model CTF legislative
provisions for common law countries. In the same
year, it launched its global computer-based training
(CBT) initiative. Based in Bangkok, this initiative
produced about 12 hours of interactive anti-money
laundering (AML/CTF) for global delivery. GPML
provided technical assistance and training to more
than 50 countries and jurisdictions in the year 2003.
GPML runs the Anti-Money Laundering International
Database (AMLID) on the International Money Laun-
dering Information Network (IMoLIN).26 The GPML
also maintains an online AML/CTF legal library.
GPML Mentor Programme is one of the most suc-
cessful known activities in AML/CTF technical and
training assistance. The key advantages that this
Mentor Programme has over other technical assis-
tance include: (i) the mentor o€ers sustained skills
and knowledge transfer; (ii) mentoring constitutes a
unique form of ¯exible, ongoing needs assessment,
where the mentor can point out speci®c areas of
needs of a particular period of time and target such
areas for assistance; (iii) member states have an `on-
call' resource to provide advisory services on real
cases that might arise; (iv) a mentor can facilitate
Page 228
access to foreign counterparts by using his contacts
as a bridge between institutions seeking and receiving
requests for mutual legal assistance and other forms of
international cooperation.27 A similar programme on
the corruption side is the Global Programme against
Corruption.
The Global Programme Against
Corruption (GPAC)
There is now increasing recognition in both the public
and private sectors that corruption is a serious obstacle
to e€ective government, economic growth and stabi-
lity, and that anti-corruption policies and legislation
are urgently required at the national and international
levels. In addition to legislation and policies is the cri-
tical need to develop programmes that will facilitate
robust international cooperation, including the provi-
sion of technical assistance. While it was unthinkable
to discuss corruption as a governance issue in the
past, the UNCAC as well as the GPAC have demon-
strated not only the will of member states to address
the problem of corruption, but also these initiatives
provide sound legal and infrastructural platforms for
dealing with the problem on a global basis. It took
systematic e€orts, ®rst at the technical level and then
gradually at the political level, to put the ®ght
against corruption on the global agenda. Both the
Monterrey International Conference on Financing
for Development and the Johannesburg World
Summit on Sustainable Development gave opportu-
nities for governments to express their determination
to attack corruption and to raise awareness about the
devastating e€ects that corruption has on develop-
ment.
As a result of discussions in the eighth and ninth ses-
sions of the United Nations Commission on Crime
Prevention and Criminal Justice, several further reso-
lutions dealing with corruption were adopted by
the General Assembly.28 Resolution 55/188 of 20th
December, 2000, called for increased international
cooperation in preventing and addressing illegal
transfers of funds and in the repatriation of such
funds to the countries of origin, and invited the
expert group established by its Resolution 55/61 to
examine this issue.
Established since 1999, the Global Programme
against Corruption (GPAC) was a response to global
developments and an increasing need on the part of
states for support in their anti-corruption e€orts.
The UN Global Programme against Corruption
has been drawn up speci®cally to respond to the

debilitating costs of corruption on society globally.
The programme is composed of three main compo-
nents: action learning, technical cooperation, and eva-
luation. The technical cooperation component of the
Global Programme consists, at the national level, of:
(i) assessing existing national measures against corrup-
tion; (ii) providing advisory services in drafting and/or
revising relevant legislation; (iii) providing advisory
services in establishing or, where they already exist,
strengthening anti-corruption institutions; (iv) devel-
oping preventive measures (such as public awareness
campaigns and codes of conduct); and (v) providing
training on the newly introduced anti-corruption
measures to policy makers, judges, prosecutors, law
enforcement personnel and members of banking and
®nancial organisations, including, whenever possible,
representatives of the private sector and non-govern-
mental organisations involved in actions and e€orts
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against corruption.29
At the international level, it consists of: (i) establish-
ing a pool of high-level international experts and
representatives of the private sector who will assist in
assessing the needs of the requesting states, in
making recommendations on best practices to tackle
corruption and implementing the measures recom-
mended by the Global Programme; (ii) promoting
the creation of international transparency and moni-
toring mechanisms; (iii) promoting the implementa-
tion of international legal instruments; (iv) creating
an international forum for discussion and strategic
planning on corruption that will bring together repre-
sentatives of relevant scienti®c, intergovernmental
and non-governmental organisations active in the
®ght against corruption.
The Global Programme was formalised into the
Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) through reorganisation
in 2003. The ACU forms, together with the Anti-
Money Laundering and the Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice Reform Units, the Rule of Law
Section in the Human Security Branch of the
UNODC.
The speci®c objective of the Anti Corruption Unit
and overall responsibility include:
 To support member states in identifying, pilot
testing and continuously re®ning anti-corruption
policies and tools, in accordance with relevant
UN Conventions and other international stan-
dards and best practices, through an integrated,
evidence-based and inclusive approach with the
aim of building integrity to curb corruption, in
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
particular within the criminal justice system, as
the guardian of the rule of law.
The core function of the ACU is the identi®cation and
promotion of anti-corruption policies and tools,
including:
 To identify, promote and disseminate proven and
promising practices in building integrity to curb
corruption with special focus on enhancing gov-
ernments' institutional knowledge and under-
standing of the nature and extent of the issue,
and present these best practices in Anti Corrup-
tion Toolkits, manuals and handbooks.30
 To provide technical advisory services and train-
ing on specialist issues to assist member states in
implementing relevant UN Conventions and
other international standards and best practices.
 To facilitate action learning process on judicial
integrity through regular meetings of a common
law and a civil law group of Chief Justices with
the purpose of identifying promising policies and
tools to enhance judicial integrity and capacity,
and review lessons learned emanating from their
implementation in selected pilot countries.
 To assist the Division for Treaty A€airs in prepar-
ing reports for intergovernmental bodies and in
serving the Commission on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice, the Conference of State
Parties and the Congress on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice.
 In close cooperation with the Policy Analysis and
Research Branch and in accordance with man-
dated responsibilities, to develop and maintain
databases on corruption and related issues.
 To review country pro®les, fact sheets, brie®ng
notes, presentations and strategic frameworks to
ensure completeness and accuracy in respect of
corruption and related issues.
 To assist in the media promotion of UNODC
anti-corruption activities in close cooperation
with the Public A€airs and Inter-Agency
Branch.31
So far, the GPAC has demonstrated expertise and
experience in the ®eld of anti-corruption and has
provided technical assistance to many countries,
including Colombia, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon,
Mozambique, Nigeria, Romania, and South Africa.
Aside from its core functions, the GPAC/ACU coor-
dinates and strengthens cooperation across relevant
international and regional bodies, including the
Page 229
 Shehu
NGOs, that are active in anti-corruption policy, advo-
cacy and enforcement in order to identify and
promote synergies and e€ective use of resources.
The ACU serves as the Secretariat of the International
Group for Anti-Corruption Coordination (IGAC).32
By 2005 the GPAC plans to manage 15±20 technical
assistance projects supporting member states, in-
cluding Afghanistan, Colombia, Iran, Iraq, Kenya,
Nigeria, Romania, South Africa, and Ukraine, in pre-
venting and controlling corruption. These projects
focus mainly on strengthening judicial capacity and
integrity, a unique strategic niche, with potentially
high impact, institution building and asset recovery.
One of the greatest achievements of the GPAC is
the development and dissemination of the Anti-Cor-
ruption Toolkit. The purpose of this Toolkit is to
provide necessary guidance for states in implementing
the provisions of the above-mentioned instruments,
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and in particular, the UNCAC. The 525-page
Toolkit contains eight chapters addressing (i) assess-
ment of the nature and extent of corruption; (ii) insti-
tution building; (iii) situational prevention; (iv) social
prevention (awareness raising); (v) enforcement;
(vi) anti-corruption legislation; (vii) monitoring and
evaluation; and (viii) international legal cooperation.
About 44 substantive and process tools are elaborated:
for example, why specialised anti-corruption agencies
may be required, and how to organise action-planning
meetings, among others. In addition, about 40 sub-
stantive and process case studies drawing from practi-
cal experiences of anti-corruption agencies, other law
enforcement and the judiciary worldwide are also
contained.33 In addition to the Toolkit there are
Guides for Anti-Corruption Policy Makers, Investi-
gators and Prosecutors. As at July 2004, the Guide
for Judges was being developed.
The Global Programme Against
Terrorism (GPAT)
`By its very nature, terrorism is an assault on the
fundamental principles of law, order, human
rights, and peaceful settlement of disputes upon
which the United Nations is established . . . The
United Nations has an indispensable role in provid-
ing the legal and organisational framework within
which the international campaign against terrorism
can unfold.'34
This is precisely the challenge of terrorism to the
world as a whole. The UN responded to this challenge
Page 230
and passed a number of Resolutions35 leading to the
establishment of the Terrorism Prevention Branch
(TPB) under the UNODC, aside from the Counter
Terrorism Committee at headquarters in New
York. The relationship between the TPB and the
CTC is complementary and synergistic. While the
CTC analyses the reports received from member
states and facilitates the provision of technical assis-
tance to states upon request, the TPB with its substan-
tive expertise delivers such technical assistance. The
TPB was established and a Global Programme
against Terrorism launched in October 2002 upon
recommendation of a Symposium on Combating
International Terrorism: the Contribution of the
United Nations, held in Vienna in June 2002. The pro-
gramme provides the framework for the operational
activities of the TPB, which focuses on strengthening
the legal regime against terrorism by among others:
 Reviewing legislation and providing advice on
drafting new laws;
 Providing assistance on rati®cation and imple-
mentation of new legislation against terrorism
through a mentorship programme for follow-
up actions; and
 Providing training to national criminal justice
systems with regard to the speedy and practical
implementation of the universal instruments
against terrorism.36
As at June 2004, such technical assistance has been pro-
vided to about 68 countries across the globe.
Global Programme Against
Transnational Organised Crime
The international community recognised the threat of
organised crime in the 1990s, and by 1999, while the
elaboration of the UNTOC was ongoing, the
Global Programme against UNTOC had been
launched. Central to the work of the programme is
encouraging states to ratify the UNTOC. Thus,
series of rati®cation promotion seminars were held
in all the regions of the world. Other components of
this programme include training of criminal justice
practitioners. To this end, in 2002 alone, about 480
investigators, prosecutors, intelligence ocers and
judges were trained in the most e€ective way of ®ght-
ing organised crime. Also, a major component of the
technical assistance project of the programme is the
analysis of regional organised crime trends, two of
which have been completed in West Africa and the

central Asian regions. The programme maintains a
database on organised crime groups in di€erent
countries. Such information is fed into the training
programmes provided to states.
The Global Programme Against
Tracking in Human Beings
Another major programmatic response of the UN to
the menace of organised crime and the laundering of
proceeds of crime is the Global Programme against
Tracking in Human Beings, especially women and
children. This programme was launched in collabora-
tion with the United Nations Inter-regional Crime
Research Institute (UNICRI). Hence the research
component of this programme is very strong, explor-
ing the recruitment practices, costs and debts, travel
routes, exploitation, criminal organisations and conni-
vance, as well as the connection between tracking
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and corruption.37 Like the other UN Global Pro-
grammes discussed above, the Global Programme
against Tracking also extends technical assistance
to states based on the mandate of the UNODC
under the Protocol on Tracking in Persons supple-
mental to the UNCTOC.
The main thrusts of the responses of the interna-
tional community under the auspices of the UN
system are based on the following principles. First is
the need to raise and increase awareness about the
impacts, e€ects and implications of corruption and
money laundering. Secondly, in realisation of their
harmful e€ects, to criminalise these phenomena.
Although criminalisation may be described as a reac-
tive response, it is signi®cant in the sense that it pro-
vides the legal basis for concerted action against
these problems. It should be stressed that a law is
useless if it is not, or cannot be adequately enforced
and indeed unenforced laws may bring into discredit
generally the law itself. Thirdly, the UN initiatives
are based on structural preventive and `normative'
policy options. In this regard, global programmes
are launched to provide the necessary stewards for
the implementation of the law. And fourthly, almost
all these initiatives are aimed at reducing opportunities
and increasing deterrence for the perpetrators of such
illegal acts.
The various multilateral initiatives under the UN
system are inexhaustible. In addition to the above men-
tioned, suce it to say that other landmark initiatives of
the UN against corruption, money laundering and
other forms of organised crime include: the `Political
Declaration and Action Plan Against Money Launder-
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
ing' which was adopted at the 20th Special Session of
the UN General Assembly devoted to `countering
the world drug problem together', held in New
York on 10th June, 1998. Another signi®cant initiative
was the `Naples Political Declaration and Global
Action Plan Against Organised Transnational Crime'
adopted at the world ministerial conference on Orga-
nised Transnational Crime held in Naples, Italy, 19th
November, 1994 (for details see UN General Assembly
Resolution General Assembly 49/159).
The UN Global Compact also provides opportu-
nities for combating corruption. The Compact was
founded in 1999 and is supported by more than
1,000 companies worldwide, representing a powerful
avenue for increasing corporate governance responsi-
bility. The Compact challenges business leaders to
uphold nine universal principles on human rights,
labour rights, respect for the environment and so on
and so forth. It pursues transparency in the private
sector by urging participating companies to publish
annual reports on their activities in support of the
agreed principles.38
The UN initiatives have the greatest promise
of bringing states closer together against crime.
However, they have common weaknesses, which
could militate against their e€ective implementation.
This has to do with problems of sovereignty; extradi-
tion; institutionalised corruption; incompatibility of
capabilities; and the fact that meaningful and more
productive international cooperation depends on the
political will and political relations of states. While
they are purportedly binding, any nation reserves
the right to opt out. Besides, while these measures
aim at increasing deterrence, they do not signi®cantly
address the fundamental causes of these phenomena,
especially terrorism. Unlike domestic laws that are
enforceable by national police, there is no interna-
tional police force to enforce these Conventions and
measures. They are products of consensus and there-
fore rely more on non-mandatory provisions. From
the UN initiatives, one might conclude that:
`the international regime being constructed to deal
with the new international criminality represents a
post-modern crossing of borders and assertion of
particular values as universals. It promises to bring
security and justice to the world but it simulta-
neously threatens diversity with uniformity; parti-
cularism with universalism. It is creating new
structures of power that will extend the gaze of
social control across borders into all corners of the
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 Shehu
world . . . the borders to be crossed are not just the
political boundaries of nations but legal, cultural,
religious and organisational boundaries within
states.'39
All the UN Global Programmes are conceived to
be evidence based, comprehensive, integrated and
impact-oriented; they also seek to maintain the neu-
trality of the UN by recognising national diversities
in culture and norms, and adopting an action-learning
and non-partisan approach. However, in view of the
fact that these global programmes are largely donor-
funded, a possible limitation in their technical assis-
tance delivery is that they would be donor-driven.
Though they are provided upon request, a major chal-
lenge is to address this conundrum and strike a balance
between donors' priority and recipients' needs.
Besides, these programmes promote synergy by
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complementing rather than competing among them-
selves and with other international service providers.
Thus one can ®nd, for example, the GPAC collabor-
ating with the GPML in the area of asset recovery
and institution building; the GPAC synergising
with the Global Programme against Tracking in
Persons to uproot the tracking±corruption nexus;
and the GPML collaborating with the GPAT in the
area of counter-terrorist ®nancing. The wide range
of activities and limited personnel and ®nancial
resources could not allow the UN to deliver technical
assistance as maximally as one would have thought.
RESPONSES BY THE WORLD BANK
AND THE INTERNATIONAL
MONETARY FUND
Although the World Bank has been involved in e€orts
and actions against corruption since its inception, the
bank's approach had been indirect and implicit until
the 1990s. In 1992, the World Bank undertook a
study and published a report on governance and devel-
opment and identi®ed corruption as a major problem.
The initial dilemma encountered by the bank was that
corruption was seen as a political issue. However,
after realising its economic impact on overall human
development, the bank's involvement in the ®ght
against corruption was then justi®ed.
President of the World Bank, Mr James D. Wolfen-
sohn, in his ®rst speech at the annual meeting of the
Board of Governors in September 1995, highlighted
the serious problems of corruption and their impacts
Page 232
on the bank's activities as well as on overall sustainable
human development. This formed the basis for recon-
ciling the Articles of the bank with the e€ort to
combat corruption. To this end, the World Bank
developed a comprehensive and multidisciplinary
strategy based on four key principles.
The ®rst strategy was aimed at tackling the problem
of corruption from within the bank itself by adopting
measures to prevent fraud and corruption within the
bank's ®nanced projects. Secondly, the strategy takes
corruption into account in all of the bank's country
assistance and lending considerations. The issue of cor-
ruption is further embedded in the bank's approach to
policy dialogue, analytical work, and in the choice and
design of projects. This is appropriate because in many
countries, particularly the least developed nations,
foreign aids and other forms of ®nancial assistance
have been a major source of corruption. Therefore,
the e€ective monitoring of such projects from the
onset to ensure transparency and accountability is
part of the bank's overall objective of encouraging
good governance.
The third strategy is to assist countries that request
assistance to ®ght corruption. Such assistance is given
to countries in the form of research and developing
the appropriate strategies to combat it in the context
of good governance and democracy. World Bank assis-
tance could also take the form of technical assistance
such as training and equipment. At the request of the
Asia/Paci®c Economic Council (APEC), Alternative
Remittance System (ARS) Working Group, the WB
produced a technical paper entitled `Informal Funds
Transfer Systems in the APEC Region: Initial Findings
and a Framework for Further Analysis'. The paper pro-
vides country clients with a uniform framework to esti-
mate remittances so they can investigate suspicious
ARS ¯ows.
Finally, the overall strategy of the World Bank is
aimed at supporting robust and concerted interna-
tional cooperation and collaboration in dealing with
the problems of corruption and related money laun-
dering. Evaluating the performance of the bank in
its anti-corruption e€orts recently, the President, Mr
Wolfensohn, said, `the one thing I'm proudest of is
our work on corruption' (Washington Post, 4th July,
2003).
The World Bank has introduced a Global Dialogue
Series aimed at bringing together, by videoconfer-
ence, leading experts and senior government ocials
responsible for formulating public policy on AML/
CTF for a mutually constructive exchange of ideas

and information. Five of such programmes were held
for 24 countries in 2003. It also provides technical assis-
tance projects of wider application such as the produc-
tion of the ®rst `Reference Guide to Anti-Money
Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terror-
ism' and its translation into four other languages
besides English. Further more, the WB launched an
external AML/CTF website (www.amlctf.org) in
August 2003.
The bank's involvement in anti-corruption and anti-
money laundering activities, however, has certain
limitations. In particular, the bank's involvement in
®ghting corruption and money laundering arises
from economic rather than legal and political per-
spectives. Therefore, it is not surprising that the bank
faces some constraints in expanding the overall scope
of the above strategy. For instance, it cannot stretch
its mandate over the bureaucratic management of the
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public sector in its assistance to countries. It can
monitor, but is not able directly to implement its pro-
grammes in any country; thus its ability to control cor-
ruption at the level of its development assistance
programmes is limited.
Furthermore, there is a limit to which the bank, as a
lender to government, can e€ectively support the role
of civil society in combating corruption and related
money laundering. Any form of assistance rendered
by the bank usually must go through the established
bureaucratic processes. For example, the World
Bank, like any international institution for that
matter, may be limited in the way it supports the
civil society, lest such support be misconstrued as
`interference' in the domestic a€airs of a state.
Besides, the bank itself has limited funds and cannot
e€ectively intervene in all sectors in the economy of
distressed states in various parts of the world. None-
theless, over the years, the World Bank has in colla-
boration with the IMF conducted a number of
international anti-corruption/money laundering mea-
sures.
The responses of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) are similar to those of the World Bank and
often, IMF actions are complementary and synergistic
to the World Bank. The IMF collaborates with the
World Bank in stepping up technical assistance,
increasing outreach to developing countries to raise
awareness about the dangers and impacts of corrup-
tion and money laundering. The IMF Executive
Board of Governors endorsed its involvement in
anti-money laundering and combating the ®nancing
of terrorism during their meeting in Ottawa,
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
Canada, in November 2001. In the ®nancial year
2001±2002, it extended technical assistance to over
39 countries to combat terrorist ®nancing.40
Both the WB and the IMF currently conduct two
major activities with respect to money laundering
control and counter-terrorist ®nancing: both institu-
tions collaborate and synergise one another in the pro-
vision of technical assistance; they also cooperate in
joint Financial Sector Assessment Programmes of
countries.41 In 2003, the WB/IMF organised and par-
ticipated in training programmes for ESAAMLG,
CFATF, APG, GAFISUD, and GIABA (all these are
FATF-Style Regional Bodies that are explained
below).
THE FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE
(FATF) ON MONEY LAUNDERING
By far, the most comprehensive multidimensional and
multisectoral approach in the global e€orts to combat
money laundering has been the initiatives of the FATF
as contained in what is now commonly known as the
FATF 40+8 recommendations.42 As a demonstration
of the acceptability of the FATF initiatives, it is esti-
mated that about 130 jurisdictions representing 85
per cent of the total world population, and about
90±95 per cent of global economic output have
made at least a political commitment to implement
the 40 Recommendations of the FATF against
money laundering.43
Without going into the details, the 40 Recommen-
dations are categorised into four main parts: Part One
provides the general framework and instrumentalities
on which the ®ght against money laundering should
be anchored. Part Two spells out the speci®c require-
ments and roles of national legal systems in combating
money laundering. Part Three speci®es the roles and
obligations imposed on the ®nancial system, particu-
larly banks, and other ®nancial institutions. To this
end, Recommendations 10±29 speci®cally deal with
critical aspects of ®nancial regulation and inter-media-
tion, namely: the requirements for customer identi®-
cation and record keeping, as well as increased due
diligence by ®nancial institutions and regulatory
authorities, including of course non-bank ®nancial
institutions that are not subject to a formal prudential
supervisory regime. And ®nally, Part Four stipulates
Recommendations 30±40 aimed at strengthening
international cooperation in the ®ght against money
laundering.
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 Shehu
In 2001, FATF embarked on a review of the 40
Recommendations to ensure they were current in
view of the terrorist attack on America. This review
was concluded in June 2003 when the FATF released
its latest revised Recommendations re¯ecting the fol-
lowing prominent changes:
 Expansion of criminal money laundering laws;
 Expanding the de®nition of ®nancial institution;
 Prohibition of shell banks;
 Enhanced due diligence for correspondent banks;
 Increased scrutiny of politically exposed persons;
 Justifying use of bearer shares;
 Application of AML provisions to gatekeepers;
and
 Tightening the conditions for third party stan-
dards in opening of accounts.44
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Members of the FATF reviewed the 40 Recommen-
dations with a view to strengthening them and ensur-
ing compliance. Part of this appraisal is the
introduction of a `peer group' assessment, ie mutual
evaluation process and determination of non-compli-
ance jurisdictions. Under this process, the FATF
undertakes an assessment of the e€ectiveness and e-
ciency of the e€orts of its members as well as sensitising
the international community with those jurisdictions
that are perceived as non-cooperative (`safe havens')
for money laundering. The basis for such assessment
and the categorisation of non-cooperative jurisdic-
tions include the existence or non-existence of neces-
sary policy and legal frameworks, as well as
institutional structures for e€ective policy implemen-
tation and law enforcement.
The FATF instituted in 2001 what it called Non-
Cooperative/Compliance Territories (NCCT), some-
times referred to as the FATF blacklist. In its NCCT
assessment, the FATF gives attention to a country's
criminal law (ie how e€ective/comprehensive money
laundering is criminalised); the nature of ®nancial
oversight, customer identi®cation, the rendition of
STRs, as well as the level of international cooperation
given by each country. The impact of such `blacklist-
ing' could be far-reaching as it could and does deter
prospective and legitimate investors from doing busi-
ness in the `blacklisted' country. Furthermore, ®nan-
cial institutions all over the world, and in particular
in FATF countries, are required to exercise more
strenuous due diligence in handling transactions
from or to any of the NCCTs.45
Page 234
After 11th September, 2001, the FATF mandate was
expanded beyond earlier de®ned money laundering to
support the global ®ght against terrorism. During an
extraordinary plenary meeting in Washington, DC
on 29th±30th October, 2001, the FATF adopted
Eight Special Recommendations on Terrorist Finan-
cing. These recommendations represent global stan-
dards in counter-terrorist ®nancing. As with the
other peer-group assessment, members have com-
pleted assessments against the Eight Special Recom-
mendations. In 2003, FATF provided additional
interpretation and guidance notes with respect to
these new recommendations. Part of this e€ort was
the issuance of an interpretative note and best practice
paper on alternative remittance systems and another
interpretative note on wire transfers (Special Recom-
mendations VI and VII). In October 2003, FATF
issued an interpretative note and additional best prac-
tice in respect to Special Recommendation III, which
deals with the freezing and con®scation of terrorist
assets. Still in October 2003, the FATF launched an
assessment initiative in collaboration with the G8's
Counter Terrorism Action Group (CTAG).
In sum therefore, although the 40+8 recommenda-
tions of the FATF have no binding or universal applic-
ability, they have proved to be a useful framework for
the ®ght against money laundering across otherwise
diverse jurisdictions. Mention should also be made
that an o€shore Group of Banking Supervisors has
been formed under the auspices of the FATF.
Members include the major o€shore countries of
Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, and so on (see
FATF, 2002). This mechanism promises to commit
members to a more transparent e€ort in anti-money
laundering surveillance. One of the greatest impacts
of the FATF activities is the emergence of FATF-
Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs) which are all obser-
vers of the FATF.46 They interpret, promote and
implement FATF standards across the globe. The
activities of these FSRBs clearly show that the FATF
has become a strong international motivation against
this problem. A brief discussion of some of the
FSRBs will be helpful here in understanding the
regional approaches to the ®ght against money
laundering and terrorist ®nancing. However, the dis-
cussion will concern only the Asia/Paci®c Group
(APG) and the Inter-Governmental Action Group
against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA)
in detail, because these two provide a good compara-
tive framework.

The Asia/Paci®c Group (APG)
on Money Laundering
The Asia/Paci®c Group (APG) was established in Feb-
ruary 1997 as a voluntary cooperative organisation
committed to combating money laundering in the
Asia/Paci®c Region.47 Its primary objective is to facil-
itate the adoption of universal standards, as set out by
the FATF, and how the 40 recommendations can be
e€ectively implemented. APG's mission is to contri-
bute to the ®ght against money laundering, organised
crime and terrorist ®nancing in the Asia/Paci®c
region. The major achievements of the APG during
2003 worth mentioning here include the expansion
of membership to Brunei Darussalam, the adoption
of revised mutual evaluations for South Korea and
Palau, and one WB/IMF assessment in Bangladesh.
An APG Steering Group and a Typologies Working
Group were also established. The Typologies Work-
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shop held in December 2003 provided a forum to
develop practical knowledge and increase understand-
ing of money laundering and terrorist ®nancing
methods and trends in the region. The APG has an
ambitious work plan for 2004. Among other initia-
tives, it intends to conduct a number of new mutual
assessment/evaluations, which will include Pakistan,
India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Niue, Marshall Islands, and
Brunei Darussalam.
The Inter-governmental Action
Group against Money Laundering in
West Africa
Following a UNODC sponsored seminar in Grand
Bassam48 a proposal was made to create a sub-regional
body to be responsible for designing and promoting
strategies against money laundering.49 In context of
an ocial declaration made by the Conference of
ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in
LomeÂ, Togo, in December 1999, a formal decision
was made to create an Inter-Governmental Action
Group against Money Laundering (IGAGML) in the
sub-region. For the past four years, the declarations
produced at the summits of the Heads of State and
Government of ECOWAS countries have noted the
unanimous political will of member countries to
®ght the blight of money laundering.50 It is crucial
to note that the Central Banks of these states place
their knowledge at the heart of this problem and
have already developed several initiatives.51
The ocial launching of the IGAGML (later
GIABA) took place at a meeting of the Ministers of
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
Justice, Finance and Security of all the 15 ECOWAS
members in November 2000 in Dakar, Senegal.
Hence, Dakar is the focal point/headquarters of
the Group. During its most recent meeting on
25th June, 2004, in Dakar, GIABA adopted the
ECOWAS 2004±2006 Draft Action Plan for combat-
ing Money Laundering and the Financing of Terror-
ism. The Action Plan de®nes nine major objectives
to be achieved. It comprises a distribution of responsi-
bilities among the various stakeholders, a time frame
for realistic implementation, a detailed description of
the expected outputs, a list of activities to be executed,
as well as performance measurable indicators. GIABA
activities for 2003±2004 are mainly focused on train-
ing, legislation, policy and completion of appoint-
ment of national correspondents.
In 2001, the ECOWAS Heads of State and Govern-
ment issued a Political Declaration committing them-
selves and their states to the ®ght against transnational
organised crime. This led to the signing of the
ECOWAS Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance
and Extradition (A/PI/8/94), which has already
entered into force; the Anti-Corruption Convention
and Protocol (A/PI/7/92);52 the adoption of Action
Plan against Human Tracking to be implemented
between 2002±2005; and the adoption of most of
the international instruments, including the FATF
40+8 Recommendations.
The Egmont Group
The Egmont Group (named for the location of the ®rst
meeting at the Egmont-Areberg Palace in Brussels) is a
confederacy/informal exchange of many national
Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) established to
address ®nancial crime. One of the recommendations
of the FATF is that each country should establish an
FIU that will serve as a database for collation and ana-
lysis of STRs. The aim of the Egmont Group therefore
is to provide support by expanding and systematising
the exchange of ®nancial intelligence. It is also aimed
at improving the capacity of law enforcement organi-
sations, and fostering better communication between
and amongst them in the ®ght against money launder-
ing, terrorist ®nancing and other ®nancial crimes.
Membership of the group has increased dramatically
from 20 during its ®rst meeting in 1995, to 84 FIUs
as at 2004.53 The FATF, during its annual meeting in
Hong Kong in February 2002, granted the Egmont
Group an observer status and thus recognised the
role of this essentially practitioner-led e€ort at
mutual assistance.
Page 235
 Shehu
As a result of the growth of its membership, the
Egmont Group, in 2002 at its Plenary in Monte
Carlo, established the `Egmont Committee'.54 Apart
from the Committee, there are four Working
Groups on speci®c areas of priority: Legal, Opera-
tional, Training/Communications, and Outreach. Its
website is used extensively to educate the public on
its activities.
Other international e€orts by governments against
corruption and money laundering include the e€orts
of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which at its confer-
ence in Bucharest, Hungary, adopted on 13 October
1995 a resolution calling for international e€orts and
actions to criminalise and punish the corrupt practices
of foreign ocials. Similarly, a Global Forum on
Fighting Corruption was established, and during the
®rst forum held in Washington, USA, 24th±26th Feb-
ruary, 1999, with representatives of about 90 govern-
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ments, the forum identi®ed 12 guiding principles
relating to best practices which are similar to those
recommended by the FATF. The forum addressed
and promised to continue to address the promotion
of integrity among justice and security ocials.
Although there is no indication of continuity in the
activities of this forum, the Washington forum was
remarkable because it identi®ed critical concepts and
principles for combating corruption and money laun-
dering ranging from prevention, prosecution, the free
¯ow of information and research, as well as interna-
tional cooperation. It must be recognised, however,
that countries involved have diverse legal and ®nancial
systems; therefore, it would be unrealistic to expect
identical measures across jurisdictions. In fact, these
recommendations are principles to guide the actions
and e€orts of various countries to implement the fra-
mework according to their particular circumstances,
allowing for some constitutional ¯exibility. Subse-
quently the forum has met twice, the latest being in
Korea (May 2003). This type of high-pro®le event
continues to provide awareness about the global
dimension of corruption; its close association with
the annual conference on corruption organised by
Transparency International (see below) suggests a
greater degree of convergence of anti-corruption sen-
timent may now be realised among elites. It is, there-
fore, instructive that the FATF initiatives aimed at
policy development and the promotion of coopera-
tion will continue to strengthen global enforcement
against money laundering.
Page 236
Interpol
At the global law enforcement level, the International
Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) is another
institution involved in corruption and money laun-
dering prevention and control. Founded in 1923,
Interpol had a sta€ strength of 373 drawn from 181
member states as at 2002. Its budget in 2000 was
however a mere US$23m compared with Hong
Kong ICAC's $93m in the same year. Interpol
however is not an international enforcement agency
but a worldwide clearing house and information
network for law enforcement. Interpol ®rst got
involved in the anti-corruption e€ort in 1998 with
the hosting of the ®rst Interpol International Confer-
ence on Corruption Related Crime. At this confer-
ence, the recommendation for the establishment of
an Interpol Group of Experts on Corruption (IGEC)
was made. A year after, the IGEC was formally consti-
tuted with the objective of raising awareness, but
mainly to improve law enforcement's ability to
respond e€ectively to the problem of corruption glob-
ally. The IGEC drafted a declaration of intent for
national law enforcement to combat corruption
related crimes. Through this initiative also, the Inter-
pol conducted a `Police Integrity Survey' of all its
181 member countries' police forces. The Interpol
71st General Assembly held in Cameroon, in
October 2002, endorsed and `institutionalised' a set
of `Global Standards' to combat corruption in police
forces/services. Earlier, in 1995, the Interpol's
General Assembly had approved model legislation
on money laundering. The instrument provides for
the temporary freezing of suspected assets prior to
®ling of criminal charges. In 1994, Interpol also held
a money laundering Working Group meeting at the
OECD headquarters in Paris with the assistance of
the FATF and this prepared the way for a more proac-
tive role by this international body in the area of
money laundering control.
THE OECD INITIATIVES
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD)55 is one of the major regional
bodies that have shown intense concern about the
problems of corruption and money laundering and
their impacts on the socio-economic development of
society. Perhaps, as a reaction to the series of scandals
and corruption and cases that were dramatised
in Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the
OECD's concern about corruption stems from its

real and imagined impacts on competition and the
institutions of economic activities in the European
Union (EU).56
Against this backdrop, the OECD Convention on
Bribery of Foreign Ocials was signed on 17th
December, 1998 and entered into force on 15th Febru-
ary, 1999. The main elements and scope of this Con-
vention are categorised into three parts, namely: (a)
criminalisation of bribery and inducement of ocials
in their ocial conduct; (b) imposing speci®c respon-
sibilities and obligations on member states to take and
impose dissuasive penalties and sanctions against
o€enders; and (c) as with other multilateral initiatives,
emphasising the imperatives of international coopera-
tion and mutual legal assistance, as well as other forms
of technical assistance among members.
The problem with this Convention is that due to
insucient professional capacities and resources to
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pursue complex international cases, prosecutors may
be reluctant to bring foreign cases of bribery.
Besides, procedures for obtaining evidence across jur-
isdictions may be cumbersome and sometimes unpro-
ductive. Furthermore, while the Convention provides
for MLA (mutual legal aid) from countries that have
signed, it failed to provide for assistance to developing
countries where foreign bribery is most prevalent. In
some cases, political opposition to prosecuting compa-
nies that create jobs from exports may be a further
obstacle to implementing the Convention.57
The Civil Law Convention on Corruption of the
Council of Europe is the ®rst attempt to de®ne
common international rules in the ®eld of civil law
and corruption.58 It aims at requiring each party to
provide in its domestic law for e€ective remedies for
persons who have su€ered damage as a result of corrup-
tion, in order to enable them to defend their rights and
interests, including the possibility of obtaining com-
pensation for damage. However, so far only Albania,
Bulgaria and Estonia have rati®ed this Convention.
The Convention requires each party to provide in
its domestic legislation for the right to bring a civil
action in corruption cases. It should be noted that,
under the Convention, damages must not be limited
to any standard payment but must be determined
according to the loss sustained in the particular case.
This excludes punitive damages; however, parties
whose domestic law provides for punitive damages
are not required to exclude their application. The
extent of the compensation is to be granted by the
court that can provide for the compensation of mate-
rial damages, loss of pro®ts and non-pecuniary loss. In
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
order to obtain compensation, the plainti€ has to
prove the occurrence of the damage, whether the
defendant acted with intent or negligently, and the
causal link between the corrupt behaviour and the
damage. The main achievement in this context con-
sists in the usually reduced evidentiary requirements
necessary in civil proceedings. As far as the unlawful
and culpable behaviour on the part of the defendant
is concerned, it should be indicated that those who
directly and knowingly participate in the corruption
are primarily liable for the damage, including the
giver and the recipient of the bribe, as well as those
who incited or aided the corruption or failed to take
the appropriate steps, in the light of the responsibilities
which lie on them, to prevent corruption.
The Convention also deals with the issue of state
responsibility for acts of corruption by public ocials.
However, the Convention does not indicate the con-
ditions for the liability of a state party but leaves
each party free to determine in its internal law the con-
ditions under which the party would be liable.
Also the validity of contracts is addressed. Accord-
ing to the respective provision `each party shall
provide in its internal law for any contract or clause
of a contract providing for corruption to be null and
void'. Furthermore, each party shall provide in its
internal law for the possibility for all parties to a con-
tract whose consent has been undermined by an act of
corruption to be able to apply to the court for the con-
tract to be declared void, notwithstanding their right
to claim for damages.
The Convention also aims at protecting the interests
of whistleblowers by obliging state parties to take the
necessary measures to protect employees who report,
in good faith and on the basis of reasonable grounds,
their suspicions on corrupt practices from being victi-
mised.
Finally, the Convention addresses also international
cooperation. Under the Convention, the parties shall
cooperate e€ectively in matters relating to civil
proceedings in cases of corruption, especially concern-
ing the service of documents, obtaining evidence
abroad, jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of
foreign judgements and litigation costs, in accordance
with the provisions of relevant international instru-
ments on international cooperation in civil and
commercial matters to which they are party, as well
as with their domestic legislation.
The principles, which have been elaborated on the
basis of the recognition that the ®ght against corrup-
tion must be multidisciplinary, include di€erent
Page 237
 Shehu
elements such as (i) raising public awareness and pro-
moting ethical behaviour; (ii) ensuring a coordinated
criminalisation of national and international corrup-
tion; (iii) guaranteeing the appropriate independence
and autonomy of those in charge of the prevention,
investigation, prosecution and adjudication of corrup-
tion o€ences; (iv) taking appropriate measures for the
seizure and deprivation of the proceeds of corruption
o€ences as well as for preventing legal persons being
used to shield corruption o€ences; and (v) limiting
immunity from investigation, prosecution or adjudi-
cation of corruption o€ences to the degree necessary
in a democratic society. In addition, the Committee
of Ministers agreed on other measures like (i) promot-
ing the specialisation of persons or bodies in charge of
®ghting corruption and providing them with appro-
priate means and training to perform their task;
(ii) denying tax deductibility for bribes or other
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expenses linked to corruption o€ences; (iii) adopting
codes of conduct both for public ocials and for
elected representatives; (iv) promoting transparency
within the public administration, particularly
through the adoption of auditing procedures appro-
priate to the activities of public administration and
the public sector as well as of appropriately transparent
procedures for public procurement; (v) guaranteeing
that the media have freedom to receive and impart
information on corruption matters; (vi) ensuring
that civil law takes into account the need to ®ght cor-
ruption and in particular provides for e€ective reme-
dies for those whose rights and interests are a€ected
by corruption; and (vii) ensuring that in every aspect
of the ®ght against corruption, the possible connec-
tions with organised crime and money laundering
are taken into account.
Basel declarations
A further initiative against the menace of money laun-
dering is the declaration issued in Basel, Switzerland in
December 1988 by the Committee of Banking Regu-
lations and Supervisory Practices Ð represented by
the Central Banks of initially ten countries (later
12).59 The main principles of this declaration are
similar to the principles set out in the 40 Recommen-
dations of the FATF. It should be noted that this
declaration does not constitute a law per se, but princi-
ples for good practice. It emphasises, inter alia, the
requirement of `know your customer', ie customer
identi®cation in ®nancial transactions; e€ective enfor-
cement and compliance with the law; and the need for
®nancial regulatory institutions to cooperate with law
Page 238
enforcement agencies in the investigation of ®nancial
crimes. Furthermore, the declaration enjoins the sig-
natories to develop appropriate policies, procedures
and training, as well as to allocate sucient ®nancial
resources for combating money laundering.
It was again the Basel Committee of Banking
Supervisors and also to some extent the Working
Group on Bribery of the OECD that both Ð each
independently of the other Ð increasingly took the
view that more work on customer due diligence
should be done. Supervisors and Central Bankers
worldwide had become increasingly concerned
about the risks o€shore havens posed to global ®nan-
cial stability, although concrete evidence for these
concerns is dicult to ascertain, let alone quantify.
Having discussed the e€orts and initiatives against
corruption and money laundering at a global level,
it is pertinent to examine some of the regional e€orts.
The Council of Europe
Convention/Directive
The Council of Europe Convention of 1988 on
Money Laundering is one of the ®rst signi®cant
regional initiatives against money laundering. To
strengthen the implementation of this Convention,
the Council of Europe issued what is known as the
Council Directive 91/308/EC of 10th June, 1991, on
the prevention of the use of the ®nancial system for
the purpose of money laundering. The Convention
stipulates and emphasises search, seizure and con®sca-
tion of proceeds of crime as the main springboards
upon which collaborative e€orts against money laun-
dering should be anchored. Of course, the Convention
equally provides for the adoption of special investiga-
tive techniques in order to enhance and strengthen
cross-border cooperation. Furthermore, the European
Union ®nalised a protocol on the protection of ®nan-
cial institutions in December 1995. This protocol spe-
ci®cally obliges members to criminalise corruption. A
second EU Directive on Money Laundering came into
force in June 2003. It is also worthy of note that
although it does not focus speci®cally on money laun-
dering, the Council of Europe Cybercrime Conven-
tion criminalises many activities in cyberspace.
Europol
The European Police (Europol) is a regional law enfor-
cement cooperation initiative among the 15 members
of the European Union.60 A liaison ocer represents
each member. Unlike Interpol, in Europol the
sta€ are coordinated and not directed (tasked) by

Europol. It operates primarily as an intelligence
agency in support of cross-border law enforcement
within the region. The Europol Convention, which
came into force in January 2002, expanded its
mandate to cover all forms of serious crime.
However, Europol has been in operation since the
1990s. Europol is coordinating e€orts to establish an
EU-wide database on suspicious transactions by build-
ing up a central information system for all forms of
criminality. However, this database, which will
contain information on major money laundering
investigations, launderers, and their modus operandi,
will not be accessible to ®nancial authorities and the
private sector.61 Europol currently has a sta€ strength
of 280 and it must master 11 languages, which is a fun-
damental diculty for e€ective liaison. A similar
organ within the European Union also concerned
with criminal justice is Eurojust (the European
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Court of Justice).
Other regional e€orts worth mentioning here
include the Inter-American Convention against Cor-
ruption, which was adopted by the Organisation of
American States (OAS) in December 1996 in
Caracas, Venezuela. A unique feature of the OAS
initiative against corruption and related money laun-
dering is the fact that their concern about these pro-
blems stems from their perceived negative impacts,
e€ects and implications for democracy, economic
growth, and social justice. Compared to the OECD
initiative, for example, the OAS Convention presents
a unique feature, as it is concerned with both `demand
and supply' sides of the problems and it involves both
developed and developing countries.
The African Union (AU) Convention on
Preventing and Combating Corruption
Nowhere is the problem of corruption more endemic
than in Africa. Recognising this, in Africa, concerted
actions are also being taken at both regional and sub-
regional levels to address the problems of corruption
and related money laundering. Adopted in July
2003, in Maputo, Mozambique, the AU Convention
represents the most patent expression of the determi-
nation of the African continent to combat corrup-
tion.62 The Convention was motivated by, among
others, the African Charter on Human and Peoples'
Rights and other declarations, which did not speci®-
cally mention corruption.63
The 28 Articles document expresses concerns of the
African Union about the negative and devastating
e€ects of corruption on the stability and prosperity
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
of Africa. It acknowledges the need to address the
root causes of corruption in Africa (in the context of
NEPAD), including the adoption of adequate legisla-
tion and preventive mechanisms. The objective of the
Convention is to strengthen cooperation between sig-
natories to `promote and strengthen development . . .
of mechanisms required to prevent, detect, punish and
eradicate corruption and other related o€ences in
Africa'.64 Signi®cantly, the Convention focuses on
both public and private sector corruption. Just like
the UNCAC, it addresses major constraints in
dealing with corruption, including bank secrecy
(Art. 17); mutual legal assistance (Art. 18); overall
mutual cooperation environments (Art. 12).
With regard to proceeds of illicit enrichment,
unlike in a criminal case where the prosecution
carries the burden of proof, under the Convention
the `prosecution is not legally obligated to show
beyond reasonable doubt that wealth exceeds
income. Nor does the prosecution necessarily have
to show that unjusti®ed earnings are a result of corrup-
tion, as it is presumed that unjusti®ed earnings derive
from corrupt sources'. This provision has been criti-
cised as erosion of the principle of the presumption
of innocence in criminal law, and might be challenged,
especially in countries where the presumption is con-
stitutionally enshrined.65
A novel provision in the Convention is that 11
members are to be elected for a two-year term by
the executive council `from among a list of experts
of the highest integrity and recognised competence
in matters relating to preventing and combating cor-
ruption and other related o€ences'. Also as part of
the monitoring process, national anti-corruption
authorities are expected to send reports to the advisory
board at least once a year, before the regular AU
sessions. The African Peer Review Mechanism
(APRM) in the New Economic Partnership for
African Development (NEPAD) is also expected to
monitor and review implementation of this Conven-
tion. This is a welcome initiative, but the implementa-
tion is likely to face some problems, principal among
which is that the AU has no means of sanctioning
countries that fail to report or comply with the
Convention. Besides, the Convention advocates
`necessary independence and autonomy' of the
national authorities.
Again, whilst the Convention recognises the role of
civil society and calls for the involvement of civil
society, including the media, in combating corruption
(Art. 12), a provision calling on members to `adopt
Page 239
 Shehu
national legislative measures in order to punish those
who make false and malicious reports against innocent
persons' may undermine whistleblower protection.66
But just how many African leaders could subject them-
selves to an open accountability and transparency
review process apparently remains a critical challenge
in the implementation process. Despite these apparent
imperfections however, the Convention represents a
signi®cant breakthrough in the ®ght against corrup-
tion in the continent. A bigger challenge now is for
African leaders to demonstrate a strong political will
in the implementation of the Convention.
Other regional and sub-regional initiatives against
corruption and money laundering in Africa include
the Africa Competitive Report, which was presented
at the Africa Economic Summit in Maputo, in 2004.67
The ECOWAS Protocol on the Fight against Corrup-
tion was signed in December 2001, in Dakar, Senegal.
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Also within the context of ECOWAS, the Accra
Declaration on Collaborating against Corruption
was rati®ed in December 2001. The Eastern and
Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group
(ESAAMLG) was formed in 1999. Similarly, a
Global Coalition for Africa, represented by 11 coun-
tries, namely: Benin, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa,
Uganda and Tanzania, met in Washington on 23rd
February, 1999 with the support of the US govern-
ment and agreed on 25 principles to combat corrup-
tion. The salient aspects of these principles include
the obligation imposed on governments to demon-
strate political will by creating the necessary climate
for transparency, accountability and integrity. They
also called on African governments to criminalise cor-
ruption and develop self-regulating codes for profes-
sionals both in the private and public sectors. This
initiative also provides for citizens' involvement
in the anti-corruption e€orts, particularly through
press freedom and respect for human rights.
Just as the multilateral global initiatives have their
own weaknesses, regional e€orts tend to give the
impression that transnational crime is a community
or regional problem. However, the regional initiatives
could be far-reaching in dealing with the problems
because they take into account the peculiarities of
these regions. Any form of transnational crime is in
e€ect an extension of a domestic crime problem.
Overall, therefore, these e€orts show that there is a
growing consensus among nations that corruption
and money laundering have signi®cant impacts,
e€ects and implications for the stability and prosperity
Page 240
of society. It is also instructive to note, however, that
no nation can e€ectively deal with these problems
alone and the role of non-state actors has become an
equally powerful means of change.
Transparency International
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have also
been involved in the global ®ght against corruption
and money laundering. Transparency International
(TI) has emerged as a leading non-governmental orga-
nisation that is concerned and preoccupied with the
®ght against corruption worldwide. TI was founded
in 1993 by a group of former world bank/IMF econo-
mists with headquarters in Berlin, Germany. Its most
remarkable record in anti-corruption has been sus-
tained through the annual corruption perception
index it instituted from 1996.68 A remarkable achieve-
ment of TI is the Corruption Fighters' Toolkit, similar
to the UN Anti-Corruption Toolkit, which it devel-
oped and disseminated.
Transparency International (TI) has founded many
chapters in di€erent parts of the world to sensitise the
general public on the evils of corruption. As at 2003,
TI had 87 national chapters all over the world. Its
last corruption perception index survey was carried
out in 2004. Other anti-corruption e€orts of TI
worth mentioning include the biennial Global
Forum on Corruption and the annual international
anti-corruption conference, both of which seek to
bring both practitioners and policy makers, as well
as other experts, together to discuss the changing
dimensions of corruption and pro€er useful solutions
and strategies for combating it. The last of these two
forums were held in Korea, 25th±31st May, 2003.
The Wolfsberg Initiative
The need to take a more proactive approach in in¯u-
encing regulations and de®ning their own rules
would, given the dynamism of globalisation, certainly
be a logical undertaking for the private sector and par-
ticularly at the international level. In the context of the
development of anti-money laundering initiatives this
question however is even more acute.69 In order to
reduce the costs and cross-jurisdictional problems
and the reputational damage on account of laundering
of funds for dictators, a number of banks agreed
at Wolfsberg, Switzerland in 2000 to establish a
common global standard for private banking opera-
tions (ie for wealthy clients only). The Wolfsberg
principles include common due diligence procedures
for opening and keeping watch over accounts,

especially those identi®ed as belonging to `politically
exposed persons',70 who may combine corruption
with drug money. The objective of the Wolfsberg
Initiative is to bring leaders of private banking to
cooperate in ®ghting money laundering `outside com-
petitive business'. It is therefore a voluntary initiative
of 11 major banks drawn from Germany, France,
Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, UK and the USA.
Recently in 2002, Goldman Sachs (UK) and the
Bank of Tokyo ( Japan) joined the group. The partici-
pating banks were very cautious in the early days of
the initiative, and after all it was a novel process, the
outcome of which was not certain. The criteria for
extending invitations to banks to join the group
were on the basis of the signi®cance of their private
banking activities and also to ensure a geographic
spread as far as it was possible. Some banks needed
intensive convincing to join the process Ð especially
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by their peers.71 Similarly, the guidelines for interna-
tional business transactions issued by the International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC) also demonstrate the
private sector's commitment to forge a united front
against serious international crimes.
The working dynamics of the Wolfsberg Principles
have progressed, as the expeditious drafting of the
Wolfsberg Statement on the Suppression of the Finan-
cing of Terrorism showed. The Statement was pub-
lished in early 2002. An integral part of the process
has also been the group's e€orts to make the Principles
accessible and practical to other ®nancial institutions
who may want to apply them.
The Wolfsberg Principles and experience gained in
other sectors present a lesson learned that harmonisa-
tion of industry standards is not only possible but
truly bene®cial to business. If it may be assumed that
the Group of Bankers makes up more than 60 per
cent of the world market in private banking, with
say 50 per cent of the market share in each o€shore des-
tination, these rules Ð in real terms Ð have signi®-
cant potential for becoming the leading principles
throughout the ®nancial industry.72 Critics have also
correctly observed that these Principles lack a speci®c
enforcement mechanism. However, monitoring is
indirectly provided by supervisory institutions, with
whom the Wolfsberg Group meets on a regular
basis: the standards have provoked regulators, if not
into action then to be substantially more speci®c
than they had been over the last decade. The critical
question to ask, however, is why were companies
not active in the last couple of years, and why, for
example, did they, for more than a decade, leave the
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
de®nition of the rules against money laundering
entirely to regulators? A further issue to be considered
is that of a monitoring mechanism, as it is with the
FATF. This is an issue to be approached with due care.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it is crucial to point out that all the inter-
national initiatives against these phenomena have their
inherent weaknesses, which stem from the structure of
the international system itself and the politics of inter-
state relations. Most UN initiatives are based on con-
sensus; therefore the tendency to make such initiatives
in practice ine€ective is predictable, especially where
some countries' peculiar interests are not fully
re¯ected. For example, during the elaboration of the
Convention against Transnational Organised Crime,
many African delegations proposed that corruption
should be included among o€ences of the Convention.
Other delegations felt this type of corruption (ie
looting of treasury) was not a serious problem in
their countries and consequently rejected the propo-
sals to include corruption in the TOC. No sooner
had the Convention been rati®ed, than the UN had
to initiate a separate Convention against Corrup-
tion.73 In the same vein, the delegations of Egypt
and Turkey insisted that international terrorism be
included in the Convention, but most delegates felt
terrorism was not a global problem until the terrorists'
attack on America on 11th September, 2001. Accord-
ing to the report of the Tenth Session of the Ad Hoc
Committee, Egypt had demonstrated great ¯exibility
regarding the way in which such a reference would be
embodied in the Convention and had expected that
such ¯exibility would have been met with a greater
degree of understanding, so that the Convention,
being of worldwide scope, would re¯ect the concerns
of all states. The representative of Egypt expressed his
deep regret at the deliberate omission from the text of
the Convention of a serious dimension of transnational
organised crime, represented in the link between such
crime and terrorism. He was certain that such a lacuna
constituted a basic shortcoming in the Convention,
which would weaken international cooperation in
containing and eliminating the phenomenon of ter-
rorism and might prevent the Convention from
becoming an in¯uential element of the international
legal system that served the interests of all.74
The assumption is that these initiatives will work as
states ratify and respond more willingly in the pursuit
of cross-border crime. However, this assumption is
Page 241
 Shehu
challenged by the constraints of international coopera-
tion: namely, the fact that international laws are imple-
mented only when they are not at variance with
domestic legislation. A country could signify its reser-
vation to implement a part or whole of a Convention
even after signing it.75 Furthermore, these legal frame-
works create responsibilities and impose obligations on
the private sector without involving the private sector
in the process of making the Conventions. Secondly,
although Interpol symbolises international law enfor-
cement, it does not enforce the law in various countries,
it relies on the police forces of respective members to
carry out criminal investigations. Thirdly, nation
states are more interested in preserving their indepen-
dence and sovereignty than in relinquishing part of it
to international law enforcement. Though the above
Conventions symbolise obligations, they are often
implemented only if sovereign interests of a state are
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not impeded. Fourthly, the weaknesses of these initia-
tives have led to the greater reliance by states on bilat-
eral cooperation, such as mutual legal assistance and
extradition treaties. Fifthly, the problem of institutio-
nalised corruption in some countries is a major hurdle
in e€ective law enforcement and international coop-
eration. Finally, other related problems include the
amount of political will, technical capability, and dif-
ferential perception.76
With regard to other international e€orts such as the
FATF, such organisations cannot e€ectively enforce
compliance in sovereign jurisdictions. It would there-
fore appear that the mutual evaluation of countries to
determine their level of compliance with money laun-
dering regulations could be described as unduly and
unfairly vindictive, as even those countries that are
not members of the organisation could be `black-
listed'. In the near future, the criteria for FATF assess-
ment could be brought into question as such
evaluation raises more international political problems
than providing immediate solutions.
REFERENCES
(1) The latter are many Ð 1963, 1999, and so on, but the UN
measures with regard to terrorist ®nancing will be discussed
in detail.
(2) Hereafter referred to as the 1988 Convention.
(3) The author was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee, repre-
senting Nigeria.
(4) Remarks by Ko® Annan, UN Secretary General, at the
signing of the UN 2000 Convention in Palermo on 12th
December, 2000.
(5) It is crucial to note that criminalisation not only allows the
national authorities to detect, prosecute and repress the
o€ence but also provides the legal basis for international
Page 242
cooperation among law enforcement agencies, judicial and
administrative authorities.
(6) Following the coming into force of the Convention, a
Conference of states parties was held in Vienna on 28th
June±9th July 2004 to discuss the implementation mechan-
isms among other issues. The Protocols on Tracking in
Persons entered into force on 25th December, 2003; the
Protocol on Smuggling of Migrants also came into force on
28th January, 2004, less the Protocol on Fire Arms, their
Parts and Components.
(7) Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director, UNODC, `A Tool to
Fight Crime: The United Nations Convention against Trans-
national Organised Crime', Statement to the Opening
Session of the Plenary of the Signing Ceremony of the
TOC, Palermo, Italy, 12th±15th December, 2000.
(8) It would be recalled that during the elaboration of the
Convention, representatives of some African countries
drew the attention to the need to include corruption. Also,
representatives of Egypt, Turkey and Syria proposed that
terrorism should be included as o€ences under the Conven-
tion. These countries have been gravely a€ected by those
problems; unfortunately, most countries felt that terrorism
was not an international crime problem until the recent
terrorist attack on the US cities of Washington and New
York on 11th September, 2001. As discussions are usually at
diplomatic levels and decisions are mostly arrived at by
consensus, the language of the ®nal product is often necessa-
rily in a weaker form than might otherwise be the case. This is
one of the major weaknesses in multilateral e€orts to combat
these scourges.
(9) Ko® Annan in the Foreword to the Convention (2004: iii).
(10) In adopting this instrument, the GA noted with appreciation
other multilateral instruments with similar components to
prevent and combat corruption, including the Inter-
American Convention against Corruption (1996); the
Council of Europe Convention on the Fight against Corrup-
tion involving Ocials of the European Communities
(1997); the OECD Convention on Bribery of Foreign
Ocials (1997); the Criminal and Civil Law Conventions
on Corruption adopted by Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe (1999); and the African Union Conven-
tion on Preventing and Combating Corruption (2003).
(11) Decisions to use controlled delivery as a special technique ie
intercepting or allowing the goods or funds to continue
intact or be removed or placed in whole or in part may be
done with the consent of state parties concerned.
(12) In the context of North±South approaches, this chapter is
a critical component in sustaining the momentum of
technical assistance to developing countries.
(13) The Convention is to enter into force on the 90th day after the
date of the deposit of the thirtieth instrument of rati®cation.
Any instrument deposited by a regional organisation shall not
be accounted as one of instruments of rati®cation by member
states. As at July 2004, 111 countries had signed and 6 had
rati®ed the Convention.
(14) This may be understandable as there is no `home government'
to take responsibility. It is being speculated that in the
near future, a protocol might be proposed to deal with this
shortcoming after some consultations among international
organisations.
(15) The Universal Legal Framework against Terrorism includes
the 12 Terrorism-Related International Instruments:
Aircraft Convention, 1963: 176 parties; Unlawful Seizure
Convention, 1970: 177 parties; Civil Aviation Convention,
1971: 179 parties; Diplomatic Agents Convention, 1973:
144 parties; Hostage Taking Convention, 1979: 136 parties;
Nuclear Material Convention, 1979: 96 parties; Airport

Protocol, 1988: 142 parties; Maritime Convention, 1988: 98
parties; Fixed Platform Protocol, 1988: 90 parties; Plastic
Explosives Convention, 1991: 102 parties; Terrorist
Bombing Convention, 1997: 116 parties; and the Terrorist
Financing Convention, 1999: 109 parties.
(16) Terrorism is dicult to de®ne but simply it consists of actions
involving the illegal use of force or violence to intimidate,
coerce, or threaten a population, often for some political
motives, and so on.
(17) Status information can be found at the CTC website:
www.un.org/docs/sc/committes/1373.
(18) The Commonwealth Secretariat has prepared model laws
and explanatory materials for the 12 Conventions and
Protocols, entitled `Implementation Kits for the International
Counter-Terrorism Conventions', as well as model legisla-
tion and explanatory guides for the implementation of all
the requirements of the UNSC 1373. These materials are
available at www.commonwealth.org/law/model.html.
(19) The UNGA adopted this Convention on 9th December,
1999. It was opened for signature from 10th January, 2000
to 31st December, 2001.
(20) It is the terrorist use of social and religious organisations, and
to a lesser extent, state sponsorship, that di€erentiates terrorist
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sources of funding from those of conventional organised
criminal groups.
(21) These include ®nancial service surveillance, customer identi-
®cation, reporting of suspicious transactions, regulation of
money transmission agencies, and record keeping.
(22) UN Legislative Guide to the Universal Anti-Terrorism
Conventions and Protocols, UNODC, Vienna, 2004.
(23) UNGA Resolutions 57/170, 56/261, 55/59, and speci®cally
Resolution 57/292 (20th December, 2002).
(24) It is crucial to mention for purpose of information that
apart from the above UN Instruments, a number of
regional/multilateral instruments have been developed to
combat corruption in particular. These include: the Council
of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption; the
Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption;
the Council's Resolution (99) Establishing the Group of
states against Corruption (GRECO); GRECO Resolution
(97) 24 on the Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight
against Corruption; the Council's Model Code of Conduct
for Public Ocials; the EU Convention on the Protection of
the European Communities' Financial Interests and its
Protocol; the Convention on the Fight against corruption
involving ocials of the European Communities or ocials
of member states of the European Union; the Council of the
European Union's (EU) Joint Action on Corruption in the
Private Sector; the Inter-American Convention against
Corruption; the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery
of Foreign Public Ocials in International Business Transac-
tions; the African Union (AU) Convention on Combating
Corruption; the Southern Africa Development Cooperation
(SADC) Convention on Prevention and Combating Corrup-
tion; and the ECOWAS Protocol relating to the Mechanism
for Con¯ict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-
keeping and Security in West Africa, among others.
(25) The GPML works closely with other international expert
bodies, including the FATF and World Bank to counter
terrorist ®nancing on a global basis. GPML now incorporates
counter-terrorist ®nancing (CTF) in all its technical assistance
projects.
(26) This is a restricted database available only to designated
ocials. www.imolin.org is a practical tool for law enforce-
ment and lawyers.
(27) For details on this, see UNODC website: www.unodc.org/
moneylaundering/html.
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
(28) These include:
Resolution 51/59 of 12th December, 1996, which adopted an
International Code of Conduct for Public Ocials and requested
a plan for its implementation;
Resolution 51/191 of 16th December, 1996, which adopted
the United Nations Declaration against Corruption and
Bribery in International Commercial Transactions;
Resolution 54/128 of 17th December, 1999, which directed
the Ad Hoc Committee for the Elaboration of the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organised
Crime to incorporate measures against corruption linked to
organised crime into that Convention and to explore the feasi-
bility of a further international instrument speci®cally directed at
corruption;
Resolution 55/61 of 4th December, 2000, which recognised
the desirability of a further international legal instrument,
decided to begin the elaboration of such an instrument,
requested the Secretary General to convene an open-ended
intergovernmental expert group to prepare draft terms of
reference for such an instrument and to submit them to the
General Assembly. GA/Res/55/61 was based on the Report
of the Seventh Session of the Ad Hoc Committee for the
Elaboration of a Convention against Transnational
Organised Crime, which took up the matter as requested by
the General Assembly Resolution 54/128 (see A/AC.254/25,
paras 20±21), and on a draft resolution prepared by the
Ninth Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice, which received the Report of the Ad Hoc
Committee (see E/2000/30, Draft Resolution III `An
e€ective international instrument against corruption').
(29) Langseth, P. and Shehu, A.Y. (2004) (eds) United Nations
Guide on Anti-Corruption Policy, UNODC, Vienna.
(30) The GPAC has advanced knowledge and expertise in
combating corruption by developing a compendium of
legal instruments against corruption, the UN Anti-Corrup-
tion Toolkit, the UN Guide on Anti-Corruption Policy,
®nalised Handbooks for Investigators and Prosecutors,
WebPages and publication series which can be accessed at
www.unodc.org/corruption/html.
(31) The UNODC's Global Programme Against Corruption,
states that the purpose of a national anti-corruption
programme is to:
(i) increase the risk and cost of being corrupt;
(ii) build integrity to change the rules of the game and the
behaviour of the players; and
(iii) eventually ensure the rule of law.
Dr Petter Langseth, Programme Manager, identi®ed four
main pillars of an e€ective anti-corruption strategy, which
are being developed, namely:
(a) economic development;
(b) democratic reforms;
(c) a strong civil society with access to information, and a
mandate to oversee the state; and
(d) the presence of rule of law.
(32) IGAC consists of more than 15 IGOs and NGOs and it meets
twice a year to review progress and identify further areas of
cooperation and synergy.
(33) The author is proud to be associated with the process of
revising and disseminating this Toolkit. To his mind, it is
the ®rst most comprehensive, evidence-based, integrated,
non-partisan document on corruption ever produced. It is
highly recommended for training institutions, law enforce-
ment agencies, the judiciary, prosecutors, investigators, and
administrators.
(34) Ko® Annan, UNSG, in a statement in response to terrorism
on 4th October, 2002, in New York. See UN Information
Service, www.uno.org/information.
Page 243
 Shehu
(35) Including, aside from UNSCR 1373, A/RES/58/140, A/
RES/57/173, A/RES/56/123, A/RES/55/64, A/RES/54/
131, A/RES/53/114, A/RES/52/90, all on strengthening
international cooperation and technical assistance; and A/
RES/58/81 on Vienna Declaration and Plans of Action
respectively.
(36) In accordance with its mandate, the TPB has developed the
following tools for the provision of legislative and other
technical assistance: The Guide to the Universal Anti-
Terrorism Conventions and Protocols; the Checklist of
O€ences and Jurisdictions contained in the 12 universal
legal instruments, the UNSCR 1373 (2001); and the
Technical Assistance Legislative Database, which includes
model laws.
(37) Shehu, A.Y. (2004) `Human Tracking and Corruption',
paper presented at a regional workshop on human tracking
for three West African Countries (Benin, Nigeria and Togo),
held under the auspices of the UNODC, Abuja, Nigeria, 21±
24 June.
(38) The Global Compact Oce has already started to prepare the
ground for a tenth principle on combating corruption.
(39) Macfarlane, J. (1999) `Transnational Crime Ð the Problem
of Corruption, Crony Capitalism and Nepotism, and the
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Impact of these Factors in the Twenty-®rst Century', paper
presented at the ICAC Silver Jubilee Conference on
Fighting Corruption in the 21st Century, Hong Kong, 22±
24 March, p. 17.
(40) IMF and the Fight against Money Laundering and the
Financing of Terrorism, IMF, Washington, DC, 2002.
(41) This joint programme measures and analyses the depth,
development and durability of a ®nancial system, and formu-
lates ways to strengthen it. The WB and IMF conducted 27
AML/CTF assessments from January to December 2003.
The WB was involved as technical assistance provider in 5
of the 15 FATF/FAFT-style regional bodies (this will be
explained below) mutual evaluations in 2003.
(42) The FATF is an intergovernmental body whose purpose is to
develop and promote policies to combat money laundering.
Established soon after the adoption of the UN Convention of
1988, the 40 recommendations were originally drawn in
1990. The recommendations were revised in 1996 and
recently on 20th June, 2003, to take into account the experi-
ence gained over the previous years and to re¯ect the changes,
which have occurred in the nature of money- laundering.
Currently, the FATF consists of 29 jurisdictions and two
international organisations as follows: Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Kingdom of the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA, European
Commission, and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
(43) Although not a law in itself, the 40 recommendations
outlined principles that are generally accepted by many
nations and are used as the basis for creating the necessary
legal framework for combating money laundering. See also
US State Department annual appraisal on the trends of
Money Laundering, various issues. (The 40+8 recommenda-
tions can be found at the FATF/OEDC websites: www.oec-
d.org or www.oecd.org/fatf ).
(44) See FATF Annual Report 2003; USA, International Narcotics
Control Strategy Report, March 2004.
(45) This is clearly re¯ected in the guidelines issued to banks in
many ®nancial centres, including the revised guidelines
issued in Hong Kong by the HKMA in June 2003.
(46) Some of these FSRBs include the Caribbean Financial Action
Task Force; the Council of Europe MONEYVAL; Eastern
Page 244
and Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group; and
the FATF against Money Laundering in South America.
(47) Members of the APG include Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei
Darussalam, Chinese Taipei, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Hong
Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Macau
China, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Nepal, New Zealand,
Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Vanuatu, and 13 observer jurisdictions as
well as 13 observer international organisations.
(48) In November 1997, the UNODC organised a seminar in
Grand Bassam, CoÃte d'Ivoire, to sensitise actors in the sub-
region to money laundering problems.
(49) The author had the honour and privilege of leading the
Nigerian delegation to the seminar. Nigeria played the
most critical role in this initiative because at that time
Nigeria was the only country in the sub-region with
money laundering legislation.
(50) In particular the Abuja Declaration, 21st Session 1998; the
Lome Declaration, 22nd Session, 1999.
(51) In 1997, the Governors of the Central Banks of the English-
speaking countries, namely Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Gambia, met to discuss possibilities of establishing
legal tools against illegal money laundering.
(52) This agreement details exchange of information and colla-
boration in particular, judicial cooperation in criminal
matters. It is not di€erent from the two UN Conventions
discussed above, to which most of the ECOWAS members
are parties.
(53) The list is too long to be included here. The list can be accessed
at wwww.egmontgroup.org.
(54) This Committee addresses administrative and operational
issues facing the Group and is comprised of 13 members: 6
permanent members and 7 regional representatives (a sort
of UNSC?). The Committee meets three times a year.
(55) The OECD is comprised of 30 member states: namely,
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
UK and USA.
(56) This bias to protect the economic and political systems in the
European countries may not be an e€ort that could be gener-
alised. At best it can be said that all members of the OECD are
fairly developed; therefore the patterns of corruption in those
societies may not be the same with other less developed
countries. This initiative could be criticised because it tends
to deal with the problem of corruption in a restrictive way,
ie focusing on bribery of foreign ocials.
(57) Heimann, F. (1997) `Combating International Corruption:
The Role of the Business Community', in K. N. Elliot (ed.)
Corruption and the Global Economy, Washington: Institute
for International Economics, p. 129.
(58) For details, see Langseth and Shehu, ref. 29 above.
(59) Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and
the USA.
(60) With the joining of ten additional members, the Organisation
now has 25 members.
(61) Storcbeck, J. (2002) `The Hiding of Wealth', Journal of
Financial Crime, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 372±379.
(62) It will enter into force upon the 15th rati®cation.
(63) For example, the 1990 Declaration on the Fundamental
Changes Taking Place in the World and Their Implications
for Africa; the 1994 Cairo Agenda for Action Re-launching
Africa's Socio-economic Transformation; and most impor-
tantly, the 37th ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads

of State and Government of the OAU held in Lusaka,
Zambia, in July 2001, as well as the declaration adopted by
the ®rst session of the Assembly of the Union held in
Durban, South Africa, in July 2002, relating to the New Part-
nership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which calls for
the setting up of a coordinated mechanism to combat corrup-
tion e€ectively.
(64) Note that the inclusion of `other o€ences' in the Convention
title is to take care of the ambiguities in the de®nition of
certain types of corruption in civil and common law jurisdic-
tions. Note also the four-pronged approach of the Conven-
tion in combating corruption: prevention, punishment,
cooperation and education.
(65) It was argued earlier that the shifting of the burden of proof
has to do only with the objective element of the evidentiary
evidence.
(66) Ideally, the Convention should have allowed other means of
redress, such as civil action, to prevail in such circumstances.
(67) The Report stated that corruption continued to be a critical
impediment for sustainable development, economic growth
and political stability in Africa, and must be tackled head-on.
(68) The criteria for TI's assessment of corruption have been criti-
cised. To take a sample of 90 disproportionate countries and
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arrive at such a conclusion is unscienti®c.
(69) Pieth, M. (2003) `The Private Sector Becomes Active: The
Wolfsberg Process', Basel.
(70) It has been argued that the term `politically exposed persons'
does not re¯ect the risk from this area as many people who are
exposed or vulnerable to corruption may not be `politically
exposed'. Thus, it is recommended that the de®nition of the
term be broadened to encompass all categories of persons at
risk.
(71) See Pieth, ref. 69 above.
(72) In the period 1987±1996 US banks ®led 77 million CTRs
leading to 3,000 money laundering cases with 7,300 people
charged; of whom 2,875 were found guilty.
(73) The sixth and ®nal session of the Ad Hoc Committee on the
elaboration of the Convention is scheduled to take place from
21st July to 8th August, 2003 in Vienna, while the signing
ceremony is scheduled for December 2003 in Mexico
(report of the ®fth session, unpublished). One of the conten-
International Initiatives Against Corruption and Money Laundering
tious issues the committee encountered was the burden of
proof in the prosecution of accused persons for illicit enrich-
ment (Article 25). Whereas some delegates proposed the
introduction of the kind of legislation which places the
burden on the accused, as in ss 12A and 14 of the Hong
Kong (SAR) Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and s. 10 of
the HK Bill of Rights Ordinance (1991 as amended), as
well as s. 4 of the Singaporean Con®scation of Bene®ts Act,
others, however, expressed strong reservation that such
provisions were tantamount to the violation of the right of
presumption of innocence of an accused person. It should
be noted however, such provision does not in any way
relieve the state from discharging the general burden of
proof that rests on the prosecution. What is reversed is eviden-
tiary burden in respect of the proof of certain facts.
(74) See Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a
Convention against Transnational Organised Crime on the
work of its ®rst±eleventh sessions, UNODC, Vienna, 2000.
(75) It was only in the ®rst week of July 2003 that the requirement
for at least 40 instruments rati®cation for the UN 2000
Convention to come into force was ful®lled, setting the
pace for Convention to enter into force on 29th September,
2003 (UN Wire release, 7th July, 3003).
(76) By `di€erential perception' is meant the old ideological di€er-
ences, though less visible, but it still remains a fact that China
for example, has a di€erent perception of the world from that
of the USA.
Abdullahi Y. Shehu, Visiting Fellow, Centre
for Criminology, the University of Hong Kong.
This paper is an extract from a PhD thesis
entitled `Corruption and Money Laundering:
A Comparative Study of Nigeria and Hong
Kong', submitted to the University of Hong
Kong, July 2003.
Page 245
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