AG/RES. 1396 (XXVI-O/96)

COMBATING MONEY LAUNDERING

(Resolution adopted at the eighth plenary session, held on June 7, 1996)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN the Report of the Permanent Council on Money Laundering (AG/doc.3334/96 rev. 1);

CONSIDERING:

The decision reached by the heads of state and government at the Summit of the Americas, held in Miami in December 1994, on the need to "hold a working-level conference, to be followed by a ministerial conference, to study and agree on a coordinated hemispheric response, including consideration of an inter-American convention, to combat money laundering"; and

The recommendation made by participants at the "Ministerial Conference concerning the Laundering of Proceeds and Instrumentalities of Crime," held in Buenos Aires on December 2, 1995, who, in order to carry out fully the mandate from the heads of state and government, called for establishment of a working group within the Organization of American States to consider the suggestion of an inter-American convention to combat money laundering and identify priorities for basic harmonization of national laws;

REAFFIRMING that the transfer, exchange, and investment of illicit proceeds from drug trafficking and other illegal activities are serious crimes and a challenge to law enforcement and can jeopardize financial systems and trade; and

BEARING IN MIND the work of CICAD, especially its decision at its nineteenth regular session, to convene for June 1996 the Group of Experts that developed the "Model Regulations concerning Laundering Offenses Connected to Illicit Drug Trafficking and Related Offenses," so that it might propose a plan of action defining the role of CICAD in relation to the recommendations of the ministerial conference held in Buenos Aires in December 1995,

RESOLVES:

1. To receive with satisfaction the report of the Permanent Council on the activities of the Working Group on Money Laundering, which has been instructed to "study and agree on a coordinated hemispheric response, including consideration of an inter-American convention, to combat money laundering," and to "identify priorities for basic harmonization of national laws" for that purpose.

2. To urge all governments to adopt as soon as possible, in accordance with their domestic laws, such measures as may be necessary to strengthen their legal, judicial, and administrative systems and to develop such mechanisms as may be required to establish close international cooperation, including the exchange of information and evidence, to put a stop to the money laundering and the proceeds and instrumentalities of this criminal activity.

3. To take note of the interest expressed by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) in supporting the countries in the evaluation they are conducting to implement the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, as well as its interest in cooperating, in areas within its competence, with the working group set up by the Permanent Council to consider the proposal for an inter-American convention to combat money laundering and to identify priorities for basic harmonization of national laws for that purpose.

4. To instruct the Group of Experts convened by CICAD at its nineteenth regular session to pay special attention to identifying priorities for basic harmonization of laws on this subject and submit a working procedure and other suggestions for appropriate action.

5. To instruct the Permanent Council's Working Group on Money Laundering to continue consideration of an inter-American convention to combat money laundering.

6. To request the Permanent Council to submit a report on the implementation of this resolution to the General Assembly at its twenty-seventh regular session.