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OAS STATES AGREE TO ADVANCE NEW INSTRUMENTS IN LEGAL COOPERATION IN CRIMINAL MATTERS

Authorities responsible for legal cooperation in criminal matters of the Member States of the OAS agreed to advance with the preparation, among others, of an efficient and expeditious interamerican legal instrument on extradition, as well as a Protocol to the Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Relative to the Use of New Communication Technologies and Hearings by Videoconference and legal guidelines that serve as a model for the establishment of joint investigation teams.

The aforementioned documents were discussed at the Fifth Meeting of the Working Group on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition of the REMJA (Meetings of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas), which took place May 30 – 31, 2012 in Asuncion, Paraguay, under the auspices of the OAS General Secretariat, the Office of the Attorney General of Paraguay, as well as the Ministry of Justice and Labor and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

On this same occasion, Member States agreed to continue taking advantage of communication technologies for the development and use of new tools to facilitate legal cooperation in the framework of the Criminal Matters Network, which has operated since 2002 as one of the concrete results of the OAS REMJA process. In addition, the Working Group supported the use of the new tool of this Network for secure videoconferencing.

The recommendations adopted at this meeting will be submitted for consideration at the next Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Attorney Generals (REMJA IX) to be held in Quito, Ecuador in November 2012.

For more information on this meeting and the developments and activities of this Working Group, please visit the Criminal Matters Network of the OAS.