The OAS member states’ authorities responsible for legal cooperation in
criminal matters are to meet on May 15 and 16, 2014, in Brasilia,
Brazil, at the Sixth Meeting of the Working Group on Legal Cooperation
in Criminal Matters of the Meeting of Ministers of Justice or Other
Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA). The purpose of
the event is to continue strengthening and instituting specific actions
to facilitate legal cooperation on criminal matters among the OAS member
states. Those specific actions include the consideration of a
proposed protocol to the Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance
in Criminal Matters related to the use of new communication technologies
and hearings by videoconference. This proposal is to be presented by an
informal working group led by the delegation of El Salvador and
comprising the delegations of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay,
with the support of the REMJA Technical Secretariat.
The fact that it has been ratified by 27 OAS member states and provides
a broad legal basis for assistance requests makes the Inter-American
Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters – adopted in 1992
and known as the Nassau Convention – the most important and most useful
inter-American convention for criminal justice operators seeking to
request judicial assistance.
Since its adoption, however, new developments in the area of legal and
judicial cooperation on criminal matters have made it necessary to
expand its scope to incorporate the progress made with the use of new
communications technologies and videoconference hearings.
In addition to providing a legal framework for streamlining the
presentation and processing of requests for mutual assistance in
criminal matters among the states parties, the inclusion of those
innovations in a protocol to the Convention would assist in reducing the
costs associated with such formalities. Similarly, the existence of an
inter-American legal framework that allows and regulates videoconference
hearings would assist the protection of vulnerable or intimated victims
and witnesses and reduce the potential tension and inconveniences caused
by their having to travel to courts located abroad.
In addition to this new instrument, the OAS member states’ authorities
responsible for legal cooperation on criminal matters will also continue
with their consideration of a swift and streamlined inter-American legal
instrument for extradition proceedings and of a protocol to the
Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters
dealing with the establishment of joint investigation teams.
For further information on this meeting and on the Working Group’s
activities and actions, visit the OAS
Criminal Matters Network. The text of Nassau Convention and the status of its signatures and ratifications may be found at http://www.oas.org/juridico/spanish/tratados/a-55.html.
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Department of Legal Cooperation
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