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HIGH LEVEL JUSTICE OFFICIALS FROM THE HEMISPHERE TO MEET IN COLOMBIA

  September 10, 2007

High level justice authorities from the hemisphere will meet September 12 to 14 in Bogotá, Colombia, to further their cooperation in areas such as extradition and strengthening mutual assistance in criminal matters in the region.

The Third Meeting of Central Authorities and Other Experts on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition, which will be held under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will also cover the recent progress in relation to the Hemispheric Information Exchange Network for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition, which aims at increasing and improving the exchange of information among OAS Member States.

The Attorney General of Colombia, Mario Germán Iguarán, will open the meeting taking place in the Colombian Capital, at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The Colombian Minister of the Interior and Justice, Carlos Holguín Sardi, and the representative of the OAS Secretary General, Jean Michel Arrighi, will also participate in the inaugural session.

The OAS is responsible for convening ministerial meetings in different government sectors, in order to strengthen hemispheric cooperation and ensure implementation at the national level of policies adopted by the OAS political bodies and by the Summits of the Americas. The Bogotá meeting falls within the framework of the process of cooperation on judicial issues began in 1997. The last ministerial meeting took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in April, 2007.

Reference: E-209/07