Published in May 2018

Regional Perspective: Pacific Islands Region - added in November 2019

Regional Perspective: Eastern and Southern Africa - added in April 2020

 

 
  This module is a resource for lecturers   

 

Excerpts of legislation

 
Regional perspective: Pacific Islands Region
 

Kiribati

 

Measures to Combat Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime Act 2005

57. Controlled delivery of property

  • (1) This section applies to an authorised officer who has reasonable grounds to believe that a person has committed, is committing or is about to commit an offence under this Act.
  • (2) The authorised officer may allow property that the authorised officer reasonably suspects has been, is being or may be used to commit an offence under this Act, to enter, leave or move through Kiribati for the purpose of gathering evidence to identify a person or to facilitate a prosecution for the offence.
  • (3) An authorised officer does not commit an offence under this Act if -
    • (a) the authorised officer is engaged in investigation of a suspected offence under this Act; and
    • (b) the offence involves property that the authorised officer reasonably suspects has been, is being or may be used to commit an offence under this Act; and
    • (c) the authorised officer does not take action that the authorised officer would otherwise be required to take under this Act for the purpose of the investigation.
Source: VERTIC

Afghanistan: Law on Campaign against Intoxicants, Drugs and their Control

 

Chapter I, Article 5

4 - "Controlled delivery" means allowing the transportation and passage of illicit or suspected consignments of prohibited articles, including drugs, precursors, equipment, laboratories and further relevant articles with the knowledge and supervision of the competent law enforcement authorities, in an effort to identify persons and establish witnesses against those involved in smuggling from Afghanistan to one or more other countries under a specific regulation.

Source: UNODC

Council of Europe: Second Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance

 

Article 18. Controlled delivery

  • (1) Each Party undertakes to ensure that, at the request of another Party, controlled deliveries may be permitted on its territory in the framework of criminal investigations into extraditable offences. 
  • (2) The decision to carry out controlled deliveries shall be taken in each individual case by the competent authorities of the requested Party, with due regard to the national law of that Party.
  • (3) Controlled deliveries shall take place in accordance with the procedures of the requested Party. Competence to act, direct and control operations shall lie with the competent authorities of that Party.
  • (4) Parties shall at the time of signature or when depositing their instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, by means of a declaration addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, indicate the authorities that are competent for the purposes of this article. They subsequently may, at any time and in the same manner, change the terms of their declaration.

Article 19. Covert investigations

  • (1) The requesting and the requested Parties may agree to assist one another in the conduct of investigations into crime by officers acting under covert or false identity (covert investigations).
  • (2) The decision on the request is taken in each individual case by the competent authorities of the requested Party with due regard to its national law and procedures. The duration of the covert investigation, the 16 PC-OC (2011) 15 Rev detailed conditions, and the legal status of the officers concerned during covert investigations shall be agreed between the Parties with due regard to their national law and procedures.
  • (3) Covert investigations shall take place in accordance with the national law and procedures of the Party on the territory of which the covert investigation takes place. The Parties involved shall co-operate to ensure that the covert investigation is prepared and supervised and to make arrangements for the security of the officers acting under covert or false identity.
  • (4) Parties shall at the time of signature or when depositing their instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, by means of a declaration addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, indicate the authorities that are competent for the purposes of paragraph 2 of this article. They subsequently may, at any time and in the same manner, change the terms of their declaration.

Article 20. Joint investigation teams

  • (1) By mutual agreement, the competent authorities of two or more Parties may set up a joint investigation team for a specific purpose and a limited period, which may be extended by mutual consent, to carry out criminal investigations in one or more of the Parties setting up the team. The composition of the team shall be set out in the agreement. A joint investigation team may, in particular, be set up where:
    • (a) a Party's investigations into criminal offences require difficult and demanding investigations having links with other Parties;
    • (b) a number of Parties are conducting investigations into criminal offences in which the circumstances of the case necessitate co-ordinated, concerted action in the Parties involved. A request for the setting up of a joint investigation team may be made by any of the Parties concerned. The team shall be set up in one of the Parties in which the investigations are expected to be carried out.
  • (2) In addition to the information referred to in the relevant provisions of Article 14 of the Convention, requests for the setting up of a joint investigation team shall include proposals for the composition of the team.
  • (3) A joint investigation team shall operate in the territory of the Parties setting up the team under the following general conditions:
    • (a) the leader of the team shall be a representative of the competent authority participating in criminal investigations from the Party in which the team operates. The leader of the team shall act within the limits of his or her competence under national law;
    • (b) the team shall carry out its operations in accordance with the law of the Party in which it operates. The members and seconded members of the team shall carry out their tasks under the leadership of the person referred to in sub-paragraph (a), taking into account the conditions set by their own authorities in the agreement on setting up the team;
    • (c) the Party in which the team operates shall make the necessary organisational arrangements for it to do so.
Source: Council of Europe

Ukraine: Code of Criminal Procedure

 

Article 269. Surveillance of an individual, an object or a place

  • (1) To find, fix, and check during pre-trial investigation of a grave crime or of a crime of special gravity information on an individual and his behaviour or his contacts, or a certain object or place, visual monitoring of the said subjects or visual monitoring using video recording, photography, special technological devices for surveillance may be made. On results of surveillance, a record is drawn up to which photos and/or video recording should be attached.
  • (2) Surveillance of an individual under the first paragraph of this Article shall conducted on the basis of a ruling of the investigating judge, issued under the rules of Arts. 246, 248-250 of this Code.
  • (3) Surveillance of an individual before the ruling of investigating judge is issued may be commenced on the basis of a resolution of an investigator, public prosecutor only as provided by the first paragraph of Article 250 of this Code.

Article 270. Audio or video monitoring of a place

  • (1) Audio or video monitoring of a place may be made during pre-trial investigation of a grave crime or of a crime of special gravity and implies covertly fixing information with audio or video recording devices inside publicly accessible places, without their owner, possessor or individuals present therein being aware thereof, upon availability of information that conversations and behaviour of individuals in this place as well as other events occurring therein can contain information of importance for criminal proceedings.
  • (2) The location may be audio, video monitored pursuant to Part One of this Article based on the ruling of an investigating judge rendered in accordance with Article 246, 248-249 of this Code.

Article 271. Control of the commission of a crime

  • (1) Control over the commission of a crime may be made where there are reasonable grounds for believing that a grave or especially grave offence is prepared or being committed and shall be conducted in the following forms:
    • (i) controlled delivery;
    • (ii) controlled and operative purchase;
    • (iii) special investigative experiment;
    • (iv) simulation of the situation of crime.
  • (2) Control of the commission of crime is not made if such actions do not allow to completely prevent:
    • (i) threat to life or infliction of grave bodily injury to an individual (people);
    • (ii) dispersion of substances hazardous for the life of many people;
    • (iii) escape of persons who committed grave crimes or crimes of special gravity;
    • (iv) environmental or anthropogenic disaster.
  • (3) When preparing and carrying out measures aimed at establishing control over the commission of crime, it is forbidden to provoke (incite) an individual to the commission of this crime in order to subsequently expose it, to assist the individual to commit a crime which he would not have committed if investigator had not encouraged thereto, or with the same purpose exert influence on his behaviour through violence, threats or blackmailing. Objects and documents obtained in such a way may not be used in criminal proceeding.
  • (4) On results of control over the commission of crime, a record shall be drawn up which is attached objects and documents obtained in the course of this covert investigative (detective) action. If control over the commission of crime ends with open recording an individual's act, the record thereon shall be drawn up in the presence of this individual.
  • (5) Procedure and practice of conducting controlled delivery, controlled and operative purchase, special investigative experiment simulation of the situation of crime, shall be regulated by legislation.
  • (6) Control over the commission of crime consisting in illegal transit via the Ukrainian territory, importing into Ukraine or taking out of Ukraine objects withdrawn from free circulation or other objects or documents, may be conducted according to the procedure laid down in current legislation, upon arrangements with the appropriate agencies of foreign states, or based on international treaties of Ukraine.
  • (7) Public prosecutor in his decision to conduct control over the commission of crime, in addition to information referred to in Article 251 of the present Code, shall be required to:
    • (i) state circumstances which show that the individual concerned was not invited to the commission of crime in the course of covert investigative (detective) action;
    • (ii) indicate the use of special simulation means.
  • (8) If control over the commission of crime requires temporary restrictions on constitutional rights of the individual concerned, such restrictions shall be carried out within limits permitted by the Constitution of Ukraine and based on investigating judge's decision as prescribed in the present Code.
Source: World Intellectual Property Organization

INTERPOL

 

Constitution of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) INTERPOL

[I/CONS/GA/1956 (2017)]

  • Article 2: Its aims are:
    • (1) To ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities within the limits of the laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights";
    • (2) To establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes.
  • Article 3: It is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.
  • Article 30: In the exercise of their duties, the Secretary General and the staff shall neither solicit nor accept instructions from any government or authority outside the Organization. They shall abstain from any action which might be prejudicial to their international task. Each Member of the Organization shall undertake to respect the exclusively international character of the duties of the Secretary General and the staff, and abstain from influencing them in the discharge of their duties. All Members of the Organization shall do their best to assist the Secretary General and the staff in the discharge of their functions.
Source: INTERPOL
 

INTERPOL's Rules on the Processing of Data

[III/IRPD/GA/2011 (2016)]

  • Article 6: Access to the INTERPOL Information System
    • (1) National Central Bureaus are entitled to direct access to the System in the performance of their functions pursuant to the Constitution. This access shall include: (a) the recording, updating, and deletion of data directly in the Organization's police databases, as well as the creation of links between data; (b) direct consultation of the Organization's police databases, subject to specific conditions determined for each database and to restrictions and confidentiality rules laid down by their sources; (c) use of INTERPOL's notices and diffusions allowing the transmission of requests for cooperation and international alerts; (d) following up on positive query results; (e) transmission of messages.
    • (2) Access by national entities and international entities to the INTERPOL Information System is subject to authorization, and to the conditions provided for in Articles 21 and 27, respectively, of the present Rules.
  • Article 8: Use of INTERPOL notices and diffusions
    • (1) Requests for cooperation and international alerts through INTERPOL channels shall be sent by means of INTERPOL notices or diffusions.
    • (2) National Central Bureaus are entitled to use INTERPOL notices and diffusions in the performance of their functions pursuant to the Constitution. For international entities, entitlement shall be subject to authorization. (3) The publication of INTERPOL notices and the transmission of diffusions shall be in accordance with Articles 73 et seq. of the present Rules. (4) National Central Bureaus may send requests for cooperation and international alerts by means of messages, in accordance with Article 9 below. For international entities with powers of investigation and prosecution in criminal matters, this option shall be subject to authorization.
  • Article 10: Purposes of international police cooperation
    • (1) The processing of data in the INTERPOL Information System may only be carried out for a given, explicit purpose which is in conformity with the Organization's aims and activities.
    • (2) Data shall be processed in the INTERPOL Information System for at least one of the following purposes: (a) to search for a wanted person with a view to his/her detention, arrest or restriction of movement; (b) to locate a person or an object of interest to the police; (c) to provide or obtain information related to a criminal investigation or to the criminal history and activities of a person; (d) to warn of a person, an event, an object or a modus operandi related to criminal activities; (e) to identify a person or a dead body; (f) to carry out forensic analyses; (g) to carry out security checks; (h) to identify threats, crime trends and criminal networks.
    • (3) The National Central Bureaus, national entities and international entities shall be responsible for determining the purpose of processing their data and for performing regular reviews, particularly once this purpose may have been achieved.
Source: INTERPOL
 

Back to top