Launch of Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network (ARIN) in West and Central Asia by UNODC
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Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 4 - 5 July 2018 - UNODC, through its Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries is promoting a regional response in West and Central Asia to the global problem of money laundering and all the offences linked to it by supporting the establishment of an Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network in the region. This powerful instrument facilitates effective criminal asset identification and recovery through a cooperative approach for a broader and more coordinated actions against this global crisis.
After two Practitioners Meetings, in which the eight regional jurisdictions discussed on the need to establish an ARIN in West and Central Asia as well as its functions and structure, a third regional "Drafting Committee Meeting" was held on 4-5 July in Ashgabat Turkmenistan.
The drafting Committee Meeting represented the second phase in the process of establishing an ARIN in the West and Central Asia. The main objective was to draft a comprehensive document outlining the membership and functioning of the network, based on the outcomes of the two Practitioner Meetings held in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
UNODC Iran supported active participation of senior practitioner from the General Prosecutor's Office of the Islamic Republic of Iran to this meeting among five other regional jurisdictions: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In this two-day meeting, participants drafted and agreed upon the Statement of Intent (SoI) which can be considered as the founding document of the Network.
Participants also agreed on the official name (ARIN-WCA), the rules governing the rotation of the Presidency, the membership of the network, the frequency of the annual general meeting and steering committee meetings and nominated the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan as the Secretariat of the Network.
UNODC Regional Programme will make all possible efforts to support the Network in the coming years until it will be self-sustainable, and will provide technical support to the Presidency and the Secretariat as needed.
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For additional information please contact Morvarid Javidi (Ms.),
Programme Assistant, UNODC Iran
Tel.: +9821 88 87 83 77, email: Morvarid.javidi@un.org