19. December 2019

Enforcing non-conviction-based confiscation of assets in Europe: introducing the CoSP panel discussion

CoSP8 side event panel
Left to right: Gretta Fenner, Oscar Solórzano, Muthoni Kimani, Markus Busch, Barbara Kammermann, Hamilton Castro

The Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) is hosting a side event on "Living up to the spirit of articles 43 and 46 UNCAC" at the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption (COSP8). 

UNCAC Articles 43 and 46 deal with international cooperation and mutual legal assistance. How can their principles provide answers to countries that are victims of corruption and seeking to recover assets through non-conviction-based confiscation?

Join the panel of expert practitioners from Peru, Switzerland, Germany and Kenya on Friday 20 December, 9am–10am, in conference room CR1 of COSP. 

Questions

  • Why is it so difficult for countries that have been victims of large-scale corruption to get international asset confiscation orders enforced?
  • How can we make it easier for states to afford one another, as Article 46 requires, "the widest measure of mutual legal assistance" in asset recovery cases?
  • What can we learn from successful cases of international cooperation in asset recovery?

Agenda

  • Oscar Solórzano, Senior Asset Recovery Specialist and Head of Latin America at the Basel Institute, will start by setting out the concepts relevant to NCB confiscation requests in Europe (see key concepts paper).
  • Hamilton Castro, Specialised Prosecutor in Peru, will explain through a case presentation why in some scenarios NCBC is the only viable option to recover illicit assets.
  • Barbara Kammermann, Legal Officer, Division for Mutual Legal Assistance at the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, will explain what the challenges in that case were and what legal avenues Switzerland used to enforce the Peruvian NCBC request.
  • Finally, two distinguished practitioners, Markus Busch, Head of Division at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection in Germany and Muthoni Kimani, Director of the Asset Recovery Office in Kenya, will react and present their thoughts on "favourable" approaches to NCBC.

Background information

Oscar Solorzano

Head, Latin America ICAR
+51 977 187 775
Biography