ECOWAS experts discuss UN crime convention

A meeting of legal experts from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) started on Thursday in the capital Ouagadougou, to discuss ratification and implementation of the United Nations convention against organised trans-national crimes, news agencies reported. The convention, adopted by the General Assembly last year, aims to strengthen the global fight against all forms of organised crime, including money laundering, trafficking in human beings, arms smuggling, international fraud, drug trafficking and corruption. Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the UN Drug Control Programme and Crime Prevention told a global meeting against crime held on 12 December 2000, in Palermo, Italy, that the convention would enter into force after 40 countries have ratified it. He said the convention offers the international community universally recognised definitions of fundamental concepts of criminal law linked to organised crime. The legal experts meeting in Burkina Faso hope that by ratifying the convention, their member states would collectively fight organised crime in the sub-region. Already sub-regional instruments on judicial mutual assistance and extradition within ECOWAS exist, PANA reported. The meeting of experts was expected to be followed by that of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice on Friday, the news agency added.