CSCAP - Crime

Co-Chairs

Australia

Mr Jeff Penrose
Penrose Business Solutions
PO Box 80
Jerrabomberra
Tel: +61.2.6299 8760
Fax: +61.2.6299 9760
E-mail: jeffpenrose@telstra.com

Philippines

Professor Carolina Hernandez
President
Philippine Institute for Strategic and Developmental Studies, Inc.
Philippine Social Science Center Bldg.
Commonwealth avenue
Quezon City
Tel: +63.2.929.0889
Fax: +63.2.929.0890
E-mail: cscap@cnl.net/cgh@cnl.net/isdsphil@cnl.net

Thailand

Professor Suchit Bunbongkarn
Justice of the Constitutional Court
Office of the Constitutional Court
Bangkok
Tel: +66.2.623.9654, 218.7432.3
Fax: +66.2.623.9637.47
Email:

Background

The Working Group on Transnational Crime is designed to address the increasing importance of transnational crime as a threat to regional security. The official objectives of the group, as decided at the Steering Committee meeting in Canberra in December 1996, are:

to gain a better understanding of and reach agreement on the major transnational crime trends affecting the region as a whole,
to consider practical measures which might be adopted to combat transnational crime in the region,
to encourage and assist those countries which have recently become engaged in regional security cooperation, and which are concerned about the problem of transnational crimein the region, to endorse the United Nations and other protocols dealing with transnational crime, particularly in the narcotics area, and to develop laws to assist in regional and international cooperation to counter drug trafficking, money laundering, mutual assistance, extradition and the like.

It is a test case of the ability of security analysts in the region to seriously consider the new security agenda as involving real threats to security. The Working Group has now held eight meetings, or as many of most of the other groups set up three years before it began.

The first two meetings were exploratory. The first, in Singapore in March 1997, developed a checklist of 19 types of transnational crime affecting the region, and allocated research projects to member countries from this list. The second meeting, in Bangkok in October 1997, winnowed this to leave those crime types most likely to affect the security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region: arms trafficking, drug production and trafficking, international corporate/white collar crime, smuggling of nuclear materials, counterfeiting, illegal immigration, money laundering, and technology crimes. The third meeting, in Manila in May 1998, discussed drug trafficking, money laundering, arms smuggling, terrorism, illegal immigration, and technology crimes, as well as the conceptual and policy relationships between transnational crime and regional security. The papers prepared for the second and third meetings were published in 1999.

Subsequent meetings have been more focused on particular issues. The fourth and fifth meetings, in Sydney in October 1998 and Bangkokin May 1999, discussed three topics: illicit arms trafficking, production and trafficking of synthetic drugs, and the impact of the economic crisis of 1997-98 on crime in the region. The group found that transnational crime had increased as a result of the crisis. The increased unemployment led people to resort to illegalactivities to survive. Illicit capital flight and money laundering increased. Smuggling of people also increased. On the other hand, the law enforcement resources available to meet these challenges were reduced by the crisis.

The group had its seventh meeting in Manila on 31 May-1 June 2000, the two themes of which were identity fraud, especially in relation to international travel documents, and law enforcement cooperation in the region. With regard to further work on identity fraud, the meeting decided to establish two sub-groups: one on technology and crime, particular e-crime, and the other to consider best practice in the issuance and handling of travel documents. In the case of law enforcement cooperation, the meeting also decided to survey the current status of cooperation in relation to 'mutual assistance and extradition' in the region.

The work of the Working Group on Transnational Crime has been applauded by several law enforcement agencies and has been reported in the regional media. For example, in 1997, the Deputy Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Adrien Whiddett, described the establishment of the Working Group as 'a heartening development' and a 'clarion-call to arms'. The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade of the Australian Parliament also commended the setting up of the group. The Far Eastern economic Review reported in April 2000 in a special report on cyber crime that as early as May 1998 the Working Group on Transnational Crime had warned that 'crime in cyberspace is clearly a significant threat to national and regional security and stability'.

Meetings

Date		Place	Subject/Comments
1.	25-26 March 1997	Singapore	Developed a list of 19 types of transnational crimes.
2.	10-11 October 1997	Bangkok	Revised list of 'crime types' relevant to security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region: arms trafficking, drug production, international corporate/while collar crime, smuggling of nuclear materials, counterfeiting, illegal immigration, money laundering, and technology crimes.
3.	23-24 May 1998	Manila	Discussed the impact of transnational crime on regional security, drug trafficking, money laundering, weapons smuggling, terrorism, illegal immigration, and technology crimes.
4.	11-13 October 1998	Sydney	The major topics discussed were the illicity trafficking in firearms throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs in the region, and the impact of the Asian financial crisis on the development of transnational crime in the region.
5.	23-25 May 1999	Bangkok	Discussed illicit arms trafficking, synthetic drug production and trafficking, and the impact of the Asian financial crisis on crime in the region.
6.	6-9 November 1999	Wollongong	Joint meeting with WG/MC. Two themes: trafficking in humans, and maritime crime and law and order at sea.
7.	31 May-1 June 2000	Manila	Identity fraud (including cyber crime), and law enforcement cooperation.
8.	16-18 October 2000	Bangkok	Discussed law enforcement cooperation in the region, cyber crime, identity document fraud, and synthetic drug production and trafficking in the region.
9.	7-9 May 2001	AIPM, Manly	Discussed law enforcement cooperation in the region, especially in relation to Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs); cybercrime, and identity document fraud best practice guidelines.
10.	8-9 November 2001	Jakarta	Criminal links of terrorism
11.	13-14 May 2002	Shanghai	Law Enforcement and Other Forms of Regional Cooperation; Draft CSCAP Memorandum on the Relationship between Terrorism and Transnational Crime; Terrorist Funding and Money-Laundering Countermeasures; Document and Identity Fraud, with particular reference to Terrorism; Outcome of the Bali Meeting on Human Smuggling; and Pacific Island Nations Engagement with the OECD Harmful Tax Practices Initiative.
12.	17-19 November 2002	Bangkok	12th Meeting of the CSCAP Working Group on Transnational Crime, Bangkok, 17-19 November 2002
13.	3-5 June 2003	Darwin	ASEAN Regional Forum - Workshop on Managing the Consequences of a Major Terrorist Attack - Co-Chairs Summary Report
14.	27-28 June 2003	Manila	13th Meeting of the CSCAP WG on TNC - Taking Stock and the Road Ahead
15.	3-5 December 2003	Jakarta	14th Meeting of the CSCAP WG on TNC
16.	26-27 May 2004	Bangkok, Thailand

Publications

Books

Carolina G. Hernandez and Gina R. Pattugal (eds), Transnational Crime and Regional Security in the Asia Pacific (Manila, Institute for Strategic and Development Studies, 1999).

Reports

Report to the ASEAN Regional Forum on the work of the CSCAP Working Group on Transnational Crime, March 2000.

This Working Group is no longer active.