The Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime, also known as the Strasbourg Convention or CETS 141, is a Council of Europe convention which aims to facilitate international co-operation and mutual assistance in investigating crime and tracking down, seizing and confiscating the proceeds thereof. The Convention is intended to assist States in attaining a similar degree of efficiency even in the absence of full legislative harmony.
Parties undertake in particular to criminalise the laundering of the proceeds of crime and to confiscate instrumentalities and proceeds (or property the value of which corresponds to such proceeds).
For the purposes of international co-operation, the Convention provides for forms of investigative assistance (assistance in procuring evidence, transfer of information to another State without a request, adoption of common investigative techniques, lifting of bank secrecy etc.), provisional measures (freezing of bank accounts, seizure of property to prevent its removal) and measures to confiscate the proceeds of crime (enforcement by the requested State of a confiscation order made abroad, institution by the requested State, of domestic proceedings leading to confiscation at the request of another State).
The Convention was drafted between October 1987 and June 1990 by a committee of governmental experts under the authority of the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) and was approved by the Committee of Ministers in September 1990. It was opened for signature on 8 November 1990 and subsequently entered into force on 1 September 1993. The Convention was last ratified by Georgia on 13 May 2004, bringing the number of parties to 48.
The scope of the Strasbourg Convention has been further expanded by the 2005 Warsaw Convention.
History
At their 15th Conference in Oslo (17-19 June 1986), the European Ministers of Justice discussed the penal aspects of drug abuse and drug trafficking, including the need to combat drug abuse by smashing the drugs market, which was often linked with organised crime and even terrorism, for example by freezing and confiscating the proceeds from drug trafficking. The creation of a Select Committee of Experts on international cooperation as regards search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime (PC-R-SC) was proposed by the CDPC at its 36th Plenary Session in June 1987 and authorised by the Committee of Ministers in September 1987. The PC-R-SC's terms of reference were to examine the applicability of European penal law conventions to the search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime – and consider this question, in the light of the ongoing work of the Pompidou Group and the United Nations, in particular as regards the financial assets of drug traffickers. The PC-R-SC could prepare, if needed, an appropriate European legal instrument in this field.
The draft convention was prepared at nine meetings of the Select Committee between October 1987 and April 1990. The draft convention was finalised by the CDPC at its 39th Plenary Session in June 1990 and forwarded to the Committee of Ministers. At the 443rd meeting of their Deputies in September 1990, the Committee of Ministers approved the text of the convention and decided to open it for signature on 8 November 1990.
Purpose of the Convention
One of the purposes of the Convention was to facilitate international co-operation for investigative assistance, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from all types of criminality, and in particular drug offences, arms dealing, terrorist offences, trafficking in children and young women and other offences which generate large profits. The committee noted that not all States possessed domestic laws which would enable them to combat serious criminality efficiently. Investigations, searches, seizures and other measures were often carried out on the basis of codes of criminal procedure which were drafted a number of years ago. In respect of confiscation, the member States' legislation differed widely, in respect of both substantive and procedural rules. As a result, it was felt that international cooperation which traditionally depends on shared concepts and principles of law might be seriously impaired.
Another of the main purposes of the Convention is to provide an instrument obliging States to adopt efficient measures in their national laws to combat serious crime and to deprive criminals of the fruits of their illicit activities. Once again, wide discrepancy in national legislations and lack of powers for some law enforcement agencies was sometimes exploited by criminals to avoid detection and punishment.