UNITING THE AMERICAS AGAINST CRIME AMERICAjus For strengthening mutual legal assistance in the Americas Pierre-Gilles Bélanger REMJA Working Group on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutor’s Offices Asunción, 17 June 2005

AMERICAjus - STRUCTURE - JURISDICTION of AMERICAjus -STATUS of GROOVE www.oas.org/juridico/mla

General Assembly of the Organization of American States TEMPORARY STRUCTURE REMJA Meeting of Ministers of Justice or of Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas Subcommittee General Assembly of the Organization of American States REMJA Working Group on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition Department of Legal Affairs and Services of the OAS General Secretariat General meeting 34 states + experts

A M E R I C A j u s AMERICAjus shall have as its mission to become the hemispheric organ responsible for strengthening legal cooperation between member States for the adoption at the hemispheric level of structural measures aimed at promoting the optimal coordination of investigation or prosecution actions that could affect more than one State, while respecting fundamental rights and freedoms at all times.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE OAS PERMANENT STRUCTURE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE OAS REMJA CICTE website on MLA CICAD MLA TOC Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the OAS Permanent Council AMERICAJUS REMJA Working Group on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition Subcommittee Secure E-mail MEETING OF CENTRAL AUTHORITIES ON MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE

COMPONENTS OF AMERICAJUS MEETING OF CENTRAL AUTHORITIES REMJA WORKING GROUP ON MLA website GROOVE Model Law Subcommittee Extradition Subcommittee X DIP Subcommittee

SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS GA/OAS REMJA PC/CJPA AMERICAJUS

MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE AND EXTRADITION MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE AND EXTRADITION ARE TRANSVERSAL ELEMENTS IN INTERAMERICAN COOPERATION Drugs CICAD Terrorism CICTE Corruption MESICIC Weapons CIFTA Treatment of persons DOT Money laundering MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE AND EXTRADITION AMERICAJUS

STRUCTURE Plenary sessions Ottawa, April 30 to May 2, 2003 Brasilia, September 1-3, 2005 Minimum 50%+1 of all Member States of the OAS represented by experts; All competent authorities

STRUCTURE Plenary sessions 1 Meeting of REMJAs Analyze the recommendations of AMERICAjus Final stage prior to holding of REMJA

STRUCTURE AMERICAjus - One President (represented by a Member State, elected in a plenary session) - One Vice-president (represented by a Member State, elected in a plenary session) - One Secretary (General Secretariat of the OAS) Active participation by all central authorities The functions of AMERICAjus must be determined by the Summit of the Americas, the General Assembly of the OAS, REMJA and the Meeting of Central Authorities and other Experts on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition.

AMERICAjus shall have the following objectives: TASKS AMERICAjus shall have the following objectives: To promote and improve the coordination actions carried out by the competent authorities of the Member States in relation to investigations and other actions carried out in their countries. To improve cooperation between the competent authorities of the Member States, mainly by facilitating the implementation of international judicial assistance and the execution of extradition requests. To assist the competent authorities of the Member States in strengthening the effectiveness of their investigations and prosecutions.

TACHES Specific FUNCTIONS . Operational aspects AMERICAjus will be able to offer consulting and legal assistance to lawyers, prosecutors, investigators and judges in the various States. AMERICAjus will advise judges and prosecutors with respect to necessary sources of information in other States and on forms and modalities for proceeding in cross-border matters. AMERICAjus  will take care of letters rogatory whose purpose is to transmit requests for information or the conducting of investigations by another State through the competent authorities.

Specific FUNCTIONS AMERICAjus will improve cooperation with other States and organizations (such as Eurojust, CIFTA, the UN, the European Union, CICTE), in matters that require judicial cooperation. AMERICAjus may recommend to the authorities the adoption of certain measures and investigation procedures. AMERICAjus will serve as a link for communication and unity.

Specific FUNCTIONS AMERICAjus will update the directory of points of contact of the central authorities and of the members and institutions that act in the area of judicial assistance. AMERICAjus will be the administrator of the secure E-mail system and manage access by members.

PROCEDURE Presentation of a proposal to the Heads of State and Government: Present this idea to the General Assembly or to a legal/policy committee. Present a document whose purpose is the acceptance and recognition of AMERICAjus by the Heads of State and Government in Mar del Plata in November 2005, and supporting its creation.

PROCEDURE The recommendation is: The delegation of the Argentine Republic approves the recommendation of the REMJA Working Group on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters to incorporate into the Plan of Action of the Summit of the Americas the idea of creating a hemispheric body by the name of AMERICAjus, whose fundamental mission will be to promote and strengthen mutual legal assistance in criminal matters beween the Member States through legal advisory services and the adoption of technical and operating measures aimed at promoting optimal coordination, including investigation and judicial prosecution actions that involve more than one national territory, while guaranteeing the respect of fundamental rights and freedoms.

Specific FUNCTIONS We propose that the following ideas be presented to the Heads of State: The idea of evaluating a document that could be presented at the Mar del Plata Summit will be brought up in Brasilia this September.

A M E R I C A J U S: Is an inter-American space for mutual legal and judicial cooperation Identifies components already in existence with a new name Does not create additional organs or bureaucracy Could be presented at the 4th Summit of the Americas Could be ADOPTED by REMJA VI

CONNECTING THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES OF THE AMERICAS www.oas.org/juridico/mla REMJA Working Group of Experts on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters

STATUS of GROOVE General statistics on Groove 90 Participants from 20 Countries and the OAS Countries and number of participants: OAS – 5 (3 lawyers and 2 engineers) * Most recent countries in activation process ** Brazil would like more licences Argentina – 8 Dominica – 2 Nicaragua – 1 Bolivia – 1 El Salvador - 3 Panama – 3 Brazil – 12** United States – 7* Paraguay – 5 Canada – 4 Guatemala – 3* The Bahamas – 2 Chile – 5 Jamaica – 6 Trinidad and Tobago – 2 Colombia – 3 Mexico – 8 Uruguay – 4 Ecuador - 2

- Office of the Public Prosecutor General Statistics Participating central authorities Argentina - Ministry of External Relations, International Trade - Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Bolivia - Ministry of Justice Brazil - Ministry of Justice - Department of Foreigners’ Affairs - Federal Office of the Public Prosecutor Canada - Department of Justice Chile - Ministry of Justice - Office of the Public Prosecutor - Ministry of External Relations Colombia - Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Nation Dominica - Financial Intelligence Unit El Salvador - Ministry of External Relations - Supreme Court of Justice United States - Justice Department Ecuador - Office of the Public Prosecutor

General statistics Participating central authorities (cont’d) Guatemala - Office of the Public Prosecutor Jamaica - Ministry of Justice - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Mexico - Office of the Attorney General of the Republic - Secretariat for External Relations Nicaragua - Office of the Attorney General of the Republic Panama - Ministry of the Interior and Justice Paraguay - Ministry of External Relations The Bahamas - Office of the Attorney General Trinidad and Tobago - Ministry of the Attorney General Uruguay - Advisory Services, Central Cooperation Authority

General Statistics Over 400 workspaces have been created between all the participants The most-used tools are “Document Sharing” and “Chat”

Difficulties with providing Remote Technical Support Different configurations of operating systems and networks Dependence on local technicians Basic technical support by Groove Networks Reduction of staff in the Technology Office due to the financial situation of the organization No general problems with the system have arisen Most frequent problems: Disactivation of codes after not using Groove in 30 days Forgotten access codes Reinstallation of software due to replacement of computers Aquí hay que hablar en general de todo lo que hemos visto and decir algunas de las dificultades, por ejemplo: - Dificultar de resolver los problemas por no tener acceso remoto Problemas para contactar a técnicos locales. Nos valemos del personal técnico de apoyo local que nosotros nos valemos del soporte técnico local, staff asignado al soporte de Groove (nosotros). En la parte de reduction de staff podríamos mencionar que los que estamos dedicados en tiempo parcial para el proyecto tenemos que cubrir otras funciones por las posiciones que se han perdido. Problema de que entren cada 30 días and dejen sincronizar su sistema Enfatizar que el sistema no ha presentado problemas generales and que siempre han sido relacionados a configuraciones especificas que causan conflictos con el software. Tal vez te pregunte como hacemos para agregar a alguien and también para borrarlos cuando se van de las dependencias. Nuestro rol es técnico and el área que coordina es Legales, ellos nos notifican. -

Next steps Updating of all participants to Groove Virtual Office Version 3.1 Updating of servers (management and relay) to Version 3.0 – May 23 We are still awaiting the Spanish version Increase the number of licences – after guaranteeing resources Expected increase in the number of participants The central authorities are showing increasing interest in participating in or adding more officials to the system Aquí hay que hablar en general de todo algunas soluciones para mejorar el sistema: Que den mas recursos para pagar el soporte Que den recursos a Tecnología por el soporte limitado Problema del Directorio que se soluciona con la actualization del sistema Decir como se han solucionado algunos de los problemas con las claves and nombres duplicados en el directorio Mencionar brevemente como se hace la resolution de conflictos de nombres cuando damos una nueva clave (Tal vez esto lo puedas hacer en tu computador si alguien esta interesado en verlo)

POTENTIAL for other countries The survey indicates that we want other users SWITZERLAND 10 users FRANCE 10 users SPAIN 10 users Legal assistance is an INTERNATIONAL affair!!!