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p. 9 of 19 BACK | NEXT I. Executive Summary II. The Policy Context III. International Efforts to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism A. Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering and Affiliated Bodies B. The United Nations C. The Bretton Woods Institutions D. ADB’s Activities in AML IV. The Policy V. Implementing the Policy VI. Recommendation

Enhancing the Asian Development Bank's Role in Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism : III. International Efforts to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism

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B. The United Nations

34. The UN was the first international organization to initiate global action to combat ML. Concerned by the increased drug trafficking that resulted in the laundering of vast sums of criminal proceeds through the banking system, the UN adopted the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (the Vienna Convention) in 1988. The convention included a provision calling for the criminalization of ML. In June 1998, the UN adopted the Political Declaration and Action Plan Against Money Laundering, seeking acceleration of international efforts for AML. In December 2000, the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime was adopted in Palermo, Italy. This convention also called on states to outlaw the most common offenses, including ML, and for closer international cooperation in extradition, mutual legal assistance, transfer of proceedings, and joint investigations. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Programme Against Money Laundering has developed model laws and delivers technical assistance (TA) to UN member states to assist them in the implementation of the UN conventions relevant to AML and CFT.⁷

35. The UN has also been in the forefront of efforts over many years to combat terrorism and FT. There is already a substantial body of international treaty law, consisting primarily of 12 multilateral conventions aimed at criminalizing and thereby suppressing terrorist activities. The most relevant is the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, 1999 (FT Convention), which requires states to take steps to criminalize the financing of terrorists and terrorist acts. The convention stipulates that it is an offense if any person, by any means, directly or indirectly, unlawfully and willfully, provides or collects funds with the intention that they should be used or in the knowledge that they are to be used to carry out acts of terrorism within the scope of and as defined in nine specified conventions on terrorism.

36. On 28 September 2001, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1373, reaffirming its call to all states to sign, ratify, and implement the relevant international conventions criminalizing terrorism and FT. It also stipulated various other legal and financial measures for urgent implementation by states. As the FT Convention has still not been ratified by the majority of the signatory states,⁸ Resolution 1373 provides the primary legal basis for requiring all UN member countries to take action because, pursuant to Chapter VII of the UN Charter, a Security Council resolution taken in response to a threat to international peace and security is a decision that is legally binding on all members. Under Resolution 1373, the Security Council also established the Counter Terrorism Committee to closely monitor the compliance by member states with the Resolution.

Back A. Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering and Affiliated Bodies	Next C. The Bretton Woods Institutions