Friday, December 16, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
20th Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
Deputy Director, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the floor. We are pleased to see you leading our work today and during the coming week, and pledge our assistance as you work to help make this Crime Commission a productive one. We would also like to in with the Chair in offering our condolences to the government and people of Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that took place recently.
It has been 20 years now since Member States agreed to create the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. In 1991, Member States knew that more needed to be done to reduce the disastrous effects of transnational crime on our citizens, economies and security. The UN General Assembly at that time recognized that crime poses “a threat to stability and to a safe environment.” Among other things, the General Assembly anticipated twenty years ago that this Commission would provide a forum for “inter-State cooperation and coordination to respond to the serious new forms and transnational aspects and dimensions of crime.”
As prescient as we were back in 1991, we could never have imagined how transnational crime – particularly transnational organized crime – would evolve. Twenty years ago, the United States was enjoying a string of success against American mafia families, finding new ways to penetrate and dismantle these hierarchical organizations.
However, what we could not appreciate during that time was the impressive adaptability of criminal organizations. Despite our past successes, criminals have an impressive ability to react and reconstitute in ways that allow them to continue their profitable activities and avoid detection. Today, most criminal organizations bear no resemblance to the hierarchical organized crime family groups of the 1980’s. Today’s criminal groups consist of loose and informal networks that often converge only when it is convenient. These networks are not always permanent, and individuals involved in these networks often have no idea about the larger structure and cooperation of various links in the chain. These networks benefit tremendously from instant global communication, and interact in an environment that knows no borders. The subject of the thematic debate for this Commission is a good, but not the only, example of criminal networks that have exploded over the past 20 years.
We discussed at last year’s Crime Congress the growing convergence of these criminal networks and how we are finding that the tentacles of such networks are stretching out to embrace multiple types of criminal activity. Gone are the days when one crime family focused its attention on one or two types of criminal activities. Criminal groups now go where they can make a profit. Groups that specialize in trafficking human persons, for example, are also using all or parts of their networks to help move drugs, counterfeit goods and even proceeds of crime.
Mr. Chairman, as anticipated by Member States when they created this Commission two decades ago, we must use this forum not only to develop strategies for how to address individual types of crime, but also to keep informed of the larger picture. The global priorities for criminals should be the global priorities for this Commission - and for Member State cooperation.
Mr. Chairman, as we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Commission, our hope is that Member States, with the assistance of UNODC, spend more time on the bigger picture of transnational crime. Member States have discussed this in the context of our efforts to improve UNODC’s crime data collection and analysis capabilities. Last year’s UNODC report entitled “Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment,” while not without its controversy, represented a useful step in this direction. By gathering, exchanging and reporting information on problems and best practices, we can paint an evidence-based picture that will help us identify shared global priorities and potential tools for countering transnational crime.
The work of UNODC can help us in gaining a more complete perspective on the evolving threats of transnational organized crime. The United States will be introducing a resolution that calls greater attention to the way that transnational crime has evolved as an international threat in recent years, and promote information exchanges to give us a more complete view of the bigger picture. By doing this, we may find new paths for this Commission that we could never have imagined twenty years – or even a decade -- ago.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak, and we look forward to a productive week.
Monday, August 16, 2010
AAFES Double Charges
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Military Spouse Residency
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Simpson Thacher and Mayer Brown hot for Brazil
December 22, 2009
More than a half dozen firms have opened offices in Brazil or aligned with local firms in the past five years. Sao Paulo is a particularly attractive location because it's an investment hub that has attracted international banks and foreign investors.
Simpson Thacher recently opened an office in Sao Paulo — its first Latin American location. The firm has been handling Latin American matters for nearly three decades, but having an office in the region will make it easier to serve those clients, said Executive Committee Chairman Pete Ruegger in written statement. The firm recently represented media conglomerate Vivendi in its takeover of Brazilian telecom company GVT, and represented UBS in the sale of its Brazilian platform, among other deals.
The new office is headed by corporate partners Todd Crider and Jaime Mercado. The five attorneys staffing the office transferred from Simpson Thacher's New York headquarters, and are being supported by attorneys based in the firm's New York and Palo Alto, Calif. locations.
Mayer Brown, which established a Sao Paulo office two years ago, has formed an alliance with Brazilian firm Tauil & Chequer, which has 60 attorneys in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The Brazilian firm will now conduct business as Tauil & Chequer in association with Mayer Brown.
Mayer Brown's existing Sao Paulo office will continue to handle matters that fall under New York law, English law, and U.S. securities law. Tauil & Chequer will handle matters that fall under Brazilian law. The firm is known for its representation of energy and infrastructure companies.
Mayer Brown Chairman Bert Krueger noted that the firm has been serving Brazilian and Latin American clients for nearly two decades. The country's emergence as a "major player on the global economic stage" has prompted the firm's growing investment in the region, he said. Brazil also is a popular destination for major sporting events. Rio De Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics and Brazil will host the World Cup in 2014.
Other firms have taken a similar approach. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher opened a Sao Paulo office in June, and Shearman & Sterling; Proskauer Rose; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Squire, Sanders & Dempsey; and Thompson & Knight are among the firms that have opened Brazilian offices in recent years.
Karen Sloan can be contacted at ksloan@alm.com.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
What's the cost of not showing up to court?
was $1.26 billion
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Afghans Hold Rule of Law Conference
By Army Pfc. Beth Raney
Special to American Forces Press Service
The rule of law conference, held at the Nangarhar governor's palace in Jalalabad, focused on the provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman. The morning was filled with briefings and presentations by U.S. and Afghan agencies and nongovernmental organizations operating in eastern Afghanistan, including representatives from the U.S. State Department, the Supreme Court of Afghanistan and the Afghan Justice Sector Support Program.
"The conference succeeded in bringing all of these key players together into one room," said Army Maj. Jeffrey Thurnher, Task Force Mountain Warrior's legal officer, from Woodbridge, Va. "This was the first time all of these police and judicial leaders have gathered together for a regional conference."
After lunch, the attendees reconvened and divided into three groups.
One group discussed building ties between the formal and informal legal systems. In many remote areas of Afghanistan, local elders and community council members resolve disputes and pass judgment outside the formal legal system. The second group discussed improving public awareness of legal rights, and the third worked on improving cooperation among prosecutors, police and courts to reduce arbitrary detentions.
"The hope was to develop two or three suggestions for how to handle each of those problems, and to challenge the group to begin implementing them," Thurnher said. "They discussed ways to tackle some of the most challenging problems facing the legal systems of their provinces."
Army Capt. Craig Scrogham, a native of Richmond Hill, Ga., and Task Force Mountain Warrior's rule of law attorney, said the attendees also discussed a pilot program used in Kabul to track cases more effectively. Scrogham added that he hopes the program will be available in the area soon.
"The timing couldn't have been more perfect, because all the ministries joined together in Kabul the week after the conference and signed into law the use of this case-tracking system," he said.
"Although we certainly did not develop a comprehensive strategy with just one meeting, we took a great step toward increasing cooperation between the groups and developed some great ideas for making changes," Thurnher said.
"We have done training for rule of law before, but we have never brought all of these groups together for a session before," Scrogham said. "Training normally has been specific to police or to prosecutors or to [Rights] Department officials. Being able to talk to everyone at once was one of the primary benefits of this session."
(Army Pfc. Beth Raney serves in the Task Force Mountain Warrior public affairs office.)
Related Sites:
U.S. Forces Afghanistan
U.S. Forces Afghanistan on Twitter
U.S. Forces Afghanistan on Facebook
U.S. Forces Afghanistan on YouTube
Please don't come as Letterman to the office Halloween party, say lawyers
October 26, 2009
Link
What's going too far? Try the pumpkin-head Obama. Or the illegal-alien costume, an orange jumpsuit complete with a green card that has been surfacing online in recent weeks, roiling immigration groups and triggering protests. An anti-health-reform patient might also offend some people, particularly if someone carries around a sign that says, "Gimme, gimme, gimme."
"You might set some people off there," warned Steve Miller, of counsel to the Chicago office of Atlanta's Fisher & Phillips.
Miller is advising employers to send out an e-mail or memo in advance of Halloween reminding employees that they must use good taste and judgment when selecting costumes to wear to work or at the office party. Employees should be careful, for example, in dressing up as the first African-American president or the first Hispanic woman to be named a Supreme Court justice, he said.
Miller advised employers to ban anything that is sexually provocative, carries a political or social message, or is simply inappropriate for interacting with colleagues and clientele. And don't be afraid to punish the employee who goes too far. "Employees who — in spite of direction by the employer — appear in inappropriate costumes, should be disciplined," he said.
Scandals in the current headlines are other likely sources of inappropriate workplace costumes, said Shanti Atkins, a former employment lawyer at Littler Mendelson and current president of ELT Inc., which specializes in ethics and compliance training for employers.
For instance, Atkins predicted many men will dress as David Letterman, talk jokingly about workplace sex and even pretend to hit on female co-workers — a potential sexual harassment concern, she warned.
Atkins also noted that acceptable costumes from years past might not work this year. For example, a suggestion four years ago to wear a "pink slip" over clothing and chase co-workers around might not be funny given the current unemployment rate.
