The 3rd regional Conference on ” Strengthening Capacities on Combating Transnational Organized Crime, with a focus on Illicit Narcotics, Human Trafficking and Money Laundering ” took place in Thakhaek, Khammouane province, from 28-30 August 2019, concluding a nationwide series of Conferences.
Mr. Xaysana Khotphouthone, Deputy Prosecutor General of Lao PDR, highlighted in his opening speech that “organized crime is a highly important topic to treat, law enforcement agencies have to be ready to cope with this issue that is threatening the citizens as well as the wellbeing and security of a country as a whole.”
President of ILSTA, Mr. Richard Philippart, underlined that “Laos has now the legislative tools, a Penal code, a criminal procedure code, an Anti-money laundering law, a law on narcotics, a law on human trafficking, but the enforcement of these law remains of major importance, to combat organized crime and to protect society, but also in the view of the upcoming APG evaluations “
The 3rd regional Conference held in Thakhaek brought together public authorities from the Southern Provinces, namely Khammouane, Champasak, Salavan, Savannakhet, Attapeu and Sekong. More than 100 officials comprising prosecutors, judiciary and law enforcement agencies from both central and provincial authorities, as well as international experts from ILSTA, Canada and the University of Luxembourg contributed.
The 3-day Conference discussed important topics of concern, namely types of organized crime, money laundering and financial investigation, and human trafficking.
Specific working sessions were dedicated to practical exercises and hands on experiences shared by experts and participants, in particular on financial investigations, a particularly important topic which is preoccupying the Lao authorities in the context of the soon approaching FATF evaluation, set for 2020.
ILSTA (is proud to announce that during the three Regional Conferences, it shared more than 98 hours of workshop, involving more than 400 civil servants and representatives of key institutions in Laos, and distributed over 700 copies of Technical guides on the newly adopted Penal Codes and Criminal Procedure Laws, as well as other training materials.
The North, Central, and South Conferences also served as a Nationwide Forum for representatives of judiciary, policy and law enforcement institutions. It helped facilitate the sharing of best practices and lessons learned, besides supporting coordination and policy development.
The fruitful outcome of the three Conferences are testament to the successful cooperation between OSPP and ILSTA, and sets new goals for joint events and conferences to come.
The conference was supported by the Ministry of Finance from Luxembourg, Luxembourgs’ Development Cooperation and the Government of Canada.
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