Interpol’s 19th Asian Regional Conference ended with calls for greater international co-operation and co-ordination to combat corruption.
Delegates also proposed that the Interpol General Secretariat make fighting corruption one of the organisation’s priority crime areas, which could include creating an Interpol Anti-Corruption Academy. The suggestion will now be go for consideration by the Executive Committee, which next meets in May.
The recommendation was one of a series approved by more than 160 senior police officials from 35 countries at the meeting to address policing issues in the Asian region.
President says
Interpol President Jackie Selebi said: "Interpol’s unique role in policing also means we have unique responsibilities, one of which is to ensure that standards are created and upheld, especially in terms of corruption, for which there is no place either in law enforcement or society as a whole. I welcome the Asian region’s commitment to fighting corruption and am sure that the rest of our member countries will also support us in this important work."
Other recommendations from the three-day conference include:
enhancing regional and international co-operation in fugitive investigations
encouraging countries which have not yet established specialised structures to fight terrorism to do so as soon as possible
expanding access to Interpol’s databases beyond the National Central Bureaus to frontline law enforcement, including border checkpoints and airports.
Delegates at the conference also called on Interpol’s General Secretariat to support security preparations for large-scale events in the region including the 2006 Asian Games and 2008 Olympic Games, through the Command and Co-ordination Centre in Lyon and deployment of Interpol Incident Response Teams (IRTs).
What they say
Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said: "This conference has highlighted many important issues, not just for police in Asia, but for the global law enforcement community. It is through the co-operation and co-ordination promoted at this conference that fugitives will be brought to justice, we will stop terrorists crossing borders and we will win the fight against corruption. Our National Central Bureaus have already achieved significant results in tackling all forms of criminality, and with support from governments to expand access to our databases, we can ensure the information which assists our NCBs also reaches the police on the streets."
