The Representatives of the Participant Countries Have Agreed in the Urgency to Ratify The

STUDY TOUR FOR THE PORTUGUESE SPEAKING COUNTRIES ON THE RATIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION AND ADDICIONAL PROTOCOLS AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME AND THE UN UNIVERSAL JURIDICAL INSTRUMENTS TO FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

The representatives of Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Principe, Timor Leste and Special Administrative Region of Macau, participants of the Study Tour, have agreed on the following:

Conclusions and Recommendations

1- the representatives of the participant countries have agreed on the urgency to ratify the examined juridical instruments- The Convention against Transnational Organized crime and the additional protocols, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punished Trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants and the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, as well as the conventional instruments of the United Nations against terrorism. These instruments represent an appropriate frame for international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters not only between the participant countries in this action but also with the rest of the countries that are part of the above mentioned documents.

2- the representatives of the countries present in this study tour recognize the importance for the convention to serve as a legal basis to extradition, and agree that this should be recommended to the authorities of their own countries at the time of the deposit of the instrument of ratification.

3- they recognize also the need to encourage the celebration of bilateral agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between the States and the RAEM.

4- they recognize as well the need to ratify the agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters within the CPLP, yet in project.

5- they detect that the majority of the States here represented does not have satisfactory domestic legislation on the practice of acts of mutual legal assistance, therefore they sense the need to create adequate legislative and administrative structures and supports.

6- they recognize the need to arrange in the way that they find alternatives to the diplomatic channels in order to speed the compliance of the requests of mutual legal assistance and police cooperation between these states.

7- they consider essential to hasten internal mutual legal assistance instruments in criminal matters both within the States and the RAEM, namely the proceedings of extradition and legal assistance. They believe that they can achieve this thought the appointment of central authorities in the way defined by the Palermo Convention and the creation of an informal net of focal points integrated either by the representatives present in this Study Tour or by individuals designated by them with a view to active intermediation in the fulfilment of the requests on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.

8- They recognize the need to improve the instruments of mutual legal assistance and police cooperation in such a way that these instruments develop both the efforts of prevention and investigation, bearing in mind the trial of the crimes that the Palermo Convention and the additional protocols refers to, as well as the United Nations instruments against terrorism.

9- they agree that the difficulties of the participant countries, namely as what is refer to the ratification and/or implementation within the domestic law, can be solved with the aid of the United Nation, the CPLP and the Portuguese speaking countries and regions with experience in this matters.

10- they recognize the importance of this Study Tour and the need to see its purposes followed, ensuring a narrow connexion between the participants.

11- the representatives of the UN promise to present these Conclusions and recommendations to the competent authorities of the UNODC in order to make the answering of the requests of technical assistance in the areas of training and institutional strengthening possible.