Transnational Organized Crime Overview

Transnational organized crime fuels crime in Canada; its adverse impacts touch all Canadians.  It is important to look beyond our borders to countries where threats to Canada originate.  Crime prevented and combated abroad does not hit Canadian streets. At Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we provide tangible capacity building to source countries where threats to Canada originate.  We take active leadership in international fora to develop legal instruments, share best practices and set standards to combat transnational organized crime.  The core pillars of our activities to counter transnational organized crime include policy and programming on: drugs and counter-narcotics, trafficking in persons and irregular migration, corruption and economic crime (including money laundering).

There are many international legal instruments on crime, drugs and now corruption.  These instruments guide our own domestic policy direction and also help us in encouraging foreign governments in the fight against organized crime. Canada ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNCTOC) and its Protocols on Smuggling in Migrants and Trafficking in Persons in May 2002, and is committed to their implementation.  We have signed the Protocol against Illicit Manufacturing of Firearms.  More recently, Canada signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and is taking positive steps towards ratification and implementation.  Canada encourages other countries to ratify and implement their legal obligations under these international instruments.

Canada is one of 40 members of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, where experts from around the world gather to discuss ways to tackle global and emerging crime issues, such as urban crime, gangs, sexual exploitation of children, criminal justice reform and trafficking in persons.  Canada’s international profile on economic crime has also become more prominent given our role in chairing the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which provides the global standard for money laundering.

At a regional level, Canada contributes to ongoing dialogues on organized crime at fora such as the G8, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Organization for American States.  Security in the hemisphere continues to be a priority.  The illicit drug trade fuels organized crime networks, money laundering, corruption and other manifestations of transnational organized crime.  Canada has worked with our partners to develop tools to combat these emerging transnational organized crime issues in the hemisphere, including through the negotiation of a Hemispheric Plan of Action Against Transnational Organized Crime, which was finalized in October 2006.

Bilateral cooperation with the US on transnational organized crime is pursued through a myriad of bilateral mechanisms, including the Cross Border Crime Forum.  A bilateral assessment related to trafficking in persons was released in November 2006. (Web link).  Efforts are being made to trilateralize some activities with Mexico under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership

At DFAIT, we understand that declarations are not enough and must be accompanied by meaningful action.  We underscore our foreign policy priorities with programming and projects that further our objectives.  Canada provides funding to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to provide capacity building to countries in need of assistance to implement their international obligations.  For example, we have combated economic crime in Western Africa, raised awareness of human trafficking in South-East Asia and provided training to law enforcement personnel on counter-narcotics investigations.  Through the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission, Canada has supported workshops on substance abuse prevention in some countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America.  Finally, through the Human Security Program, Canada has prevented crime and violence through work with youth gangs in El Salvador. 

DFAIT remains committed to working with our domestic and international partners to effectively deal with the complex challenges posed by international crime and drugs around the world and at home. The International Crime and Drugs Section at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is responsible for Canada’s international engagement on a variety of issues, the details of which can be found on this website.