Cooperation of states in the fight against international crime. Report: International cooperation in the fight against crime International cooperation in the fight against crime through non-governmental organizations
Internationalization and globalization of modern life has not only positive, but also negative consequences. Among them is crime and the spread of its typical patterns, tendencies and forms to various regions and countries. And this requires uniting efforts to combat crime, since it is practically impossible to counteract its transnational component at the level of individual states.
International cooperation in the fight against crime, in turn, needs legal, organizational and scientific support.
After World War II, when both national and transnational crime began to grow rapidly, the criminological situation in the world, and especially in the North American and European regions, required urgent concerted action. Expansion of international cooperation in this area has become inevitable. And it can be carried out only in the presence of coordinating international organizations. This function was assumed by the UN, Interpol, and non-governmental international organizations.
United Nations established in October 1945. According to the Charter, it is entrusted with the responsibility for international cooperation between states in all urgent problems... One of the main bodies of the United Nations, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is directly involved in the issues of cooperation between countries in the fight against crime, within the structure of which the Committee of Experts on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders was established in 1950. In 1971, it was transformed into the Committee for the Prevention and Control of Crime, in 1993 - into a higher status body - Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
The commission (committee) submits to ECOSOC recommendations and proposals aimed at a more effective fight against crime and humane treatment of offenders. In addition, the General Assembly entrusted this body with the functions of preparing once every 5 years UN Congresses on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.
The UN congresses play a pivotal role in the development of international rules, standards and recommendations for crime prevention and criminal justice. By now there have been
10 congresses were held, the decisions of which significantly advanced the issues of international cooperation on a reliable scientific and legal basis.
UN Congresses were held:
The first one was in Geneva in 1955; The second at the invitation of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - in London in 1960; The third at the invitation of the Swedish government - in Stockholm in 1965; The fourth at the invitation of the Government of Japan - - in Kyoto in 1970; The fifth took place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva in 1975; The sixth at the invitation of the Venezuelan government - in Caracas in 1980; Seventh at the invitation of the Italian government - in Milan in 1985; Eighth at the invitation of the Government of Cuba - in Havana in 1990; Ninth at the invitation of the Egyptian government - in Cairo in 1995; The tenth took place at the Vienna International Center in Vienna in 2000.
The first congresses allowed the UN to play a key role in the development, adoption and implementation of important international legal instruments that summarize the application of criminal justice norms and standards.
From a huge list of such documents, we will name only a few:
Standard Minimum Rules of Treatment adopted by the First Congress
with prisoners who were developed in a General Assembly resolution
in 1990 and in the appendix to it, where the main principles were formulated
how prisoners are treated;
The Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials
was considered at the Fifth Congress and after appropriate revision in 1973.
was adopted by the General Assembly;
Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
degrading treatment and punishment, which was discussed
at the Fifth Congress and on his recommendation in 1975, General
Assembly.
The Sixth - - Ninth Congresses were especially productive.
At the Sixth Congress, the Caracas Declaration was adopted, which stated that the success of the criminal justice system and strategies for the prevention of crime, especially in the face of the spread of new and unusual forms of criminal behavior, depends primarily on progress in improving social conditions and improving the quality of life. therefore, there is a need for a revision of crime control strategies based solely on legal criteria. From this Congress, criminological issues begin to expand consistently.
The Sixth Congress adopted some 20 resolutions and other decisions related to crime prevention strategies
prevention of abuse of power, minimum standards of justice and juvenile justice, guidelines for the independence of judges, legal awareness and dissemination of legal knowledge, etc.
At the Seventh Congress, the Milan Action Plan was adopted, which stated that crime was a serious problem nationally and internationally. It impedes the political, economic, social and cultural development of peoples and endangers human rights, fundamental freedoms, as well as peace, stability and security.
In the adopted documents, governments were recommended to give priority to crime prevention, to intensify cooperation among themselves on bilateral and multilateral basis, develop criminological research, pay special attention to the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, ensure broad public participation in crime prevention.
Congress has adopted more than 25 resolutions, including: UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (the "Beijing Rules"); The Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power; Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, etc.
The following topics were discussed at the Eighth Congress:
Crime prevention and criminal justice;
Criminal justice policy;
Effective national and international action to combat organisation
bathroom crime and terrorist criminal activity;
Youth crime prevention, juvenile justice and youth protection;
UN Standards and Guidelines on Crime Prevention
and criminal justice.
At this Congress, the most big number resolutions - 35. We will name only a few of them: international cooperation in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice; the UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh Principles); urban crime prevention; organized crime prevention; the fight against terrorist activities, corruption in the field government controlled; basic principles for the treatment of prisoners; international and interregional cooperation in the field of prison management.
The Ninth Congress discussed four topics:
- international cooperation in the field crime prevention and criminal justice;
Measures to combat national and transnational economic and
called crime;
Management and improvement of the work of the police and other law enforcement bodies
investigative bodies, prosecutors, courts, correctional institutions;
Crime prevention strategies.
Congress adopted 11 resolutions, including: recommendations on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders; proposals for the adoption of a convention against organized crime; about children as victims and perpetrators of crimes; about violence against women; on the regulation of the circulation of firearms in order to prevent crime and ensure public safety.
Due to the lack of funds at the UN, the Congress was short. It was decided that the main work to improve the documents proposed and discussed at the Congress will be carried out by the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, ECOSOC and the General Assembly, formed before the Congress. Because of this, the decisions of the Congress were largely consultative in nature.
Tenth Congress discussed four themes: strengthening the rule of law and strengthening the criminal justice system; international cooperation in the fight against transnational crime: new challenges in the XXI century; effective crime prevention: keeping up with the latest advances; offenders and victims: accountability and fairness in the administration of justice. Congress adopted the Vienna Declaration on Crime and Justice: Responding to the Challenges of the 21st Century 1.
The shortest and most selective list of issues that were discussed at the past congresses shows how important they were in developing optimal and effective approaches for international cooperation and improvement. national routes the fight against crime and its prevention. The congresses have repeatedly addressed some difficult issues, each time coordinating new solutions with the real criminological situation in the world.
The UN ECOSOC also has a Commission on Narcotic Drugs and a Sub-Commission on Illicit Drug Trade -
1 See: V.V. Luneev Tenth UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, its place in the history of congresses // State and Law. 2000. No. 9. S. 95-100.
mi, the Special Committee on International Terrorism, the International Council for the Control of Narcotic Drugs, formed on the basis of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961. All of them, in parallel with other UN entities, are solving the problem of cooperation between states in the fight against certain types of transnational crime. Great scientific research work conducted by UN institutions or associated with the UN: UNICRI (United Nations International Crime and Justice Research Institute, Rome, Italy), HEUNI (European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, associated with the United Nations, Helsinki, Finland), UNAFRI (United Nations African Institute on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Kampala, Uganda), UNAFEI (United Nations Asia-Pacific Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Tokyo, Japan), ILANUD (United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, San Jose, Costa Rica) and others 1.
Traditional forms of international cooperation are combined with broad international conferences and other events on complex and topical issues.
Let's turn to one of them - - to the problem organized crime. It has been consistently being addressed for over twenty years. It was first discussed at the Fifth Congress, where it was recognized that crime in the form of international business is a more serious problem than traditional forms of criminal behavior. She was then approached by the Sixth Congress, expressing concern about organized criminals who are out of the reach of the law. The Seventh Congress discussed the issue of the use of gaps in the legislation of various countries by organized crime. The Eighth Congress adopted guidelines for the prevention and control of organized crime. They were supported by the General Assembly in a resolution on international cooperation in the fight against organized crime.
Various aspects of this problem were discussed by experts from the UN, Interpol and non-governmental organizations at a meeting in Czechoslovakia (Smolenich, May 1991), at an international seminar in Russia (Suzdal, October 1991) and an international conference "Mafia, what is to be done?" in Italy (Palermo, 1992).
1 See: A World Directory of Criminological Institutes. 6th ed. UNICRI. Rome, 1995 / P. 1-51.
Of particular importance was the World Ministerial Conference on Organized Transnational Crime (Naples, 1994), where issues were discussed about the danger of organized crime in different regions of the world and the adequacy of the legislation on the basis of which the fight against it is carried out in different countries; effective forms of cooperation in the fight against organized crime; on the principles of the prevention of organized crime and the advisability of adopting a convention against it.
These materials were presented to the Ninth Congress, at which the question of the possible adoption of a UN convention and its specific content was discussed. Discussion materials are being integrated into the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and other UN bodies.
Similar work is being carried out on international cooperation in the fight against the illegal distribution of drugs, weapons, international corruption and other transnational types of crime, as well as on cooperation in the field of environmental security 1.
Among the subjects of an important and difficult work for the cooperation in question, it is necessary to highlight non-governmental organizations, having consultative status with the UN. it International Association Criminal Law (IAPM), International Criminological Society (ICS), International Society social protection(MoEF) and the International Criminal and Penitentiary Fund (FIPF).
Their work is coordinated by the International Coordination Committee (ICC), commonly referred to as the “Committee of Four”. He synthesizes all major research and works in contact with the UN Vienna Center. It has been in effect since 1960, and legally since 1982.
Joint actions of four international organizations seriously influence the international policy of the United Nations in the field of combating crime. The activities of the Committee of Four are primarily related to the plan for the functioning of the international community in preparation for the UN congresses. He has a consultative status with ECOSOC, and also prepares colloquia, coordinates the work of associations, together with UN centers invites other international organizations to cooperate, advises the UN Fund for Combating Abuse.
1 See: Compilation of UN Standards and Norms in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. UN. New York, 1992; Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. UN. New York, 1990; Report of the Ninth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. A / CONF. 169 / 16.1995, May 12; Criminal Justice: Problems of International Cooperation. M, 1995; and etc.
drug use, collaborates with the World Society of Victimology and the World Federation for Mental Health.
Many new aspects of the fight against crime and the treatment of offenders, before reaching the level of global international cooperation, were discussed and tested in the ICC and the organizations coordinated by it: IAPM, MCO, MOSZ, MUPF.
The International Association of Criminal Law was founded in 1924. It studies crime, its causes and means of combating it, is engaged in comparative criminal law research, organizes (every 5 years) international congresses on criminal law problems, advises the UN, UNESCO and other international organizations.
The Association publishes the journal International Criminal Law Review, which publishes relevant research on national and international criminal law. The Higher International Institute of Criminal Law Sciences operates under the auspices of the association.
The International Criminological Society was founded in 1934 and is directly involved in ensuring cooperation in the fight against crime. It brings together national institutions and criminologists. ICE has consultative status with ECOSOC, UN and UNESCO. It cooperates with other international organizations.
MCO studies the causes of crime at the international level, organizes criminological congresses, seminars, colloquia, publishes their materials, assists national criminological institutes, establishes and awards scholarships and awards to stimulate criminological science.
MCO held 11 international congresses: 1st congress - - in Rome in 1938; 2nd - - in Paris in 1950, where criminology was recognized as a scientific discipline; 3rd - - in London in 1955, which discussed the problems of recidivism; 4th - - in The Hague in 1960, which was devoted to the problems of psychopathology of criminal behavior; 5th - - in Montreal in 1965, where a comparative analysis of the sociological and biological branches of criminological science was carried out; 6th - - in Madrid in 1970, investigating the problems of methodology in criminology; 7th - - in Belgrade in 1973, which reviewed the main criminological trends; 8th - - in Lisbon in 1978, the program of which was free; 9th - - in Vienna in 1983, focusing on the relationship of criminology, political science and sociology and on the relationship between clinical and sociological directions in criminology; 10th - - in Hamburg in 1988, where the perspectives of criminology, the state of crime and strategy
Guy fight her; 11th - - in Budapest in 1993, examining socio-political change and crime in Eastern and Central Europe.
MCO organizes international criminological courses in various countries of the world. The first courses were organized in Paris in 1952. Now there are about 50 of them and they are organized in all regions of the world.
A similar work in their profile is carried out by the MOSZ and the MUPF.
A special place in international cooperation is International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), which was established in 1923 in Vienna, initially as an international commission of the criminal police. It was revived after the Second World War in 1946 in Paris, and since 1989 its seat is Lyon.
From a non-governmental organization, Interpol has turned into an intergovernmental organization and currently unites more than 170 states, second only in representativeness to the UN, of which about 180 states are members.
The supreme body of Interpol is the General Assembly, whose sessions are held once a year. The Executive Committee of Interpol is formed from representatives of the regions. The secretariat is a permanent apparatus. For the scientific study of documents, there is an institute of advisers.
Unlike other international organizations, Interpol has national central bureaus (NCBs) in each country.
According to the statute, Interpol ensures and develops mutual cooperation of criminal police bodies within the framework of the laws in force in their countries, creates and develops institutions that can contribute to the prevention of criminal offenses. His main work is to organize cooperation on specific criminal cases by receiving, analyzing and transmitting information from the NCB and for them.
Each NCB maintains constant contacts with its law enforcement agencies, and at the international level - with NCBs of other countries and with the General Secretariat of Interpol.
Interpol deals primarily with international crime. Its main focus is on crimes under international conventions, drug trafficking, organized transnational crime. But any crime committed by "guest performers" can fall into the category of international ones.
The General Secretariat keeps records of international criminals, their documents, statistical and research work, development
There are proposals to improve international and national legislation.
An example is the cooperation of Interpol with the UN and the International Civil Aviation Organization to develop security measures for hijacking and hijacking of aircraft by criminals. This work resulted in the adoption of the Hague (1970) and Montreal (1971) conventions on the safety of civil aviation. They provided for a system of preventive measures on the ground and in the air. Since the entry into force of these conventions, the number of aircraft hijackings has almost halved.
The UN and other international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations are making serious efforts to organize and implement the best ways of effective international cooperation in the prevention and fight against crime. They own colossal data banks, regulatory materials, data from criminological and criminal-legal, criminal-political research, which can be used by each country in order to more effectively combat national and transnational crime.
In the USSR, the positive experience of the capitalist countries, as a rule, was rejected for ideological reasons. Nowadays, nothing prevents the use of the rich world experience and international opportunities. In this regard, a number of activities are carried out - seminars, book translations, exchange of trainees, preparation of reference materials for the legislator, etc.
However, using experience is not a one-way street. A number of "findings" of domestic science and practice in the field of combating juvenile delinquency, forms and methods of crime prevention, interaction between the population and law enforcement agencies, etc. found reflection in the above-mentioned international documents, adopted by the practice of combating crime in a number of countries.
Control questions:
1. History of comparative study and analysis of crime.
2. World trends in crime and the fight against it.
3. Biological and biosocial theories of the causes of crime.
4. Sociological theories of the causes of crime.
5. International cooperation in the fight against crime (through
UN, Interpol and non-governmental international organizations
tions).
The international fight against crime is one of the many areas of cooperation between states. Like all cooperation, it develops on a single basis of the basic or general principles of their communication historically formed in international law. These principles discipline cooperation, subordinate the rules and procedures of interaction between states in all areas, since they are endowed with the property of imperativeness.
As the highest criterion of legality, they serve as a normative basis for law-making and law-enforcement process in all spheres of cooperation between states, including in their joint fight against criminal crime. The basic principles form the foundation of the international legal order, which is created and maintained by the state. The very level of the rule of law depends on the degree of their recognition of these principles, following their instructions.
The most authoritative international legal documents, where they were first collected, were the Charter of the United Nations, adopted in 1945, as well as a special document with the long title "Declaration of Principles international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation between states in accordance with the UN Charter "adopted in 1970. The Declaration called on states" to be guided by them in international activities and develop their relationships based on strict adherence to them.
In both documents 7 principles are named. Now there are more of them. The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, signed in 1975 in Helsinki by all countries of the continent of those years, as well as the United States and Canada (35 states in total), named ten principles. The first five: non-use of force and threat of force, inviolability of state borders, territorial integrity of states, peaceful settlement conflicts, equality and the right of peoples to control their own destiny are united in a common group of principles that ensure peace and security on Earth.
In the above list, each of the ten principles is strong in its interconnectedness with all the others: “the weakening of the unity of the basic principles undermines their effectiveness as a whole. Only in unity, in close interaction, can they function properly.
References to general principles — all together or two or three of them — are found in many such agreements. For example, the preamble to the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, signed in Rome on March 10, 1988, calls for strict adherence to the general principles of international law. The UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, adopted in the same year, states that "... the parties shall fulfill their obligations under this Convention in accordance with the principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of states and the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states "(Article 2, Part 2).
Three of the general principles, namely cooperation, non-interference in each other's internal affairs and respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms, must be considered, since they operate in the field of international cooperation in the fight against crime not only as general, but also as special.
General principles of international law in cooperation between states in the fight against crime.
The principle of cooperation between states is codified in the above-mentioned 1970 Declaration, where its normative content is disclosed as follows: "States are obliged to cooperate with each other, regardless of the differences in their political, economic and social systems, in various fields international relations with the aim of maintaining international peace and security and promoting economic stability and progress, the general welfare of peoples ... ".
This also applies to cooperation between states in the fight against crime. Although criminality does not pose a fatal threat to the security of states and to the world in general, nevertheless, for each of them it is a huge evil. Recall, for example, that American presidents, beginning with Lyndon Johnson, who first named crime America's # 1 problem in a 1967 message to Congress, repeat the same assessment every year.
Based on polls public opinion, crime is now turning into a similar problem in Russia. Crime has also reached alarming proportions in many other countries. Each of them spends a lot of effort and money to contain it. But it cannot be otherwise. Otherwise, crime, especially transnational crime, can crush or subjugate all state institutions, take on universal proportions and forms, establish its own power and its laws in the world.
According to Interpol estimates, at present political regimes in 11 countries of the world may fall under the pressure of the drug mafia.
States are trying to resist crime together through constant and constructive cooperation. There is no other alternative. Therefore, cooperation between states in the fight against crime even without the prescriptions of the principle in question has long acquired the character of an immutable imperative. This is confirmed by the large number of bilateral and multilateral treaties concluded by states on the fight against crime, the total number of which today can no longer be counted.
Some researchers of crime deny the obligation of international cooperation in the fight against it. Indeed, with the exception of an insignificant number of types of crimes, such as maritime piracy, pirate radio broadcasting from the high seas and some others, committed, as they say, in "no man's" (neutral) territory - in international waters, all other crimes are committed within the boundaries of territorial jurisdiction any particular state. Each of them, without the help of other states, is able to find, expose and punish the culprit (if, of course, he wants to do this and if he can be “caught”), that is, if he has not disappeared abroad. If the act committed by him does not pose a great danger, the state can generally refuse to prosecute and punish the perpetrator.
To follow or not to follow in such cases the principle of "inevitability of responsibility for the committed crime" is an internal affair of each state. However, states always strive not to leave those who have committed a serious crime unpunished, even if for this it is necessary to turn to other countries for help.
The increase in the number of such cases in the world practice of combating crime has turned such cooperation from an optional into a "pressing need" Sielaff W. Interpol - Europole - "Kriminalistik" (Hamburg). 1974. No. 7. S. 304.
A similar conviction was expressed in the preamble to the European Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Sentences, signed in 1970 in The Hague by the member states of the European Council, in which they noted that "... the fight against crime is beginning to grow into an international problem."
The principles of non-interference of states in the internal affairs of each other.
Cooperation of states in the fight against crime is steadily expanding due to the inclusion of new problems requiring their joint regulation. The object of such regulation is also certain issues traditionally attributed to the "internal affairs" of states, but in the solution of which all of them (or most of them) turned out to be extremely interested.
Proceeding from their own sovereignty, states themselves determine what exactly from the sphere of their "internal affairs" their own competence and within what limits can and should be transferred to international regulation. At the same time, "states refrain from making the object of the treaty issues that are exclusively the internal competence of states"
1. Each state determines for itself the problems and directions of cooperation with other countries, the legal and organizational forms in which it is ready to support it, the volume of its participation in each of the forms.
2. States also themselves determine the volume of obligations assumed under each concluded treaty, fixing this by introducing reservations into it.
For example, the USSR, when signing the 1970 Hague Convention on Combating Seizure of Aircraft, made a clause on non-recognition of the compulsory jurisdiction of the UN International Court of Justice in possible disputes between two or more states concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention (Article 12) Vedomosti of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ... 1971. N 327. Art. 12, items 1 and 2.
3. Even decisions taken in the fight against crime within the framework of international organizations - for example: UN, ICAO, The World Organization Health (WHO) or Interpol - do not have the character of interference in their internal affairs for states, since they have only a recommendatory character in their legal force.
Let us now turn to the treaties that shape the policies and practices of states in their joint fight against crime.
Above, we have divided these contracts into two groups:
a) treaties, or more correctly, multilateral conventions on the fight against certain types of crimes;
b) treaties, mainly bilateral (there are only a few multilateral agreements of this type), regulating the procedural institutions of cooperation - legal assistance in criminal cases, extradition, departmental (administrative) assistance (see below about them).
Each of the treaties of the first or second group, in its own way, refrains from interfering in the internal competence of the participating countries.
The principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states as the main provision of this policy is formulated in the treaties of the first group. So, in Article 18 of the International Convention on the Suppression of Counterfeiting of Banknotes it is said that "... this Convention leaves unaffected the principle that the actions provided for in Article 3 (the actions falling within the scope of the Convention are determined. - Approx. By the author), must be qualified, prosecuted and tried in each country in accordance with the general rules of its domestic law. "
Each of the conventions of the first group has a mandatory article containing variants of the same rule. We will cite it as it is filed, for example, in paragraph 4 of article 36 of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961: "Nothing contained in this article affects the principle that the crimes to which it relates are determined, prosecuted and punished by the Party in accordance the internal law of this Party ".
A norm similar in content and almost identical in formulation is also found in the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Vienna, 1988) - Article 3, paragraph 11: "Nothing in this article affects the principle that the description of the offenses referred to is within the competence of each party's national law and that such offenses are prosecuted and punished in accordance with that law. "
In a different way, but the same rule is formulated in Article 7 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (The Hague, 1970), which states that the criminal prosecution of persons who have committed an offense provided for by the Convention is carried out "in accordance with the law this state". The same rule exists in the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Montreal, 1971). In both Conventions, the considered norm is contained in Article 7.
Article 10 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (Rome, 1988) states that the criminal prosecution of persons who have committed any of the crimes named in it is carried out "in accordance with the legislation of this state."
The same rule is in the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism (Strasbourg, 1977) (Article 7), as well as in the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages (Article 8, paragraph 1).
So, in the international fight against crime, the principle of non-interference in internal affairs is manifested primarily in the fact that: a) each of the states participating in cooperation, while maintaining it, relies on its own legislation; b) noticeably limits the possibility of contractual norms to invade national legislation.
This is also expressed in the fact that the norms of the agreements of the first group, which form the criminal - legal basis for cooperation in the fight against crime, by their design (structure) are incomplete and unprepared for their use for practical purposes. For this they do not even have a sanction, without which no norm of a repressive nature can be considered complete. States parties must first finalize and finalize the conventions and only then introduce them into their domestic criminal legislation. Only after such a legislative procedure can the norms of international law be implemented "within the territorial supremacy of states where national law functions." As a result of this procedure, they are transformed from international norms into norms of the state's internal law - criminal or criminal procedure.
Thus, the entry into force on the territory of the state of norms that are not completed in their design requires on the part of each of them additional rule-making and the adoption of a special legal act that turns an unaddressed international norm into a norm of internal criminal law addressed to the subjects of the relevant domestic relations. This result is achieved through the issuance of a legal act by the state, which introduces an appropriate amendment or addition to its criminal legislation.
As for the treaties of the second group, they go even further in protecting their sovereignty from outside interference.
The treaties of this group regulate only the procedures, the procedure for maintaining contacts between countries on specific cases of providing legal assistance in criminal cases, extradition, and the provision of departmental assistance. The conditions of cooperation, the procedure and channels for sending requests, the language in which the request sent abroad and the response to it are written are determined, possible reasons for refusing to provide legal assistance in criminal cases, extradition of accused and criminals, and provision of departmental (administrative) assistance are specified.
The norms of the treaties of this group (with rare exceptions) practically do not require additional rule-making from the signatory states. They are self-executable and in their self-fulfillment do not affect the internal interests of states, do not intrude into the sphere of their internal competence and internal affairs.
The principle of respect for human rights and freedoms - "the obligation of states to respect and observe these rights without any discrimination in relation to all persons who are in the sphere of their jurisdiction, that is, to whom their power extends"
The first place of legal acts is taken by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 Text of the Covenant. See: Collection key documents in international law. Part 1., General. M., 1996. S. 143 - 163 (or Bulletin of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. 1976. N 17. Art. 291). It was proclaimed "as a task to be achieved by all peoples and all states in order ... to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and to ensure ... universal and effective recognition and implementation (from the Preamble to the Declaration)".
Collection of the most important documents on international law. Part 1, General. M., p.96 - 102, and also: Collection of standards and norms of the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice. Ed. UN. New York, 1992.S. 275 - 279.
According to article 5, paragraph 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966<*>"no limitation or derogation of any fundamental human rights ... is permitted." This norm forms the foundation on which all other norms must function. All others should count from the requirement of this norm. Therefore, it is not surprising that many norms of the Covenant itself and other international legal documents have something in common with it.
In both cited documents there is a norm directly addressed to the police, police and criminal justice authorities. This is Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "no one can be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." Article 9 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is similar in content, but more detailed: “Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one can be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.
No one should be deprived of his liberty other than on such grounds and in accordance with such a procedure as are established by law. "
Further, paragraph 2 of this article states that "everyone who is arrested must be informed of the reasons for his arrest and the nature of the charge. The arrested or detained on a criminal charge must be promptly brought before a judge or other official exercising local judicial power."
In the criminal process of many Western countries, the preliminary investigation bodies are endowed with broad powers to apply preventive measures. The police also enjoy greater rights of detention. The length of police detention is not regulated in many countries. However, the final decision on pre-trial detention falls within the competence of the judges.
Article 9 of the Covenant introduces the concept of a "reasonable time" during which an arrested person (or detainee) has the right to have his case resolved or to be released. At the same time, as follows from the text of the same article, the detention of persons awaiting such proceedings “should not be the general rule”. But the release can also be made dependent on the presentation of guarantees to appear before the investigating authorities, the court, or for the execution of the court's verdict.
In accordance with paragraph 4 of the same Article 9, everyone "who is deprived of liberty due to arrest or detention" has the right to demand a trial of his case, so that it is the court that can immediately decide the issue of the legality of his detention and order his release if detention is illegal.
And finally, the last provision of article 9 of the Covenant, which is practically unfamiliar to Russian justice: "everyone who has been a victim of unlawful arrest or detention has the right to compensation that is enforceable." Such a norm, introduced into the legislation of a number of countries, of course, is not able to stop law enforcement officials from illegal arrests or taking into custody, since compensation is made not at the expense of officials, but from state budget funds. And yet, the presence of such a rule in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as in the legislation of countries, allows victims of illegal arrests or detentions to hope at least for compensation for the moral and physical suffering caused to them.
A prominent place in the international legal acts under consideration is also assigned to the protection of the rights of persons brought before a court.
According to article 14 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all people are equal before courts and tribunals. Everyone has the right to fairness and a public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal.
Everyone accused of a criminal offense has the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty according to the law by a court (presumption of innocence - Article 14, paragraph 2). When considering the charge brought against him, everyone has the right to be informed in detail, in a language that he understands, about the nature and grounds of the charge; have the time and opportunity to defend themselves and meet with the defender of his own choosing; to be tried in his presence, without undue delay, to use the help of a defense lawyer, even in the absence of funds to pay for his work; have the right to call their witnesses, as well as witnesses testifying against him; use the help of an interpreter if you do not know the language in which the process is being conducted; not be compelled to testify against oneself or to confess guilt.
The UN General Assembly in 1975 adopted a special Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Compilation of United Nations Standards and Norms in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Ed. UN. New York, 1992, pp. 259 - 260. But with the adoption of this Declaration as a non-binding document, the inhuman and criminal practice was not stopped. On December 10, 1984, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment.
The drafters of the Convention took into account the diversity of actions, which in practice often mask torture and cruel treatment of detainees, suspects and prisoners. Therefore, in the very first article of the Convention, the concept of "torture" was defined: it is "any action by which a person is intentionally inflicted with severe pain or suffering, physical or mental, in order to obtain information or confessions from him or from a third party, punish him for an act that he or a third party has committed or is suspected of committing, as well as to intimidate or coerce him or a third party, or for any reason based on discrimination of any nature, when such pain or suffering is caused by a government or official or other person acting in an official capacity, or at their instigation, or with their knowledge or tacit consent. "
The convention obliged the signatory states to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial and other measures to prevent each of them. And at the same time firmly adhere to the position that "no exceptional circumstances, no matter how serious they may be, can serve as a justification for torture" (Article 2 of the Convention).
In Article 4, the Convention required states to consider all acts of torture as a crime. Attempts to use torture, complicity or participation in them are also punishable. Courts should not use evidence obtained under torture, unless it is necessary to do so against a person accused of torture.
According to Article 16 of the Convention, states must prevent on their territory any other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment that do not fall within the definition of torture given in Article 1 of the Convention, when such acts are committed by a public official acting as an official quality, or at their instigation, or with their knowledge or tacit consent.
Among the documents aimed at protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners deserve due attention. They were adopted at the I UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1955 in Geneva and approved by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Resolution ECOSOC 663 (XXIV) of July 31, 1957, 2076 (XII) of May 13, 1977 and 1984/47 dated May 25, 1984.
The problem of punishment and resocialization of convicts, including those sentenced to imprisonment, goes beyond the scope of our study. Nevertheless, these Rules should not only be named here, but also a number of their norms should be considered. And that's why. Contrary to their name, the Rules concern the detention of two categories of persons in places of isolation from society:
persons under arrest, investigation or awaiting trial, held either in police stations (pre-trial detention centers) or in prisons, but not as convicted persons. This category of persons is called in the Rules "under investigation prisoners" (Articles 84 - 93);
persons sentenced by a court to imprisonment. They are called "convicted prisoners" in the Rules.
The rules emphasize their different legal status: "remand prisoners", whose guilt either has not yet been established by the investigation, or has not been recognized by the court, must be kept under different conditions and regimes different from those of "convicted prisoners". This difference is clearly emphasized by the Rules: until a court verdict, they are "considered innocent" (Article 84, paragraph 2) and a special regime should be applied to them:
young (namely young, and not only minors. - Approx. our, G. N) prisoners should be kept separately from adults "and, in principle, in separate institutions."
The rules define other conditions that make the detention of "remand prisoners" different from that of convicted prisoners. In particular, they are allowed to receive food from relatives or to purchase it at their own expense, to wear their own clothes, and to purchase newspapers, books, writing utensils and other items with their own money that allow them to use their time usefully. But at the same time, the Rules contain a warning "not to forget about the safety and normal course of life in the institution" (Article 90).
Prisoners under investigation should be given the opportunity to work, and their work should be paid (Article 89). They are also allowed "within reasonable limits" to use the opportunity to communicate with relatives and friends, "enjoying an unblemished reputation" (Article 37), to receive them in prison, subject only to those restrictions and supervision that are necessary for the official administration of justice, compliance with the requirements safety and ensuring the normal operation of the institution (Article 92).
Each prisoner under investigation has the right to apply for free legal aid, to meet with a lawyer, and to hand him over confidential documents prepared by him. His meetings with a lawyer must take place in the presence, but outside the hearing of police or prison officials (Article 93).
All countries should implement the Standard Minimum Rules in their national legislation, and when implemented, they should be brought to the attention of each detainee every time he is placed in an appropriate institution during pre-trial detention.
In our opinion, there are four special principles to date:
1. Restriction of cooperation only in cases of crimes of a general criminal nature.
2. Inevitability of responsibility for the crime committed.
3. Humanity.
4. Execution of actions requested by foreign law enforcement agencies - procedural or operational - search - only in accordance with their national legislation.
Other special principles are also named in international treaties on combating crime. But at the same time, we are always talking about principles, the scope of which is limited by some institution of cooperation. For example, in extradition practice such principles are known as non-extradition of their own citizens, which are inapplicable to persons who have gone through the procedure for issuing capital punishment, etc. Regarding these principles, and these are really special principles, it should be noted that, firstly, we have already indicated above, they operate only in relation to one or two international legal institutions, and secondly, here, too, each of them is not generally recognized: some states follow them, others do not.
The principle of limiting cooperation only to cases of crimes of a general criminal nature. Cooperation in the fight against criminal offenses is carried out only for crimes that have received the name of common crimes abroad. This title covers the most significant part of the crimes that exist in the criminal law of countries. But they do not include a number of types of crime groups, primarily political or crimes, which were based on a political motive for their commission. Therefore, political crimes, as well as the persons who committed them, do not fall within the scope of international agreements of states on the joint fight against criminal crime.
Collaboration is also not supported on military crimes. And in Article 3 of the Charter of Interpol, in addition to the two named groups of crimes for which members of this organization should not render assistance to each other, there are also cases of racial and religious nature. Such crimes create very delicate situations in relations between countries. Therefore, the practice makes its own reasonable adjustments to their permission: it refuses to help in cases of a racial or religious nature only if their perpetrators were guided exclusively by political motives, the crimes were of an explicit or latent political nature.
The principle of inevitability of responsibility for a committed offense is accepted in the criminal justice of all countries as a necessary condition for maintaining the spirit of intolerance towards crimes and criminals in society, as an expression of the primordial belief of mankind that every evil should be punished. And a person who has violated the laws of society must be held accountable for this. Punishment of persons convicted of committing a crime is the implementation of this principle.
The threat to punish the guilty does not exhaust the role of this principle in society and the state. This principle also has a great warning effect on unstable people. The famous Italian criminologist Cesare Beccaria noted that one of the most effective means of restraining crimes is not the cruelty of punishments, but their inevitability ... Confidence in the inevitability of even a moderate punishment will always make a greater impression than fear of another, more cruel , but accompanied by the hope of impunity In the considered area of international cooperation, the principle of inevitability of responsibility for a committed crime bears a much greater burden. More than a hundred years ago, the famous Russian author V.P. Danevsky expressed this idea as follows: every crime, wherever and by whoever it is committed, is an encroachment on the general legal order that encompasses all states, therefore no crime should be left unpunished, and every state that holds a criminal in power must punish him " Therefore, it is this principle that has become both the foundation on which cooperation is developing, and the cement that holds it together, and the engine that pushes states to new joint actions, the search for effective means and methods of combating crime. base of their permanent cooperation, to establish international organizations.
At the II International Police Congress in 1923 in Vienna, where the creation of the future Interpol was taking place, one of the speakers (representative of the Austrian police Bruno Schulz) said that “international cooperation in the fight against crime pursues a double goal - ideal and real. The first is to achieve recognition of the idea that the perpetrator is a criminal everywhere and as an enemy of society should nowhere deserve leniency, he should be denied the right of asylum everywhere, and should be prosecuted regardless of where he came from or where he committed the crime.
This idea must be universally recognized.
The real goal is the practical implementation of this idea, the rallying of states into a single international front in the fight against crime, Schultz Bruno. Nachrichtendienst uber internationale Verbrecher. Archiv fuer Kriminologie. Leipzig. Band 76.1924, S. 33.
At the international level, today the principle of inevitability of responsibility for a committed crime is realized in the very fact of cooperation between states in the fight against crime. It seems that this is precisely why this principle is not mentioned in the preambles of the concluded treaties.
Only rarely can such a reference to the principle in question be found in individual treaties, for example, in the preamble to the 1977 European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism (Strasbourg). The signatory states were motivated by the desire to "take effective measures to ensure that those who commit such acts do not escape prosecution and punishment." This principle is specially highlighted in the Convention, since not all countries and not always have the same sharply negative attitude towards each case of terrorism.
The absence of a reference to this principle in a treaty does not mean that states ignore it. This can be seen from the example of two related conventions at once - the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (1970, The Hague) and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Montreal, 1971). Under both Conventions, the States Parties to them are empowered to exercise their jurisdiction over an offender detained in its territory, regardless of the place where the crime was committed and his nationality. The jurisdiction of the state is that, according to each of the Conventions, it can take the offender into custody or take other necessary measures, to carry out an investigation. Upon receipt of a request from another state for the extradition of a criminal, it either extradits it to the requesting state, or "without any exceptions and regardless of whether the crime was committed on its territory" or not, it must "refer the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of criminal prosecution. "(Articles 6 and 7 of the 1970 Convention and also Articles 6 and 7 of the 1971 Convention).
Without any indication of this principle of inevitability of responsibility is embodied in the institution of extradition, which is widely used in international cooperation in the fight against crime. The treaties of states dealing with extradition provide that in the event that the offender cannot be extradited to the requesting state, the country refusing to extradite is obliged to initiate criminal prosecution against him under its own legislation. In this case, we are talking about a requirement widely known in the West and included in agreements - "aut dedere, aut punire" (or extradite, or punish yourself).
In conclusion, we note that the significance of the principle under consideration goes beyond the outlined framework. It not only drives cooperation between states in the fight against crime when it operates on a prepared legal basis. This principle has an imperative effect on the behavior of the states concerned even in the absence of contractual ties between them. In particular, it keeps them from unreasonable refusals to extradite the alleged offender or to provide legal assistance in a criminal case. States, guided by the principle in question, most often fulfill the request on the basis of reciprocity or so-called international courtesy.
The principle of humanity. Encyclopedic dictionaries give the broad meaning of the term "humanity": humanity, philanthropy, respect for people, their human dignity.
For centuries, humanity, in principle, was alien to the goals of criminal justice - to punish the guilty. This in itself excluded the manifestation of humanity towards them, respect for their human dignity. And even now, when the ideas of humanism have formed into the principle of the same name of the criminal policy of many states, their criminal prosecution bodies find themselves in a very contradictory situation: on the one hand, they must ensure the protection of all members of society from the criminal encroachments of individual members of the same society, apply fair measures of punishment.
On the other hand, they must apply the same principle of humanity to them.
Despite the apparent uselessness of mentioning the requirement of a humane attitude towards the perpetrators in the fight against crime, the principle of humanity is enshrined in the modern criminal legislation of many countries as a complete denial of the use of unjustifiably cruel and painful punishments. Humanity is manifested primarily in the presence in the criminal laws of countries of several sanctions for the same act, which makes it possible to choose in each specific case a measure of punishment that is necessary and sufficient, and at the same time the smallest of those that are permissible in this case. When a new law, adopted after the commission of a crime, establishes a lighter punishment for such an act, the effect of this law also applies to this offender, if he has not yet been convicted.
Further, in countries there is a wide practice of mitigating punishment and even exempting minors (under certain circumstances), elderly people, pregnant women, terminally ill convicts from it. Amnesty and pardon are widely used, the attitude towards the death penalty is changing, which has already been abolished in about half of the countries of the world. Analysis of world trends. International Criminal Policy Review. Ed. UN. New York, 1990. N 38 ..
L.N. Galenskaya rightly noted the connection between the principle of humanity in the fight against crime and the principle of inevitability of punishment for an offense: the perpetrator of a crime should not remain unpunished. But the punishment itself should not only be a punishment for the deed, but also include the "goals of re-socializing the offender" so that "upon returning to normal life in society, the offender is not only ready, but also able to obey the laws and ensure his existence."
Back in 1950, the UN General Assembly, by Resolution 415, decided to lead all the efforts of the world community to combat crime, took responsibility for its prevention, including the re-socialization of offenders in order to prevent relapse on their part. This work has become permanent in the programs of the UN and its Economic and Social Council. In order to periodically monitor the state of affairs in countries, get acquainted with the dynamics of crime and the measures taken by countries to combat it, the UN began regularly, once every five years, to hold International Congresses on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.
In the light of the principle of humanity, special attention should be paid to the final part of the title of these congresses - “treatment of offenders”. The English phrase "treatment of offenders", used in the original source, means treatment, treatment of criminals, non-punitive influence on them in order to correct them. And this best conveys the content of the principle of humanity in the UN policy of resocialization of offenders, especially those sentenced to imprisonment, with the aim of returning them to life in society as law-abiding members.
Therefore, the principle of humanity cannot be rejected by states in their joint criminal prosecution of persons guilty of committing a crime and the implementation of the principle of inevitability of responsibility for the evil they have done.
It is present, directly or indirectly, in many international legal instruments that prescribe or recommend that states adhere to agreed rules in the treatment of persons who have come under criminal prosecution as a suspect or accused, detained or arrested, convicted or imprisoned, or simply a witness in the case. ...
a) The first block of international documents with a humanistic orientation of action concerns precisely the treatment of persons arrested or taken into custody as a measure of restraint, as well as persons sentenced to imprisonment. It:
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the 1st United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders on August 30, 1955, and endorsed by ECOSOC as a recommendation for their application by practical bodies;
Procedures for the effective implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted and recommended for implementation by the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1984;
Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 43/173 in 1988
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (Tokyo Rules), adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 45/110 in 1990.
b) The second block is documents aimed at ensuring that torture and facts of cruel, inhuman treatment and punishment of persons with whom employees of these bodies have to deal, especially persons deprived of their liberty, would be forever eradicated in the practice of law enforcement agencies in combating offenses. All persons deprived of their liberty have the right to humane treatment and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person (Article 10, paragraph 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; principle 1 of the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons ... 1988).
The adoption of special international documents on this issue was preceded by the requirement to prohibit torture and cruel treatment of people, formulated for the first time in Article 5 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The reasons for the appearance of such articles in the named documents, as well as the adoption after them of two special international acts, speak for themselves, but the speed of their following one after the other with small intervals indicates that each previous one did not have the effect for which it was designed ... Particular concern was shown by the world community when such a fate actually befell the first special document, which was the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1975 as a recommendation to countries. Nine years later, in 1984, the UN adopted a more effective document dedicated to this problem - the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It differed from the Declaration not only in its volume (33 articles, in the Declaration - 12), but mainly in the fact that all its provisions were binding on the signatory countries. In particular, the Convention obliged all its parties, within the framework of their national jurisdiction, to take effective measures to prevent the use of torture and similar forms of treatment or punishment. To do this, they had to criminalize all acts of torture named in Article 1 and actions that constitute participation, complicity, incitement or attempt to commit torture.
The main legal problem of cooperation between states in the fight against crime is the problem of jurisdiction.
In a broad sense, the jurisdiction of the state means the exclusive competence of the legislative, judicial or executive branch and is an internal attribute of sovereignty.
In the narrow sense, jurisdiction is understood as the authority of the court to consider cases within its competence, and
make decisions on them or pass sentences.
Depending on the category of cases, there are civil, administrative, criminal and other jurisdictions.
The criminal jurisdiction of a state is determined mainly by its national legislation and, in some cases, by the norms of international law that are recognized by that state.
The definition of criminal jurisdiction is based on
the territorial principle, according to which crimes committed on the territory of a given state are subject to the jurisdiction of its courts. However, this principle is not absolute.
The national legislation of some states provides for the responsibility of their citizens for especially grave crimes, regardless of the place of their commission. In particular, the criminal jurisdiction of the United States extends to the citizens of this state for the commission of such crimes as treason, illegal drug trafficking and military crimes, regardless of their location.
committing. In these cases, we are talking about the principle of citizenship. The principle of passive citizenship is very rare. Its essence is that jurisdiction is exercised by the state whose citizen has become a victim of a crime, although it was committed abroad and by a foreigner.
V last years a number of international treaties appeared, which contain the principle of universal jurisdiction (universal principle), as an addition to the territorial principle and the principle of citizenship. Universal jurisdiction means bringing a criminal to trial regardless of where the crime was committed and regardless of his nationality.
The different approach of national legislation to the definition of jurisdiction leads to a conflict of jurisdiction of two or more states in relation to certain crimes (for example, the state of the crime scene adheres to the territorial principle, the state of the criminal's nationality - national). Such conflicts can be resolved through agreements between states.
Criminal jurisdiction, as a rule, is tied to the territory of a state, while crimes do not have such a rigid connection with the territory of one state. Piracy, for example, is not at all associated with the territory of any state. Other crimes are associated with the territories of two or more states. Such crimes include continuing crimes when their beginning is associated with the territory of one state, and the continuation and end - with the territories of other states. The consequences of some crimes committed on the territory of one state affect the territories of others. The criminals are becoming more and more mobile, the internationalization of criminal formations is taking place. This predetermines the necessity and possibility of cooperation between states in
fight against crime.
The level and forms of cooperation depend on the extent to which crimes affect the interests of the international community. In this regard, international crimes, crimes of an international character and ordinary crimes are distinguished.
International Crimes of States The International Law Commission defines internationally wrongful acts resulting from a breach by a State of such an obligation that is fundamental to the vital interests of the international community. For the commission of such crimes, individuals are also responsible along with the state.
Crimes of an international character, in addition to infringing upon the national legal order, affect the interests of the international community, albeit not so significant. Sometimes these crimes are called conventional offenses, since the cooperation of states in the fight against
specific crimes of an international character are carried out within the framework of multilateral international treaties.
Common crimes do not infringe on the international legal order and do not affect the interests of the international community, but sometimes the administration of justice on them is impossible without the help of other states. For example, a criminal, having committed a crime, may go abroad and hide there. In this case, the question arises of his search and
extradition, which can only be done with the help of the authorities of the state on whose territory the criminal is hiding.
2 Main areas of cooperation
States cooperate in the fight against such types of crimes of an international character as piracy, slavery
and the slave trade, human trafficking, terrorism, hostage taking, etc.
Piracy. Piracy as a criminal trade associated with the forcible seizure of ships and cargo has been known since ancient times. In the Middle Ages, it was the international custom to regard pirates as the common enemies of mankind, taking into account the danger that piracy posed to the maritime trade. Although piracy is not so common these days, shipping in certain areas is still unsafe.
Prior to the adoption of the High Seas Convention in 1958, anti-piracy matters were governed by customary rules. The 1958 Convention defines piracy as any unlawful act of violence, detention or robbery committed on the high seas or in a place outside the jurisdiction of any state, for personal use by the crew or passengers of a private ship, or aircraft against another ship
or aircraft or against persons or property,
on board.
Similar actions by government or military ships are considered piracy only when they are committed by the crew who seized control of that ship as a result of a mutiny.
Any warship can hijack a pirate ship
on the high seas or in a place that is outside the jurisdiction of any state. The courts of the state whose warship captured the pirate ship may determine the punishment for the pirates. If the suspicions regarding the pirate actions of the hijacked ship are not confirmed, then the state that seized the ship is liable to the state of the hijacked ship for damage and
damages caused by this takeover.
The provisions of the 1958 Convention relating to the fight against piracy were included in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Articles 100 - 107).
Slavery and the slave trade. At the very beginning of the 19th century, in the national legislation of some states (Great Britain, 1808), norms appeared prohibiting the slave trade - the trade in slaves. This time also includes the active activity of states to conclude bilateral treaties providing for the fight against the slave trade, which contributed to the creation of international legal custom in this area.
The first document that united the struggle against the slave trade and slavery was the Saint Germain Convention of 1919.
Modern cooperation between states in the fight against slavery and the slave trade is governed by the following acts:
The Slavery Convention of 1926. Protocol
1953 amending the Convention concerning
Slavery of 1926 and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956.
Slavery is understood as the position or condition of a person in respect of whom some or all of the powers inherent in the right of ownership are exercised. The slave trade is actions related to the capture, acquisition or disposal of a person for the purpose of turning him into slavery,
purchase for sale or exchange, sale or exchange
and any act of trading or transporting slaves. Institutions similar to slavery include debt slavery, serfdom, the marriage of a woman for remuneration without her consent, the transfer of a wife by her husband or his relatives to another person for remuneration, the transfer of a woman by inheritance
after the death of the husband to another person, the transfer of a person under the age of 18 by his parents to another person for remuneration for the purpose of his exploitation.
States undertake to assist each other in the abolition of slavery and the slave trade, as well as all institutions and practices similar to slavery. To this end, States shall take the necessary measures to introduce into national legislation severe penalties for violations of laws and regulations prohibiting slavery and the slave trade. Slave,
who has taken refuge on a ship of a State party to the Convention, becomes free.
Combating human trafficking. The 1950 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, establishes the obligation of the States parties to punish persons who, in order to satisfy the lust of another person, bring, entice or seduce a third person for the purpose of prostitution, exploit the prostitution of a third person even with his consent. Punishment is imposed on owners of brothel houses or those who participate in their management or financing, as well as those who rent or lease buildings or other place knowing that they will be used for prostitution by third parties.
States are obliged to repeal all legislation and administrative regulations that would provide for the registration of persons engaged in prostitution or the issuance of a special document to them. In the States parties to the Convention, a special body is created that coordinates and summarizes the results of the investigation of crimes,
provided for by the Convention. The control is established over the offices for hire in such a way as to prevent the possible exploitation of persons seeking work for the purpose of prostitution.
Terrorism. International cooperation of states in the fight against terrorism began during the existence of the League of Nations. In 1937, the Convention on the Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism was adopted in Geneva. The definition of terrorism in it is given by listing the acts that
are subject to punishment. These include attempts on the life of heads of state and other statesmen, acts of sabotage, actions that endanger many people, preparation and incitement to terrorist acts, supply of means of terrorism, production, import, transfer, deliberate use of false documents. The Convention did not enter into force, but influenced subsequent practice, in particular the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Acts of Terrorism of 1971, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Persons Using international protection including diplomatic agents, 1973 and the 1976 European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism.
The 1976 European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism provides for two categories of offenses. To the first
categories include those that States recognize as criminal by virtue of their participation in the Convention, namely, unlawful seizure of aircraft and illegal actions on board, attempts on life, freedom of persons entitled to international protection, and causing bodily harm to them, taking hostages and arbitrary imprisonment,
the use of firearms and explosive devices, if this is associated with a danger to people. The second category includes acts, the recognition of which is at the discretion of states. These include serious acts of violence that constitute an attempt on life, freedom
persons or causing bodily harm to them, as well as serious actions against property and creating a general threat to people.
The 1973 Convention establishes that the deliberate commission of murder, abduction or other attack against the person or freedom of a person enjoying international protection, as well as a violent attack on his residence, home or vehicle, when this is associated with a threat to the personality and freedom of such a person, the state- the participant must be regarded as a crime and the punishment for it must be established in national law as a crime of a serious nature.
A State Party shall take the necessary steps to establish its jurisdiction in cases where the crime is committed in the territory of that State, when the alleged offender is its national and when the accused of the crime is in its territory and does not extradite him. The Convention does not exclude the application of any criminal jurisdiction exercised in accordance with national law. The participating States undertake to cooperate in the prevention of crime and to provide assistance and assistance in the investigation of crimes and the punishment of criminals.
The issues of extradition of criminals have been resolved in this way.
The offenses contained in the Convention must be included in the list of extraditable offenses in any extradition treaty between States parties. If extradition is conditional on the existence of an extradition treaty, and one has not been concluded between states, then the Convention can be considered as the legal basis for extradition. If states do not make extradition conditional on the existence of a relevant treaty, then in their relations between themselves the offenses provided for in the Convention are considered extraditable offenses. This formula is repeated in many of the conventions discussed below.
In 1979, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention against the Taking of Hostages. It is an offense to seize or hold persons accompanied by the threat of murder, harm or further detain such persons (hostages) in order to force a third party
commit any act or refrain from doing so as a direct or indirect condition for the release of hostages. Attempt and complicity are criminal. Third party refers to a state, international organization, natural or legal person, or group of persons. The States parties to the Convention provide for the punishment of this offense as a serious offense in their national legislation. The participating States undertake to cooperate in the prevention of such crimes, as well as in providing assistance in combating them and punishing the criminals.
Jurisdiction is determined on the basis of competition between principles such as the territorial principle, the principle of citizenship and passive citizenship, the universal principle.
Struggle for the safety of civil aviation and maritime navigation. The increased incidence of hijacking of aircraft in the 1960s led to the adoption in 1963 in Tokyo of the Convention on Crimes and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft. The Convention applies to criminal offenses, as well as acts that may create
or endanger the safety of the ship, persons or property on board, or actions that threaten the maintenance of good order on board.
On the issue of jurisdiction, preference is given to the jurisdiction of the State of the ship's registry in relation to offenses that took place on board. And in this regard, the state of registration is taking the necessary measures to establish its jurisdiction, which, however, does not exclude any
other criminal jurisdiction in accordance with the national
legislation. Other participating States may claim to exercise criminal jurisdiction in cases where the consequences of a crime affect the territory of these States, when crimes are directed against their safety, committed by their citizens or against their citizens, constitute a violation of the flight rules established
in these states, or when the exercise of jurisdiction is required by the international obligations of such states. The convention does not contain provisions on extradition, such provisions appeared in conventions adopted later.
In 1970, the Hague Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft was adopted. The Convention makes it an offense to act unlawfully by any person on board an aircraft to seize or gain control of a vessel by violence or threat of violence or other form of intimidation.
In 1971, the Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation was adopted, and in 1988, the Protocol Relating to Unlawful Acts of Violence at International Airports. In accordance with the 1971 Convention, any person commits
a crime if it unlawfully and intentionally carries out an act of violence against a person on board an aircraft in flight, if the act endangers the safety of the flight. Actions that endanger the safety of an aircraft in flight, when a person destroys a vessel in service, places a device or substance on a vessel in service, which can destroy this vessel or disable it, destroys or damages air navigation equipment, is also a crime. or
devices, interferes with the operation of the vessel, informs knowingly false information that pose a threat to the safety of the vessel in flight.
In 1988, Rome adopted the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Fixed Adatforms Located on the Continental Shelf. The Convention and the Protocol criminalize unlawful and
deliberate actions to seize a vessel or platform, and
equally endangering the safe navigation of the vessel or the safety of the platform. The list of such actions basically coincides with the list contained in the 1971 Montreal Convention.
Ultimately, all three conventions provide for universal jurisdiction when the alleged offender is present in the territory of one of the states party to the convention. In addition, the jurisdiction of the State of registration of the aircraft or
flag states of a seagoing vessel, territorial jurisdiction (1971 and 1988 Conventions), nationality (1988 Convention), jurisdiction of the state in whose territory the aircraft lands and the alleged offender is on board (1970 and 1971 Conventions).
Issuance is regulated on the basis of the aut dedere aut punere principle (or issue or punish). The state in whose territory the offender is located shall take him into custody or ensure his presence by other means in accordance with the norms of national law. If the state
does not extradite the offender, then it is obliged to transfer the case to its competent authorities for the criminal prosecution of the detainee. Extradition is handled in the same way as in the 1973 Convention.
Each State Party provides for punishment in its criminal law, taking into account the grave nature of the offenses provided for in all three conventions. The practice of including in bilateral agreements on air services provisions,
concerning the issues of combating acts of unlawful interference in the activities of civil aviation.
Combating the illegal distribution of narcotic drugs. International cooperation in the fight against illicit drug trafficking began at the beginning of the 20th century. The first international treaty was concluded in The Hague in 1912. The principles of this Convention were adopted and developed in subsequent international acts, including
the current Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 (which replaced all the previous ones for its participants), in the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, in the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Drugs. substances of 1988. These international treaties recognize the need
the use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and other lawful purposes and the inadmissibility of the abuse of such drugs and substances. Implementation of these principles predetermines the need to estimate the needs of states in narcotic drugs and establish control over their manufacture and distribution, as well as cooperation in the fight against illegal actions in relation to drugs.
Any natural or synthetic substance included in Schedules I - II of the 1961 Convention is considered a narcotic drug, and any natural or synthetic substance or any natural mineral that is included in Schedules I - IV of the 1971 Convention is considered a psychotropic substance. The lists can be supplemented with new substances and means in the prescribed manner.
The organs of international control over narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances are the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the ECOSOC and International committee on drug control. States parties to the 1961 Convention provide the Committee with statistical
information on the production, manufacture and consumption of narcotic drugs, their use for the production of other drugs and drugs, import (export) and warehouse stocks as of December 31 of each year. In addition, States parties submit to the Board annually estimates of requirements for narcotic drugs for medical and scientific purposes; in case of failure to submit calculations on time, the Committee has the right to independently make such calculations. The committee may recommend to the state to suspend
import (export) of narcotic drugs, if deemed necessary.
Under the 1971 Convention, the Committee, in the exercise of its functions, may seek clarification from the States parties, recommend corrective measures, and also draw the attention of the parties, ECOSOC, and the Commission to this issue if its previous actions do not yield the expected results. The Committee, drawing the attention of States to
unsatisfactory, from his point of view, the state of affairs, can recommend the parties to stop exporting (importing), if it is convinced that it is necessary.
Trafficking in narcotic drugs is generally carried out under licenses, and the participating States exercise control over all persons and enterprises involved in the trade or distribution. Export (import) of psychotropic substances included in lists I and II is carried out on the basis of a permit obtained for each such transaction separately. The movement of each export consignment of psychotropic substances is controlled by the parties. For substances included in Schedule III, a declaration is drawn up in triplicate indicating the details provided for by the Convention.
The conventions provide that states parties will treat as criminal all acts committed intentionally in violation of the provisions of the conventions. Serious offenses in this case must be subject to appropriate punishment, in particular prison (Article 36 of the 1961 Convention, Article 22 of the 1971 Convention, Article 3 of the 1988 Convention).
In 1990, the 17th special session of the UN General Assembly adopted the Political Declaration and the World Program of Action for International Cooperation in the Fight against Illicit Production, Supply, Demand, Trafficking and Distribution of Narcotic Drugs and
psychotropic substances. The Declaration, in particular, reaffirms the provisions of the Conventions of 1961, 1971, 1988, and highly appreciates the positive measures carried out by the Narcotics Division of the UN Secretariat, the International Narcotics Control Board and the UN Fund for Drug Abuse Control. The Declaration proclaims the UN Decade against Drug Abuse for the period 1991-2000.
The World Program of Action provides for measures to combat drug abuse and illicit trafficking at the national, regional and international levels in the following areas: prevention and reduction of drug abuse in order to eliminate the illicit demand for narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration of drug addicts; control over the supply of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; suppression of illegal traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; dealing with the consequences of the availability of funds,
which are formed, used or intended for
illegal drug trafficking, illegal financial flows or illegal use of the banking system (in particular, measures to prevent money laundering); strengthening the judiciary and legal system.
The UN Secretary General has been invited to submit to the General Assembly a report on activities under the World Program of Action on an annual basis. Proclaimed in 1987 by the UN General Assembly as the International Day (26 June) against drug abuse
drugs and their illicit traffic should be noted in such a way as to raise awareness of the fight against drug and psychotropic substance abuse and trafficking, and to promote preventive measures.
Combating the recruitment of mercenaries. In the Middle Ages and later, mercenaries played a significant role in the wars waged on the European continent. Nowadays
the attitude towards this institution has changed radically. The change
found legal confirmation in the 1989 Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. Under the Convention, an offense
are the actions of both the mercenary and the person who recruits, uses, finances or
training a mercenary. Attempt and complicity are also punishable. States parties provide for appropriate penalties in national law, taking into account the seriousness of these crimes.
A mercenary is a person who is specially recruited to participate in an armed conflict or in joint violent actions aimed at undermining the constitutional order or the territorial integrity of a state. The main motive for the participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict or violent actions is the desire to obtain personal gain in the form of significant material rewards. The mercenary is not
is a citizen of states in a state of armed conflict or a state against which violent actions are directed. In addition, the mercenary is not part of the armed forces of the belligerent states. Members of the armed forces of a non-belligerent state sent to carry out their official duties are not considered mercenaries (see chapter 21).
The Convention contains a widespread formula for determining jurisdiction: the territorial principle, the principle of citizenship and the universal principle. The results of the mercenary proceedings of the state are reported to the UN Secretary General. Extradition is governed by the same procedure as in the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents.
3 Legal aid in criminal cases
Criminal procedural actions of the authorities of the state
limited by its territory, while for the normal
the administration of criminal justice is sometimes necessary
carrying out procedural actions on the territory of another
the state. Since the principle of state sovereignty excludes direct actions of the authorities (including judicial) of one state on the territory of another, a request for assistance remains the only way to perform the necessary procedural actions. Cooperation of States in the provision of legal assistance in criminal matters
develops at the level of bilateral relations and regional
agreements, certain issues of such cooperation are included in multilateral international agreements (for example, issues of extradition of criminals).
In Russia, there are treaties on legal assistance for
civil, family and criminal cases with more than 20 states, concluded by the former USSR. The provisions related to legal aid in criminal matters are basically the same in all these treaties and boil down to the following.
^ There are provided such types of legal assistance in criminal cases as the service and forwarding of documents, provision of information on current law and judicial practice, interrogation of accused, defendants, witnesses, experts, conducting expert examinations and judicial examination, transfer
material evidence, initiation of criminal prosecution, extradition of persons who have committed crimes. A written request for legal assistance is provided and the items given will remain in effect. The parties inform each other about the results of the criminal prosecution. At the request of the party, a copy of the entered into legal
the force of the sentence.
Transfer of convicted persons. In 1978 in Berlin (The Convention on the Transfer of Persons Sentenced to Imprisonment to Serve Sentences in the State of Which They Are Nationals was adopted.
of the state, the court of which passed the sentence, with the consent of the state, the citizenship of which the convicted person has.
In 1983, the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons was adopted in Strasbourg. Although the Convention was adopted within the framework of the Council of Europe, Art. 18 and 19 allow, under a certain procedure, the participation of states that are not members of the Council of Europe. In the coming years, the number of parties to this Convention will increase; in favor of such a development of affairs they say
events taking place in Europe and calls to join it, which are contained in the Helsinki documents.
4. International standards of circulation
with offenders
Within the framework of the UN, documents have been developed and adopted that establish certain standards for the administration of justice. They contain norms of conduct for officials involved in one way or another in the administration of justice, rules for the treatment of offenders, and norms that protect victims of crime. These documents, in particular, include the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which were adopted at the 1st UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1955 and then approved by ECOSOC. The rules are not an international treaty, they serve as a model for states when developing national rules in
this area.
The rules are divided into two parts: the first contains general rules for all categories of prisoners, the second part contains rules for special categories of prisoners, namely: convicted, mentally ill and mentally disabled, remand prisoners, civil prisoners and prisoners for security reasons. ... The rules are based on the principle of non-discrimination on many grounds and take into account the religious beliefs and moral attitudes of prisoners.
V general rules it is stipulated that in all places of detention a special register is kept, in which the necessary data on each prisoner are entered. The provision is made for the separation of prisoners depending on gender, age, previous convictions, etc. The rules establish requirements for living and working premises, and both single and shared cells are possible. Clothing should be suitable for climatic conditions, and if wearing a uniform is required, then it should not be offensive or degrading. Food should be
nutritious enough to maintain health and strength, good quality and well cooked. To provide medical care, all institutions must have at least one qualified medical worker, patients must be placed in special institutions or in ordinary
hospitals.
Disciplinary punishment of prisoners is only possible for conduct that is classified as a disciplinary offense by law or by order of the competent authorities. In the same order, the form
and the measure of punishment, corporal punishment is unacceptable. The prisoner should be given the opportunity to justify relevant facts and reasons. Punishment in the form of strict upkeep or a reduction in food can be imposed only in the presence of a written
the doctor's opinion that the prisoner can tolerate
it is a punishment.
The administration of the institution can use the funds
restraint to prevent escapes during transport, for medical reasons, as directed by a doctor and by order of the director of the institution, when other measures are found to be invalid. In any case, the use of such means of restraint as shackles and chains is prohibited.
Each prisoner, upon arrival at the institution, must be
informed about the rules and requirements established
in this institution in such a volume that he clearly gives himself
report on their rights and obligations. Prisoners must
be able to maintain contact with the outside world through both correspondence and meetings with relatives and friends. Foreign citizens should have a reasonable opportunity to maintain contact with diplomatic and consular representatives of their states, if there are none in their country of imprisonment, then with representatives of those
states that have undertaken to protect their interests.
The Rules contain requirements for the staff of establishments. First of all, the staff must have special professional training, which is supported and improved during their work through a system of courses. As far as possible, the staff should include psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers, doctors, and masters of industrial training. The director and at least one doctor must live either in the institution itself or close to it. Women's divisions must be headed by female employees, male employees are allowed into women's divisions only when accompanied by female employees. Employees of establishments can only use force in self-defense, preventing escape attempts and actively or passively resisting orders given in accordance with the laws and administrative regulations of the competent authorities. Employees who, in the performance of their duties, are in direct
contact with prisoners, should carry weapons only in
exceptional cases.
The international community devotes considerable attention to the prohibition of torture. Already in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there was a provision according to which no one should be subjected to torture or such treatment or punishment that degrades the dignity or is
cruel, inhuman. This requirement has become a norm of international law, being included in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. On the basis of this Declaration, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was developed and adopted in 1984.
Torture is understood as such actions of officials
or persons acting in an official capacity who, in order to obtain information or confessions, punish for actions, intimidate or coerce. These actions can be performed both by the official himself and with his knowledge or tacit consent or at his instigation. States -
The parties to the Convention undertake in their criminal law to consider all acts of torture as crimes and to impose penalties taking into account their grave nature. Jurisdiction and extradition issues are dealt with in the Convention in the same manner as in the Prevention and Punishment Convention.
Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, Including Diplomatic Agents, 1973.
For the international monitoring of compliance with the provisions of the Convention, the Committee against Torture was created, consisting of 10 experts elected by the States parties to the Convention for a term of 4 years with the right to re-election. States Parties shall submit to the Committee for consideration
reports that report on the measures they have taken to
fulfillment of obligations. Besides. The Committee, upon receiving reliable information that, in its opinion, contains substantiated evidence of the systematic use of torture in the territory of a State party, invites it to cooperate in considering this information. WITH
Taking into account the comments of the State, the Committee may commission several of its members to conduct a confidential investigation and report to it. The results of the investigation are sent to the state with the comments and proposals of the Committee.
A special procedure has been established for the consideration by the Committee of reports from States parties on violations of obligations by other parties to the Convention and reports from individuals that they have become victims of violations by States of the provisions of the Convention. These procedures are valid in relations only between those States which, by a special declaration, have recognized the competence of the Committee to receive and consider such communications. In the first case, the Committee renders good offices to the parties with the aim of reaching an amicable resolution of the issue. In the second, after considering the communication, the Committee submits its opinion to the State party and the complainant.
In 1979, the UN General Assembly adopted a Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. The Code is not an international treaty, and therefore contains recommendatory norms. It consists of 8 articles, each of which is accompanied by a commentary.
Law enforcement officials are all officials associated with the enforcement of the law and with police powers. This concept also includes representatives of the military authorities (in uniform or civilian clothes) and the state security forces in
those states in which they exercise police functions.
Officials for maintaining law and order carry out the duties assigned to them by law at all times, and protect all persons from unlawful acts. They respect and protect human dignity, support and protect human rights in relation to all individuals. Law enforcement officials can apply
force only when absolutely necessary and to carry out their duties. The use of firearms is permissible in exceptional cases when the offender provides armed resistance or otherwise threatens the lives of others and when other measures are insufficient to
detention of a suspected offender.
Law enforcement officials, when receiving information relating to the private life of others, are obliged to keep it confidential and may disclose it only if this is required for the performance of their official duties or in the interests of the administration of justice. Law enforcement officials have a duty to ensure that the health of detainees is protected and to take steps to ensure that medical care is provided to those who need it. This also applies to victims of offenses or accidents. Acts of corruption or any
other abuses of power are incompatible with the official position of an official, and if they are committed, he is subject to punishment to the fullest extent of the law. Respect for the law, use of all opportunities to prevent its violation is the duty of law enforcement officials.
5. Cooperation in the fight against
crime within international
organizations
One of the goals of the UN is the implementation of international cooperation in resolving international problems of a social and humanitarian nature. The fight against crime as a social and humanitarian problem is
one of the aspects of the UN's practical activities. Of its main bodies, the General Assembly, ECOSOC, and the Secretariat are to some extent occupied with this problem. The UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and the UN Committee on the Prevention and Control of Crime are directly involved in the fight against crime.
The United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, in accordance with the decision of the 1950 UN General Assembly, convenes once every five years. Its participants are the states represented by the respective delegations. The delegations include senior police officials, criminologists, penologists, criminal law and human rights specialists. In addition, individual participants are involved in the work of the Congress sessions. The main goal of the Congress is to determine the directions and means of preventing and combating crime, taking into account the achievements at the national level of various states,
and the treatment of offenders. Significant role
Congress in the adoption of international standards in this area of activity. For example, at the Eighth Congress (Cuba, 1990), documents such as model agreements on extradition of criminals, mutual assistance in criminal matters, transfer of criminal cases to each other, on the prevention of crimes related to infringement of cultural heritage were adopted, and etc.
Sessions are limited to two weeks in duration, and therefore require thorough preparation to work successfully. This is the responsibility of the UN Committee on Crime Prevention and Control. The committee is a permanent expert body whose members (27 members) are elected
ECOSOC on the proposal of states for 4 years and act in a personal capacity. The election takes into account the principle of fair geographical distribution and highly qualified candidates.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) carries out practical work to combat crime. The supreme body of the Organization is the General Assembly, in which all states are represented. The working procedure of the General Assembly is sessional, sessions are convened annually. The Assembly is competent to deal with all issues of the Organization's activities, it can create special commissions on a temporary or permanent basis.
The Executive Committee is a limited body. It includes the President, three (four) vice presidents and 9 delegates, elected by the Assembly for 4 years (President) and 3 years (vice presidents and delegates) without the right to be re-elected immediately. The Executive Committee monitors the implementation of the decisions of the General Assembly, prepares the agenda for its next session, and monitors the activities of the Secretary General. Meetings of the Executive Committee are held at least once a year, its members act as representatives of the Organization.
The General Secretariat is made up of the permanent services of the Organization. It is headed by the Secretary General, who is elected by the Assembly on the proposal of the Executive Committee for a 5-year term; the role of the Secretary General in the Organization is significant. The Secretariat implements the decisions of the Assembly and the Executive Committee, is an international center for information and the fight against crime, maintains relations with national and international institutions, with national central bureaus, etc.
The peculiarity of Interpol in comparison with other international organizations is that the structure of its bodies includes the national central bureaus (NCB) of the member states. NCB is a special working apparatus operating as part of the national body to which
the state has entrusted its representation in Interpol.
NCB maintains relations with the Secretariat of Interpol, with NCBs of other member states, with the authorities of their state.
The objectives of the Organization are to promote broad mutual cooperation of all criminal police bodies, as well as to create and develop institutions that can contribute to the prevention and fight against crime. The organization does not participate in assistance in matters of a political, military, religious or racial nature.
Firstly, the fact that the Organization is the center for registration of criminals serves to achieve the goals of Interpol. Interpol maintains such general registration files as an alphabetical file of all known international criminals, a file on the appearance of criminals, a file
documents and titles, a card index of crimes. Special registration cards are presented as fingerprint and photographic.
Secondly, Interpol is conducting an international search for criminals. This procedure is as follows. The relevant body of the Member State applies to its NCB with a request to search for a criminal hiding abroad. NCB checks the compliance of the request with the requirements of the Interpol Charter, requests additional information, if necessary, and sends the request to the General Secretariat, which in turn determines the compliance of the request with Art. 3 of the Charter and, recognizing it as appropriate, sends it to the NCBs of the member states of the Organization. National bureaus, having received
the request, determine the permissibility of the search according to the national legislation of their country and, if the answer is positive, transfer the request to the police for execution. When a criminal is found, the police detain him in accordance with the legislation of their state and notify their NCB. The latter notifies the Secretariat and the NCB of the country initiating the search, which urgently informs the interested body of its state. After that, a request for extradition is sent and, if the NCB issue is positively resolved, the initiator of the search informs the General Secretariat, which notifies other states about the termination of the search.
The role of Interpol is also significant as an information center in the broadest sense. In this regard, statistical and information service, technical assistance.
Membership in the Interpol of the USSR (since 1990) passed to Russia.
Crime as a social phenomenon has a largely interethnic character and equally causes damage to various states and societies, regardless of their socio-political structure.
The fight against national crime is currently being significantly complicated by the growth of such crimes, which pose a danger not only to individual states, but to all of humanity. Therefore, joint efforts and day-to-day cooperation of states are required.
The more mutual understanding between states and awareness of the existence of crimes affecting the interests of the international community, the more efforts must be made by all states together and each separately to protect international law and order. Consequently, the coordination of the efforts of various states to combat common crimes and crimes that damage the peaceful existence of various states contributes to mutual understanding, strengthening peaceful relations and cooperation between countries and peoples.
The need to expand and deepen international cooperation in the fight against crime is also due to the qualitative and quantitative changes in crime itself, the growth of "foreign investments" in the total mass of crimes of individual states.
International cooperation in the fight against crime is the joining of efforts of states and other participants in international relations with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of crime prevention, combating them and correcting offenders.
At the same time, the international fight against crime cannot be taken literally, since crimes are committed on the territory of a particular state and fall under its jurisdiction. Taking this into account, the principle (jurisdiction) of a certain state applies to the crime committed or prepared, and, therefore, international struggle should be understood as the cooperation of states in the fight against certain types of crime or crimes committed by individuals.
The concepts of certain types of crime or crimes belonging to the category of international ones, in fact, do not have an unambiguous definition. There are many definitions of international crime: “international crimes are encroachments on the freedom of the peoples of the world or as encroachments on the interests of all progressive humanity”, “international crimes are attacks on the fundamental foundations of international communication, on the rights and interests of all states”, “international crimes are crimes, encroaching on the independence of each people and peaceful relations between peoples "," international crimes - an encroachment on the very existence of the state and the nation ", etc., etc.
This reveals the many-sided nature of international crime, which is primarily a reflection of the contradictory nature of social relations in a particular state.
In theory, there has been a generally recognized distinction between crimes affecting the interests of states and the entire international community, into several groups.
The first group is international crimes per se: crimes against peace, including planning, preparing, starting or waging war in violation of international treaties and agreements, and crimes against humanity (including murder) committed against civilians before or during the war:
- genocide (destruction of the clan) - the extermination of certain groups of the population on racial, national or regional grounds;
- apartheid is an extreme form of racial discrimination and segregation (the policy of separating the "colored" population from the whites), carried out in relation to certain national and racial groups of the population, expressed in the deprivation or significant restriction of political, socio-economic and civil rights, territorial isolation, etc. .;
- ecocide - destruction surrounding man natural environment, violation of ecological balance;
- biocide (destruction of life);
- slavery;
- terrorism is a policy of intimidation, suppression of political opponents by violent measures;
- mercenarism.
The second group of crimes are crimes of an international character. Some can be defined in international agreements, others not, but are considered by states as crimes that harm international communication. Of course, these crimes are ambiguous both in nature and in the degree of danger. They can be divided into the following subgroups:
Crimes detrimental to peaceful cooperation and the normal implementation of interstate relations. Just one of them can be ranked (but this has not yet been done) terrorism and structures close to this crime: hijacking of planes, hostage-taking, theft nuclear weapons, attacks on diplomatic representatives, and illegal radio broadcasting.
Crimes detrimental to the economic and socio-cultural development of states and peoples. These are criminal encroachments on the environment, crimes against the national and cultural heritage of peoples (theft of works of art, destruction and looting of excavations, etc.), smuggling itself, illegal operations with narcotic and psychotropic substances, counterfeiting, illegal immigration.
Crimes that damage the person, personal (private), state property and moral values. These include: human trafficking, piracy, distribution of pornography, torture.
Other crimes of an international character. These include: crimes committed on board an aircraft, rupture and damage of a submarine cable, collision of ships, failure to provide assistance at sea, pollution of the sea with harmful substances, crimes on the sea shelf, violation of the rules of marine fisheries.
International crime is a specific type of general crime of a particular state. In general, there is reason to speak of its increased danger. First of all, we are talking about the so-called index (most dangerous, grave) crimes, which include terrorism, drug trafficking, legalization of criminal proceeds, hijacking, etc.
The most common international criminal offense is illegal drug dealing. All attempts by states to single-handedly fight this type of crime have ended in failure. In this regard, in 1909, the first international organization to combat drug addiction, the Shanghai Commission, was created. This organization was called upon to coordinate the cooperation of states in the fight against drug trafficking, recognizing this type of crime as an international criminal offense.
It should be noted that the drug business brings huge profits to international criminals. In the US, it accounts for 275% of net income. In addition, drug traffickers are increasingly interfering with domestic policy states. The judicial and investigative practice in such cases testifies to the high degree of organization of criminal communities, discipline, and the strength of international relations in this area. Strict discipline is ensured by the brutality of the leaders, intimidation, torture, executions of representatives of rival groups and “their violators of the order”.
The 1912 Hague International Opium Convention is the first multilateral drug control agreement. It has introduced three main categories of narcotic drugs as subject to regulation: raw opium; cooked opium; medical opium.
Over the next twenty years, within the League of Nations, a number of international legal acts were developed and adopted to supplement the provisions of the Hague Conference: the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961; The 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances; 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
The general purpose of these conventions is to ensure access to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes, to limit their use for these purposes and to combat their illicit traffic, demand and consumption.
The main purpose of the 1961 Single Convention, which entered into force in 1964, was to confirm, codify, simplify, update and supplement previously concluded treaties on this issue. It restricts the production, manufacture, trade, import, export, distribution and use of narcotic drugs exclusively for medical and scientific purposes and is aimed at combating drug addiction.
The 1971 Convention imposes obligations on States parties to exercise national and international control over psychotropic substances that are abused or likely to be abused in the future. This convention provides for four different categories of psychotropic substances, depending on the risk and likelihood of abuse, sets different requirements for production volumes, record keeping, distribution restrictions and export notification.
The main provisions of the 1988 Convention on the Suppression of Illicit Drug Trafficking:
- creation of a relatively uniform classification of offenses and sanctions for actions related to drug trafficking, as well as the establishment of jurisdiction over them;
- taking measures to identify, identify, freeze, arrest or confiscate the proceeds of drug trafficking;
- providing mutual legal assistance in the investigation, proceedings and legal proceedings in relation to certain types of offenses related to drug trafficking;
- international law enforcement cooperation;
- measures to eradicate illicit drug crop cultivation and drug production.
This convention refers to the number of offenses; distribution of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; conversion or transfer of property, if it is known that such property was obtained as a result of trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; participation, involvement or entering into a criminal conspiracy with the aim of committing any offense, etc.
It should be noted that Russia as the legal successor the former USSR is a party to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
Work is actively underway to establish bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the fight against illicit drug trafficking and abuse.
International cooperation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in this area is carried out in three areas:
- within the framework of the conclusion of intergovernmental agreements;
- participation of our representatives in the work of international organizations;
- direct establishment of interdepartmental contacts with special units of other countries.
It should be said about that part of international crime, which in Russia is now commonly called transnational or international, that is, going beyond national borders. The most difficult is the situation on the borders with the CIS and Baltic countries. No operational data is needed to state the expansion of Russian territories, especially in Far East, illegal export abroad of fish and seafood, timber and sawn timber, large-scale export of raw materials and materials from Russia.
Comparative crime trends in the states formed on the territory of the former USSR are of particular criminological significance.
The crime rate in the former Soviet republics has always varied significantly, despite the fact that they were in a single state with the same economic, social and political system, rigidly unified criminal and criminal procedure legislation, a single centralized accounting of crimes, a centralized system of criminal justice, etc. etc.
The intensive growth in crime in most post-Soviet countries is mainly due to an increase in selfish and selfishly violent crimes, thefts, robberies, robberies. The proportion of thefts in countries with high crime rates reaches 80% or more, and in countries with low crime rates, up to 40-45%. And the difference between the theft rates calculated for the population reaches 18 times the size.
Residents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Chechnya are distinguished by high criminal activity. According to the structure of nonresident crime, they account for every second robbery, extortion, crime related to drug trafficking, a third of robberies, and a fifth of premeditated murders and rapes. As a rule, crimes are committed with the use of weapons and are distinguished by insolence and cruelty.
The so-called shuttle flights for contract killings, fraud, and racketeering in other countries are characteristic of criminal activity.
The smuggling of weapons, ammunition and explosives is especially typical for the northwestern borders of the Russian Federation (Pskov, Leningrad regions). Weapons of foreign brands then “float” all over the country.
According to Interpol, illegal operations in Russia are lined up in the following sequence: drug and arms business, and then illegal trade in antiques. In Western Europe, there are more than 40 registered criminal groups involved in this business. During the period from 1996 to 2000, these crimes increased 30 times!
It is worth mentioning about the criminality of migration processes, especially illegal ones. Here the representatives of the countries of Transcaucasia, China, Vietnam and Mongolia are "different" (for three years the growth in crime has grown by 3-5 times). "Guests" from Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, who have experience of military operations, including those of a guerrilla and sabotage nature, are united in our territory into ethnic and religious groups. The actions of such entities are of great concern to both law enforcement agencies and law-abiding citizens.
The economic, political and social processes of rapprochement between highly developed countries in the 90s did not lead to a significant leveling of the crime rate in these states. The contribution of each of the G7 countries to the so-called global crime rate is not the same. Thus, the number of crimes committed annually in the United States is greater than in Germany, England, France, and Japan combined.
The annual rates of growth or decline in crime in highly developed countries, as a rule, do not exceed 2-4%. Western criminologists assess this indicator positively, since insignificant fluctuations in the level of crime allow the systematic implementation of long-term and current preventive programs without taking all sorts of emergency measures.
In each country, crime differs in level, structure, dynamics and other criminological characteristics. For example, the crime rate in Japan per 100 thousand population is almost an order of magnitude lower than in the United States (if we take all crime) or in Sweden. And the registered crime in prosperous Sweden, where there have been no wars or revolutions for two hundred years, per population is 7-8 times higher than the recorded crime in crisis Russia.
It cannot be concluded from the last comparison that the rule of law in Russia, where actual crime has reached a threatening level, is much higher than in Sweden. In this Scandinavian country, there is indeed a high recorded crime, but the scope of the criminal law is wider, there is less latent crime, more objective registration of acts, the police work more efficiently, and the recorded crime is structurally shifted to less dangerous crimes, while in Russia - to serious ones.
In Sweden, for example, in recent years, 8 premeditated murders have been registered per 100 thousand of the population, and in Russia - about 22, that is, almost 3 times more. The share of these acts in the structure of recorded crime in Sweden is 0.06%, and in Russia - 1.2, that is, 20 times higher. Many illegal acts in our country are considered administrative offenses, and in Sweden - crimes.
A similar disparity is observed between most countries. In France, all criminally punishable acts are divided into crimes, misdemeanors and violations. In other countries - for crimes and offenses.
Third, as, for example, in Russia, crimes and administrative offenses are different categories of illegal activity. There is also an incomparability in the number of index (publicly monitored) types of crimes. There are 8 of them in the USA, 22 in France, 24 in Germany, 70 in England and Wales, etc. Therefore, in comparative studies one should proceed not only from quantitative, but also from qualitative characteristics, legislative, organizational and others.
General criminological characteristics of crime in different countries and the world as a whole:
- crime exists in all states;
- its dominant motivation is the same everywhere;
- its level in the world and in the vast majority of countries is steadily increasing;
- the rate of its growth, as a rule, is several times higher than the rate of population growth;
- its structure is dominated by encroachments on property, the growth of which is more intense than encroachments on cash;
- the main subjects of crime are men, especially young men (at the same time, the process of the feminization of crime has been observed for a long time);
- the economic development of countries is not accompanied, as expected, by a decrease in crime;
- the criminal-legal fight against crime is going through a deep crisis;
- the prison is practically not re-educated;
- the death penalty does not restrain the growth of crime, etc.
If, on the basis of these common problems for all, we return to the criminological comparison of Sweden and Russia, it will be seen that over the past 40 years, crime in these countries, differing in level by almost an order of magnitude, has increased almost the same - 6 times.
Currently, there is a process of unification, transnationalization and internationalization of crime. This is facilitated by both positive processes of expanding international relations, improving international relations, intensifying population migration, increasing international trade and financial transactions, the unhindered dissemination of information, an increase in the exchange of cultural values, and negative processes of the exchange of "anti-values" (drugs, alcohol, weapons, pornography, prostitution, etc.).
With all the significant differences in the level of crime in different countries, the first and defining trend in the world is its absolute and relative growth in comparison with population growth, economic and cultural development, etc. This does not mean that crime in any country is always only growing ...
There are countries where it shrinks or stabilizes at some time. For example, in the United States, a slight decrease in crime was observed in 1982-1984, in France - in 1985-1988, in the Federal Republic of Germany - in 1984-1988, in the USSR - in 1986-1987. Each decline has its own reasons.
The crime rate per 100 thousand inhabitants in 1995 exceeded 8000 in developed countries, and 1500 in developing countries. This ratio seems illogical. But this fact is determined by many reasons, including legal, statistical, organizational, socio-economic, etc.
The economic, social, democratic development of countries not only does not lead to an automatic reduction in crime, but is usually accompanied by opposite processes, associated, in particular, with the loss of age-old traditional forms of social control. At the same time, there is a slow process of specific “humanization” of crime, that is, a shift from grave crimes against the individual to encroachment on property.
In this regard, the American criminologist G. Newman believes that the developed and rich countries, despite the clearly higher number of property crimes, in practice can feel the influence of these acts much weaker than the poor countries where the struggle for limited means of subsistence comes to the extermination of people ...
He gives an original comparison: if you drop a brick (low crime) into a small puddle (weak economy), then it will all splash out, but if you throw several bricks into a large pond (developed economy) (high property crime), then the impact of such throws will hardly be noticeably.
The highest crime rate and relatively high rates of its growth are registered in the most developed democratic countries. In the 60-90s, crime in the United States increased more than 7 times, in England and Wales - 6, in France - 5, in the USSR - 3.7, in Germany - 3, and only in Japan - in 1.5 times. The number of crimes per 100 thousand of the population in the United States for eight types of index crime amounted to 6 thousand acts, and in the whole - about 15 thousand, in Great Britain, France, Germany - 8-10 thousand and in Japan 1.5 thousand.
The Japanese criminological phenomenon is exceptional. Japan not only managed to go over to democracy and intensive industrial development without destroying traditional culture, reliable family, communal and industrial social control, but also improved and modernized it.
Relatively low crime rates are recorded in countries with tight social control.
American criminologist F. Adler, based on the data of the First UN Survey, chose 10 countries with different levels of economic and democratic development, but with a relatively low crime rate (Algeria, Bulgaria, East Germany, Ireland, Costa Rica, Nepal, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland , Japan). They had only one thing in common - strict social control over unlawful behavior: party, police, religious, clan, community, industrial, family.
The lowest crime rate is observed in countries with totalitarian (fascist, religious fundamentalist, communist and other authoritarian) regimes, where the fight against crime is often conducted by its own Methods. But such “effective” control is nothing more than a violation of human rights or an uncriminalized abuse of power against one's people. The victims of such abuses are, according to international documents, equated to the victims of crimes.
Their presence many times compensates for the low level of criminal crime.
Optimal is strict legal democratic control of crime, implemented with strict observance of human rights.
The general unfavorable dynamics of crime in the world is traditionally affected by different tendencies of the main groups of crimes - violent and mercenary.
The share of violent crimes in the structure of all crime in the world and in individual countries is small. In different countries, it ranges from 5-10% or more. At the same time, one must bear in mind the great incomparability of data on violent acts. In the United States, four types of violent crime are counted: premeditated murder, rape, assault, and robbery (robbery). The latter is not a purely violent act, but a selfish and violent act. In Russia, about 50 types of violent crimes are counted.
But even such an “ancient” act as premeditated murder is statistically differently understood: in the United States it is counted according to victims, and in Russia and in some other countries - according to events. In Russia, murders are counted with attempts, and in the United States, attempts are qualified as a conventional attack. And in these countries, and in others, there are many other features that should be taken into account in comparative studies. But with all the differences that exist, violent ones, like other types of criminal behavior, have common patterns.
The dynamics of violent crime are generally “conservative”. It slowly and weakly reacts to situational changes in life, its growth rates are small, and in some countries, especially developed ones, there are tendencies towards stabilization and even decline.
High homicide rates in both developed and developing countries are found in large cities.
In developed countries, mercenary or property crimes dominate. Their share in the structure of crime reaches 95% and more. It is these acts that determine the main trend of an intensive growth in crime in general, and especially in developed countries. The growth rate of mercenary crime is usually 2-3 times higher than that of violent crime.
In addition to selfish acts, juvenile and youth criminality is also included among the components of the overall growth in crime in the world; an increase in the public danger of the acts being committed and the damage caused; intellectualization of criminal activity, increasing its organization, technical equipment, armament and self-defense of criminals from detention and exposure.
Another major trend in the field of crime is the gradual lag in social control over crime. The reasons can be negative (weakening of the fight against crime) and positive (humanization, democratization and legitimization of this struggle).
In the system "crime - fighting it" crime is primary. The fight against it is just a response of society and the state to its challenge. The answer is not always timely, adequate, targeted and effective.
Crime is active, proactive, it has a market "character". She instantly fills all the niches that appear and accessible to her, uncontrolled or poorly controlled by society, constantly invents new sophisticated ways of committing crimes and does not bind herself with any rules.
Law enforcement activities are developed collectively, within the framework of democratic and humanistic institutions and principles, formalized in notarial legal, managerial, operational and procedural decisions and only then put into practice.
Individual prevention is permissible only within the framework of social, material, psychological and pedagogical assistance to the subject who needs it. But it is unacceptable in terms of any responsibility. Responsibility can be a legalized reaction of the state to a specific illegal behavior of the subject. But due to this, the control of society over crime objectively lags behind the pace and scale of its growth.
A comparative assessment of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of crime, its causes and means of prevention in different countries shows that there is a lot in common. All this allows us to consider that crime prevention, elimination of the causes and conditions that give rise to it, are becoming a common, international problem.
In such a situation, it is advisable in all respects, including in economic terms, to unite the efforts of criminologists, to practice more broadly the international division of labor in preventive activities, in the study of criminological problems that are equally significant within the international community.
The solution of joint preventive programs is being implemented in stages. Among the factors that are taken into account when determining the order of development of certain aspects of this complex problem, it is necessary to name quantitative and qualitative indicators. They characterize the state, structure, dynamics of certain types of crimes in cooperating countries; circumstances conducive to these crimes; signs of similarities and differences in national prevention systems; economic feasibility and the possibility of joint preventive measures.
Of interest is the mechanism of international cooperation in the fight against crime (its directions and forms), which is reflected in the comprehensive strategy for combating international crime created in America. While this is the first time such a strategy has been formulated, it builds on existing documents, such as the national drug strategy and presidential directives to combat the smuggling of foreigners, counter terrorism and improve the safety and security of storing nuclear materials.
The new strategy is an important initiative, including from the point of view of enhancing the capabilities of US law enforcement officers in effective cooperation with their foreign counterparts, in particular, in investigating crimes of an international character and bringing their organizers and perpetrators to justice.
It is planned to conclude new international agreements on the creation effective system rapid detection, arrest and extradition of wanted international criminals; and the adoption of stricter immigration laws.
The American leadership promises to reconsider its attitude to the fight against international financial crimes. Namely: to prevent the legalization of illegally obtained funds; to increase the level of bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the fight against all types of financial crimes; identify offshore centers of international fraud, counterfeit money making, computer hacking and other financial crimes.
New in the activities of law enforcement agencies will be the prevention of exploitation by criminal elements of the international trade system. Particular attention will be paid to the interception of illegally exported technologies, the protection of intellectual property rights, the fight against economic espionage, the establishment of restrictions on the import of certain harmful substances, dangerous organisms, as well as plants and animals protected by the Red Book.
The flexibility of the system for combating international syndicates will be ensured through active responses to new, unforeseen threats from their side. This will require: strengthening intelligence activities in relation to criminal enterprises and organizations; stepping up action against high-tech and computer-related crime; continuation of analytical work to identify and eliminate vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and new high-level technologies.
In addition to direct cooperation with representatives of law enforcement agencies abroad, the American program aims to intensify the joint activities of various states in confronting international criminals. There is a need to establish generally accepted norms, goals and targets to combat them and to actively work to ensure their adherence and implementation.
The positive aspects of the crime prevention system in economically developed countries are, firstly, their active participation in international anti-crime cooperation, secondly, the development of national (state) and local crime prevention programs, and thirdly, effective forms of involving the population in the fight against offenses. ...
Generalization of the experience of cooperation between law enforcement agencies and scientific institutions of the countries of Central and of Eastern Europe, USA, Japan in the fight against crime allows us to name the following forms of cooperation as the most effective and practically implemented in modern conditions: mutual consultations with the aim of developing national and international strategies in the field of crime prevention in each of the cooperating countries; planning joint programs to combat the most dangerous types of crimes of an international nature; development of current and long-term cooperation programs in the field of crime prevention; exchange of experience in organizing and carrying out preventive measures.
Here, as practice shows, the most attainable forms of exchange can be: exchange of special literature; exchange of information on methods of committing, concealing and revealing offenses; exchange of information on means of neutralizing circumstances conducive to offenses; exchange of research results; exchange of delegations of practical and scientific workers, holding international congresses, seminars, symposia, colloquia, etc.
The exchange of experience is also facilitated by such practical measures as: expansion of international specialization and cooperation in the development of measures aimed at eliminating the causes and conditions conducive to offenses; development of direct links between law enforcement agencies, scientific organizations; development of existing and creation of new international legal, economic and other organizations, solving problems of general and special prevention of crimes; exchange of specialists; joint preparation of textbooks, monographs, teaching aids, collections scientific papers etc.; joint preparation of information, proposals, draft legislative acts; mutual assistance in training; coordination of current and long-term plans to combat offenses; joint research and implementation of them into practice.
International cooperation in the field of combating crime and protecting law and order, ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms is currently happening at three levels.
Cooperation at the bilateral level. This makes it possible to more fully take into account the nature of relations between the two states, their interests on each issue. At this level, the most widespread is the provision of legal assistance in criminal cases, the extradition of criminals, the transfer of convicted persons to serve their sentences in the state of which they are citizens.
Cooperation of states at the regional level. This is due to the interests and nature of relations between these countries (for example, among the member states of the Council of Europe, CIS).
Cooperation of states within the framework of multilateral agreements (treaties). The main content of multilateral agreements (treaties) on the joint fight against individual crimes is the recognition by the parties of these acts on their territory as criminal and ensuring the inevitability of their punishment.
The main directions of international cooperation in the fight against crime:
- the conclusion and implementation of treaties on the fight against crimes that pose an international danger;
- providing legal assistance in criminal matters, including extradition;
- development of international norms and standards to ensure the protection of human rights in the field of law enforcement;
- regulation of issues of national and international jurisdiction
- recognition and use of decisions of foreign bodies in administrative and criminal cases;
- interaction in the prevention, detection, suppression and disclosure of crimes.
Here we are talking primarily about:
- violent crimes against life, health, freedom and dignity of the person, as well as against property;
- terrorist acts;
- corruption and organized crime;
- illegal circulation of weapons, ammunition, explosive and poisonous substances, as well as radioactive materials;
- illegal production and circulation of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as substances used in the process of their manufacture;
- economic crimes, including legalization of proceeds from criminal activity;
- production and sale of counterfeit banknotes, documents, securities and non-cash payments;
- criminal attacks on cultural and historical values;
- transport crimes;
- protection of public order;
- material and technical support for the activities of the parties;
- training and professional development of personnel.
Implementation of the main provisions of international cooperation
in the fight against crime occurs in the following forms:
- exchange of information on impending or committed crimes and persons involved in them;
- execution of requests for conducting operational-search measures and investigative actions;
- search for persons hiding from criminal prosecution or execution of a sentence, as well as missing persons;
- exchange of information on new types of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances that have appeared in illegal circulation, on the technologies for their manufacture and the substances used in this, as well as on new methods of research and identification of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances;
- exchange of work experience, including conducting internships, consultations and seminars;
- exchange of legislative and other normative legal acts;
- exchange on a mutually beneficial basis of scientific and technical literature and information on the activities of the parties.
The same Council coordinates cooperation between states in crime prevention. The problems of combating crime have been repeatedly discussed at sessions of the UN General Assembly, at meetings of the UN Economic and Social Council, in the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control. The UN member states annually submit to the Secretary General reports on the state of crime in their countries, on the system for combating certain types of crime.
In turn, the UN publishes special statistical collections on the state, structure, dynamics of crime in the world, criminal policy, and features of national legislation. The UN General Assembly initiates the development of international and national programs to combat the most dangerous and widespread types of crime.
In her field of vision, in particular, there were issues of combating juvenile and youth crime, economic crime, the problem of drug trafficking, money laundering, acquired by criminal means, etc.
The commission (committee) submits to ECOSOC recommendations and proposals aimed at a more effective fight against crime and humane treatment of offenders. In addition, the General Assembly entrusted this body with the functions of preparing, once every 5 years, UN congresses on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders.
The UN congresses play a pivotal role in the development of international rules, standards and recommendations for crime prevention and criminal justice. To date, 9 congresses have been held, the decisions of which have significantly advanced the issues of international cooperation on a reliable scientific and legal basis.
In 1971, the Committee (consisting of 27 experts) for the prevention and control of crime was created and still operates.
He is a member of the UN Council on Economic and Social Affairs. The functions of the Committee include: developing a UN crime control policy, developing targeted programs, providing advisory assistance to the Secretary General and UN bodies, preparing international congresses and regional meetings, developing information materials and draft resolutions on crime prevention.
The Committee interacts with voluntary societies, non-governmental organizations for the prevention of UN crime, periodically publishes reviews on trends in crime and crime prevention measures. In order to avoid distorting the impact on statistics of differences in national criminal legislation, such types of crimes as premeditated murder, negligent murder, assault, kidnapping, drug-related crimes, bribery and corruption are highlighted.
Among the subjects of cooperation in the fight against crime, non-governmental organizations with consultative status with the UN stand out: the International Association of Criminal Law (IAPL), the International Criminological Society (ICS), the International Society for Social Protection (ISSP) and the International Criminal and Penitentiary Fund (IUPF) ).
Their work is coordinated by the International Coordination Committee (ICC). It is usually called the "Committee of Four" and synthesizes all the major research and works in liaison with the UN Vienna Center. In fact, it has been operating since 1960, and legally since 1982.
Joint actions of four international organizations seriously influence the international policy of the United Nations in the field of combating crime. The activities of the Committee of Four are primarily related to the functioning of the international community in preparation for the UN congresses. He has a consultative status with ECOSOC, and also prepares colloquia, coordinates the work of associations, together with UN centers invites other international organizations to cooperate, advises the UN Fund against Drug Abuse, collaborates with the World Society of Victimology and the World Federation for Mental Health.
One of the most influential international organizations involved in ensuring cooperation in the fight against crime is the ICO. It is an amalgamation of national institutions and specialists. The main goal of the ICO, according to the Charter of the organization, is to promote the study of crime at the international level, uniting for this the efforts of scientists and practitioners in the field of criminology, forensic science, psychology, sociology and other disciplines.
As part of its activities, MCO organizes international congresses, seminars, colloquia, publishes their materials; assists in scientific exchange between national scientific and educational centers; organizes international criminological training courses for scientific personnel; organizes, together with other international organizations and national scientific institutions, regional international criminological centers; institutes and awards scholarships and awards to stimulate the development of criminological science.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) occupies a special place in international cooperation. It was established in 1923 in Vienna, initially as an international commission of the criminal police. It was revived after the Second World War, in 1946, in Paris, and since 1989 its seat is Lyon.
From a non-governmental organization, Interpol has turned into an intergovernmental organization and currently unites more than 170 states (including Russia), second only in terms of representativeness to the UN, of which about 180 states are members.
Unlike other international organizations, Interpol has national central bureaus (NCBs) in each country. According to the statute, Interpol ensures and develops mutual cooperation of criminal police bodies within the framework of the laws in force in their countries, creates and develops institutions that can contribute to the prevention of criminal offenses. His main work is organizing cooperation on specific criminal cases, i.e. receiving, analyzing and transmitting information from the NCB and for them.
The main activity of Interpol is the fight against:
- organized crime;
- international terrorism;
- theft of property;
- serious crimes against the person;
- counterfeiting and forgery;
- drug business.
Exchange of information, experience, assistance in the search and arrest of criminals, the development and implementation of preventive programs of Interpol become more and more relevant as the internationalization of crime. The creation of a united Europe, the opening of borders and visa-free travel within the European community will require additional efforts by international units to combat crime. Within the framework of Interpol, a Europol department has been created to combat hostage-taking, counterfeiting, buying stolen goods, sending gold, selling weapons and bank checks.
The UN and other international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations make great efforts to organize and implement effective international cooperation to prevent and combat crime.
They own colossal data banks, regulatory materials, data from criminological and criminal-legal, criminal-political research, which can be used by each country in order to more effectively combat national and transnational crime.
CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINOLOGY; CRIMINAL EXECUTIVE LAW
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION OF STATES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CRIME El'yazov O.A.
Elyazov Orkhan Arzu - Master's student, Faculty of Law, Russian State Social University, Moscow
Resume: This article examines the legal and organizational foundations of international cooperation of states in the fight against crime, and also concludes that the Russian Federation, in the framework of the fight against international crime, needs to continue to improve its national legislation in the field of combating crime, taking into account the rule-making work United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Key words: struggle, states, international crime, cooperation.
International cooperation in the fight against crime is understood as the unification of efforts of states and other participants in international relations in order to increase the effectiveness of crime prevention, fight against them and the correction of offenders. The need to expand and deepen international cooperation in the fight against crime is due to both qualitative and quantitative changes in crime itself, the growth of "foreign investments" in the total mass of crimes of individual states.
Organizationally, international cooperation in the fight against crime is led by the UN. From the content of Article 1 of the UN Charter1 it follows that, among other tasks, this organization is called upon to ensure international cooperation of states. Under Chapter 10 of the UN Charter, the implementation of this task is entrusted to the UN Economic and Social Council. Among the subjects of work on cooperation in the fight against crime, there are also non-governmental organizations with consultative status with the UN, as well as Interpol.
Currently, the UN and other international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations are making great efforts to organize and implement effective international cooperation to prevent and combat crime. They own colossal data banks, regulatory materials, data from criminological and criminal-legal, criminal-political research, which can be used by each country in order to more effectively combat national and transnational crime.
However, the activities of these organizations are very strictly regulated by numerous regulations governing the international fight against crime2.
Since the approval and ratification of these normative acts, in most cases, is a sovereign affair of a particular state, it can be assumed that
1 Charter of the United Nations Adopted in San Francisco on 06/26/1945 // Collection of existing treaties, agreements and conventions concluded by the USSR with foreign states. Issue XII. M., 1956.S. 14-47.
2 See, for example: Charter of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) (as amended on 01.01.1986) // National Central Bureau of Interpol in the Russian Federation. M., 1994.S. 17-30.
that all these organizations are still very limited in their capabilities and means, and can not always act effectively. In addition, these organizations may be dependent on specific states - due to the participation of states in their financing, or due to the factor of their location on the territory of a particular state.
To date, international cooperation in the field of combating crime and protecting law and order, ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms occurs at three levels1:
1) Cooperation at the bilateral level. This makes it possible to more fully take into account the nature of relations between the two states, their interests on each issue. At this level, the most widespread is the provision of legal assistance in criminal cases, the extradition of criminals, the transfer of convicted persons to serve their sentences in the state of which they are citizens.
2) Cooperation of states at the regional level. This is due to the interests and nature of relations between these countries (for example, among the member countries of the Council of Europe, APEC, CIS, etc.).
3) Cooperation of states within the framework of multilateral agreements (treaties). The main content of multilateral agreements (treaties) on the joint fight against individual crimes is the recognition by the parties of these acts on their territory as criminal and ensuring the inevitability of their punishment.
The international fight against crime is one of the many areas of cooperation between states. Like all cooperation, it develops on a single basis of the basic or general principles of their communication historically formed in international law. These principles are specified normatively in two large groups of documents:
1) International pacts, agreements and conventions that form general principles and vectors of international cooperation in the field of combating crime. A special place in and the environment belongs to the documents adopted by the UN.
2) Treaties that shape the policy and practice of states in their joint fight against crime.
Most multilateral crime conventions establish that the offenses recorded in them fall under the jurisdiction of the state in whose territory they were committed, or if they were committed on board a ship or aircraft registered in that state, or if the alleged offender is a citizen of that state. the state. Also, many conventions provide for the jurisdiction of the state in whose territory the alleged offender was found.
At the same time, at the present time it cannot be argued that the practice of combating international crime has developed completely - on the contrary, it is developing under the influence of a number of economic, social and political trends.
The problem of improving international cooperation in the field of combating crime is currently one of the most urgent in the activities of law enforcement agencies in developed countries of the world. Modern crime has acquired qualitatively new forms, its self-serving orientation has increased, the number of crimes with international connections has significantly increased, and an increasing number of international criminal groups are being discovered.
It can be assumed that large international organizations, primarily the UN, have the greatest potential in countering modern crime. This is due to both regulatory, legal and social factors.
1 S.V. Borodin International cooperation in the fight against criminal crime. Moscow: Legal Literature, 2003.S. 201.
It can be argued that, in fact, from the moment of its creation, the UN has formed a system of bodies to combat crime. In general, the main UN bodies in the fight against crime are the UN congresses, the CCPCU, UNODC, and the CTC, which, in their totality, promptly resolve the tasks assigned to them1.
The most important role in coordinating the international fight against crime is played by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The areas of activity of this organization are as follows:
1) organized crime and illegal trade;
2) corruption;
3) crime prevention and criminal justice reform;
4) prevention of drug abuse and health;
5) prevention of terrorism.
In addition, UNODC analyzes emerging crime and justice trends, develops databases, produces global surveys, collects and disseminates information, and conducts country-specific needs assessments and early warning measures such as the escalation of terrorism, and plays a critical role in the context of UN lawmaking2.
Currently, the UN documents on crime prevention and criminal justice are based on the United Nations Charter as a fundamental source of international law and are the most important result of the priority direction of the UN charter activities to promote conditions for social progress and development, to promote universal respect and observance of human rights.
Most of the materials are approved by the resolutions of the main UN bodies and are of a recommendatory nature. At the same time, certain formulations of the materials of PLO congresses are included in international treaties or become part of the body of norms of customary international law, that is, they contribute to its unification3.
Russian law, in the noted process of unification, is no exception. The facts of the signing and ratification by Russia of the UN conventions aimed at combating terrorism, transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, corruption, and the subsequent transformation of the national legislation of the Russian Federation testify to the unconditional influence of acts of UN congresses on Russian legislation in the field of criminal justice4.
In addition, the acts of the UN congresses are reflected in the criminal, criminal procedural, criminal-executive legislation of the Russian Federation, as well as in practical criminology.
At the same time, it can be noted that the state of legal regulation in the field of criminal justice cannot be considered perfect. It is necessary to continue the unification of national legislation in the field of combating crime, primarily in accordance with the universal UN standards. In this regard, it is necessary to take into account the experience of the UN in the prevention of crime, as well as current trends in international cooperation of the state in the field of combating crime, indicate that the most important condition for the successful fight against crimes of an international character is the implementation of
1 Bastrykin A.M. Forms and directions of cooperation between states in the fight against crime // Bulletin of Moscow State University, 2007. Ser. 6. Right. No. 3. S. 52-53.
2 Naumov A.V., Kibalnik A.G. International criminal law 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. M .: Yurayt, 2013.S. 120.
3 Kvashis V. Crime as a global threat // Legal World, 2011. No. 10. P. 21.
4 Kayumova A.R. Problems of the theory of international criminal law. Kazan: Center for Innovative Technologies, 2012.S. 202.
legal assistance in criminal cases, including the extradition of persons who have committed a crime (extradition).
Extradition becomes an effective means of combating crime only when it is regulated by domestic law. In this regard, we recommend developing and adopting a federal law "On the extradition (extradition) of a person for criminal prosecution or execution of a sentence, or a person sentenced to imprisonment to serve a sentence in the country of which he is a citizen." This law should provide for universal principles, procedures and grounds for extradition.
Concluding this article, we note that modern cooperation between states in the fight against crime is the most important component of international relations, without which the existence of the modern world order is impossible.
Bibliography
1. Charter of the United Nations Adopted in San Francisco on 06/26/1945 // Collection of existing treaties, agreements and conventions concluded by the USSR with foreign states. Issue XII. M., 1956.S. 14-47.
2. Charter of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) (as amended on 01.01.1986) // National Central Bureau of Interpol in the Russian Federation. M., 1994.S. 17-30.
3. Bastrykin A.M. Forms and directions of cooperation between states in the fight against crime // Bulletin of Moscow State University, 2007. Ser. 6. Right. No. 3. S. 52-56.
4. Borodin S.V. International cooperation in the fight against criminal crime. M .: Legal literature, 2003.308 p.
5. Kayumova A.R. Problems of the theory of international criminal law. Kazan: Center for Innovative Technologies, 2012.278 p.
6. Kvashis V. Crime as a global threat // Legal world, 2011. No. 10. P. 20-27.
7. Naumov A.V., Kibalnik A.G. International criminal law 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. M .: Yurayt, 2013.320 p.
OBJECT OF CRIME AGAINST GOVERNANCE ORDER IN CRIMINAL LAW OF RUSSIA Kovalev A.A.
Kovalev Andrey Anatolyevich - student, Law Institute, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk
Resume: the article is devoted to the study of the object of crimes against the management order. The study substantiates the need to distinguish in the criminal law such a category as “the interests of the governing bodies”. Key words: management order, object of management, interests of management bodies, crimes against state power, criminal law policy, the nature and degree of public danger, a representative of the authorities.
In the theory of criminal law, crimes against the order of administration belong to the least studied group of socially dangerous acts. To some extent, the less active interest of scientists in this group of crimes can be explained by the role of