2014 OSCE Annual Police Experts Meeting on "Enhancing Cross-border Co-operation of the Criminal Justice System in Combating Transnational Crime in the OSCE Area"

The 2014 Annual Police Experts Meeting, jointly organized by the Swiss OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office and the OSCE Transnational Threats Department's Strategic Police Matters Unit, will address direct cross-border co-operation between law enforcement agencies and the judiciary with the aim to provide a platform for national authorities to exchange views and to improve the inter-agency mechanisms of co-operation in view of speeding up the joint responses against transnational criminal activities.

The global challenge of transnational organized crime cannot be addressed effectively without a close cross-border co-operation between the police and other elements of the criminal justice system, such as border and customs agencies, prosecutors and judges.

As the transnational nature of most of today’s serious crimes requires immediate, effective and professional cooperation, there is a need to ensure quick and smooth co-operation mechanisms, not only between police authorities, but also involving a thorough and well prepared follow-up and co-ordination between law enforcement and justice. While significant efforts have been undertaken in recent years to achieve a certain streamlining between police and judicial cooperation, many challenges remain yet to be resolved.

The 2014 Annual Police Experts Meeting will be dedicated to the different forms and possibilities of such co-operation. On the basis of concrete examples, best practices of co-operation mechanisms involving law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and judges will be presented and the challenges of such co-operation discussed.

Practitioners from relevant bodies of the criminal justice systems (law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, judges) of the OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation will elaborate on the possibilities, best practices and challenges of co-operation at the bilateral, regional and international levels in the OSCE Area.

Interpretation will be provided in all OSCE official languages.