Topic A: Globalization of Organized Crime Recent Developments According to Project ENACT, published in December 2018, INTERPOL found that transnational crime groups are starting to converge across the continent of Africa 1. Intraregional conflicts, such as Boko Haram in West Africa, Al-Shabaab in East Africa, and Al Qaeda/ISIS in North Africa, are beginning to expand and overlap in their regional influences, thus affecting a greater segment of Africa. The operations of these groups cover a wide range of interconnected illicit trafficking, from human trafficking and poaching to drug trade and arms smuggling 2. In 2015, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015. However, since then, there has been instances of fragmentation in the group, with conflict between the smaller factions, leading to increased violence 3. The result of this violence has led to the internal displacement of millions of people, the deterioration of health, educational, and rural infrastructure, stunted economic development 4, as well as blocking means of accessing aid 5. According to the same report, development of technology in Africa, while still quite undeveloped in terms of infrastructure, opens conduits through which criminal networks can communicate with one another and obtain greater resources. Such means have included spam and malware, ransomware, more effective means of identity theft 6, and increasing weaponry technology 7. The increasingly overlapping influence of these groups, and others like them in other parts of the world, necessitates a more cohesive solution, at the international, interregional, and intergovernmental level. 1 Transnational crime converging across Africa, INTERPOL, 14 December, 2018, accessed 20 December, 2018. https://www.interpol.int/news-and-media/news/2018/n2018-148 2 Ibid. 3 Boko Haram, Counter Terrorism Project, accessed 2 January, 2019. https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/boko-haram 4 Boko Haram s Deadly Impact, Council on Foreign Relations, 20 August, 2018, accessed 1 January, 2018. https://www.cfr.org/article/boko-harams-deadly-impact 5 Al-Shabaab and Somalia s Spreading Famine, Council on Foreign Relations, 10 August, 2011, accessed 2 January, 2019. https://www.cfr.org/interview/al-shabaab-and-somalias-spreading-famine 6 Transnational crime converging across Africa, INTERPOL, 14 December, 2018, accessed 20 December, 2018. https://www.interpol.int/news-and-media/news/2018/n2018-148 7 Muibu, Disney, and Benjamin P. Nickels, Foreign Technology or Local Expertise? Al-Shabaab s IED Capacity, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 10, no. 10 (2017), accessed 21 December, 2018. https://ctc.usma.edu/foreign-technology-or-local-expertise-al-shabaabs-ied-capability/
Global Political Instability and Globalization of Organized Crime Furthermore, developments in recent years have borne witness to the largest threat facing democracy in decades 8, with political rights, civil liberties, and fair elections coming increasingly under attack. According to Freedom in the World, a U.S.-based index measuring civil liberties and political rights across the globe, 2017 marked the 12th consecutive year of overall decline in global freedom, 9 with the conditions of political rights and civil liberties determined from electoral process, rule of law, freedom of expression and belief, and individual rights, among other factors 10. Furthermore, the Human Freedom Index (HFI) observed a global decline in freedom since 2008 11. Political instability contributes to the decline of freedom from the state s inability to ensure the needs of its citizens are met and their grievances are heard, via either direct suppression or lack of control thereof. Political instability can result from a variety of causes: ongoing armed conflicts, popular discontent, socio-political issues, internal corruption, environmental crises, among others; the ensuing power vacuum from this instability opens a gateway for organized crime groups to take hold in compromised regions. Contemporary examples of instability in failed or struggling states include the Arab Republic of Syria from its concurrent ongoing civil war 12, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela amid its economic and sociopolitical crisis, and South Sudan and Somalia, as a result of ongoing civil war and environmental crisis from floods and drought 13. Internal displacement and mass emigration that follow destabilization create fault lines through which organized crime groups can acquire and transport resources. These populations are typically highly vulnerable and susceptible to criminal groups planting themselves in power. Modern transportation and telecommunications act as a means through which criminal operations can be carried out. Compromised regions, which often 8 Freedom in the World: Democracy in Crisis, Freedom House, accessed 21 December, 2018. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2018 9 Ibid. 10 About Freedom in the World: a study in political rights and civil liberties, Freedom House, accessed December 22, 2018. https://freedomhouse.org/report-types/freedom-world. 11 The Human Freedom Index 2018: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom, CATO Institute, accessed 22 December, 2018. https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/human-freedom-index-files/humanfreedom-index-2018-revised.pdf 12 Berti, Benedetta, and Jonathan Paris. Beyond Sectarianism: Geopolitics, Fragmentation, and the Syrian Civil War, The Institute for National Security Studies: Strategic Assessment, 16, no. 4 (2014), accessed 21 December, 2018. http://www.inss.org.il/he/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/systemfiles/systemfiles/beyond%20sectarianism.pdf 13 Alexandre Marc, Neelam Verjee, and Stephen Mogaka. The Challenge of Stability and Security in West Africa, Agence Française de Développement and the World Bank: African Forum Series, 2015, accessed 23 December, 2018.
suffer from a lack of resources to effectively track and handle crime, require the assistance of other nations to help their policing efforts. Combating Organized Crime Currently, there remain insufficient mechanisms for cooperation at the interregional and international level to combat transnational organized crime 14 ; the heterogeneity of laws, infrastructure, manpower and resources available, political stability, among other differences in capacity between states, make acting as a unified front difficult and cumbersome. INTERPOL, acting as an international organization, can help to this end through facilitating transnational action against organized crime. According to a report by Rice University s Baker Institute for Public Policy, The State itself needs to reformulate its institutions and the way they work bilaterally and in a global context, 15 stating that whereas the organizations which operate illicit transregional trafficking are more flexible, quick to move, and dynamic, the structure of states is largely bureaucratic and slow to act 16. International crime organizations can take advantage of the technological, commercial, and financial frameworks that carry other globalization processes 17, facilitated further by the lack of robust political stability in vulnerable regions to carry out transnational operations more fluidly. INTERPOL can help to circumvent the bureaucracy that impedes cohesive cooperation through their role as an international organization, both providing assistance to governments while also acting autonomously on an international scale. 14 Gachúz, Juan Carlos. Globalization and Organized Crime: Challenges for International Cooperation, Rice University s Baker Institute for Public Policy, 6 July, 2016, accessed 23 December, 2018. https://www.bakerinstitute.org/media/files/files/37efaacf/bi-brief-070616-mex_globalization.pdf 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid.
Topic B: Maritime Piracy Recent Actions From December 11 th to 13 th, INTERPOL held its first ever forum on Digital Forensics on Shipborne Equipment at the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore 18. The three-day meeting, organized by INTERPOL s Global Fisheries Enforcement team and Digital Forensics Lab of the Innovation Centre 19, aims to equip police around the globe with the skills necessary to identify and extract critical evidence from electronic equipment recovered from the vessels involved in illegal fishing, drug trafficking, maritime piracy, human trafficking, and firearms trafficking. Armed with this new technology, police can now attain information on the involved criminals and organized networks, trafficking and smuggling routes, modus operandi, and more by examining the data from recovered ships. Among the speakers were law enforcement experts from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States and private partners. In addition to sharing best practices on digital forensics, participants discussed the development of further guidelines, a manual and a training module for first responders and digital forensics officers. This forum not only demonstrates how INTERPOL plays an integral role in facilitating important discourse between member states but shows that the compiling of police technologies can prove effective in combatting crime across the globe. Case Study: West African Piracy In Africa, while piracy in Somalia s Gulf of Aden is currently on the decline, maritime piracy has spread to West Africa. In 2017, 33 incidents of piracy and robbery at sea, successful or otherwise, were reported within 12 nautical miles of the coastline; in 2011 there were ten. 20 Although most attacks in the region take place in Nigeria s Niger Delta region, there have also been attacks in Benin, Côte d Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Togo, among others. 18 INTERPOL spotlights role of digital forensics in maritime investigations. December 13, 2018 https://www.interpol.int/news-and-media/news/2018/n2018-149 19 Ibid 20 PIRACY AND ARMED ROBBERY AGAINST SHIPS IN WEST AFRICA 2017 OBP, http://oceansbeyondpiracy.org/reports/sop/west-africa
Unlike pirates along Somalia s coast, who are often only after ransom payments from captured hostages or vessels, pirates in West Africa primarily aim to steal goods and resources, most notably oil. As a result, West African pirate attacks do not only result in killings and injuries, but they also have a direct negative impact on the economy. In some cases, affected countries in West Africa have become less concerned with the direct losses from piracy than with the ways in which these losses affect international insurance rates and other trade-related costs. 21 As is often the case, corruption, weak law enforcement and poverty are the main causes of maritime piracy. This appears to be the case for Nigeria, for example, where the majority of recent African pirate attacks have occurred, driven mainly by corruption in the oil sector. When lines between legal and illegal supplies of Nigerian oil became blurry, pirates have an incentive to steal oil, since they know that they will be able to sell it on the black market without much repercussion. 22 The international community has expressed concern over the increasing number of reports of piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea. The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre reported that the range of attacks is increasing and the level of violence against crews is dangerously high. 23 In 2011, the UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning threats of piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf, 24 with Japan contributing $1 million to an International Maritime Organization West and Central Africa Maritime Security Trust Fund to curb piracy in the Gulf in March 2014 25. In response, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria have each established secure zones near major ports. These are clearly demarcated areas where ships can safely anchor to wait for a berth or conduct ship-to-ship (STS) cargo transfers. In Nigeria, private companies provide the ships, maintenance, logistics, and perform all scheduling and billing of clients. The armed forces supply the security personnel and weaponry. In Ghana, the Ports & Harbor Authority is responsible for providing security patrols. In Benin and Togo, the navies are responsible for patrols. 26 21 Ibid 22 Ibid 23 "Maritime industry worried overrising Nigerian pirate attacks". The Hindu Business Line. 24 April 2012. www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/article3349827.ece 24 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2018, October 31, 2011. 25 Japan Gives One Million Dollar Boost to Gulf of Guinea Fund, International Maritime Organization, March 17, 2014. 26 PIRACY AND ARMED ROBBERY AGAINST SHIPS IN WEST AFRICA 2017 OBP, http://oceansbeyondpiracy.org/reports/sop/west-africa