Asset Recovery Network (UK) Limited aims to significantly reduce illicit financial flows globally and strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organised crime.
United Nations Sustainable Development, Goal: 16
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, United Nations, 2015.
The Action Agenda established a strong foundation to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It provided a new global framework for financing sustainable development by aligning all financing flows and policies with economic, social and environmental priorities.
The Addis Ababa Action Agenda was adopted at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 13-16 July 2015) and subsequently endorsed by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 69/313 of 27 July 2015. The Action Agenda establishes a strong foundation to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It provides a new global framework for financing sustainable development by aligning all financing flows and policies with economic, social and environmental priorities. It includes a comprehensive set of policy actions, with over 100 concrete measures that draw upon all sources of finance, technology, innovation, trade, debt and data, in order to support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The relevant policy actions covering illicit financial flows and the return and recovery of stolen assets, or assets obtained in breach of contract, are as follows:
18. Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. We underline the need to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for achieving sustainable development, and to build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. Good governance, rule of law, human rights, fundamental freedoms, equal access to fair justice systems, and measures to combat corruption and curb illicit financial flows will be integral to our efforts.
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23. We will redouble efforts to substantially reduce illicit financial flows by 2030, with a view to eventually eliminating them, including by combating tax evasion and corruption through strengthened national regulation and increased international cooperation. We will also reduce opportunities for tax avoidance and consider inserting anti-abuse clauses in all tax treaties. We will enhance disclosure practices and transparency in both source and destination countries, including by seeking to ensure transparency in all financial transactions between Governments and companies to relevant tax authorities. We will make sure that all companies, including multinationals, pay taxes to the Governments of countries where economic activity occurs and value is created, in accordance with national and international laws and policies.
24. We note the report of the High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa. We invite other regions to carry out similar exercises. To help combat illicit flows, we invite the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the United Nations to assist both source and destination countries. We also invite appropriate international institutions and regional organizations to publish estimates of the volume and composition of illicit financial flows. We will identify, assess and act on money-laundering risks, including through effective implementation of the Financial Action Task Force standards on anti-money-laundering/counter-terrorism financing. At the same time, we will encourage information-sharing among financial institutions to mitigate the potential impact of the anti-money-laundering and combating the financing of terrorism standard on reducing access to financial services.
25. We urge all countries that have not yet done so to ratify and accede to the United Nations Convention against Corruption and encourage parties to review its implementation. We commit to making the Convention an effective instrument to deter, detect, prevent and counter corruption and bribery, prosecute those involved in corrupt activities, and recover and return stolen assets to their country of origin. We encourage the international community to develop good practices on asset return. We support the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the United Nations and the World Bank, and other international initiatives that support the recovery of stolen assets. We further urge that regional conventions against corruption be updated and ratified. We will strive to eliminate safe havens that create incentives for transfer abroad of stolen assets and illicit financial flows. We will work to strengthen regulatory frameworks at all levels to further increase transparency and accountability of financial institutions and the corporate sector, as well as public administrations. We will strengthen international cooperation and national institutions to combat money-laundering and financing of terrorism.
