The Annual general meeting of the Interagency Network for Asset Recovery in Western and Central Asia (ARIN–WCA) was held

At the headquarters of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna (Austria) The Annual General Meeting of the participating States of the Informal Interagency Network for Asset Recovery in Western and Central Asia (ARIN-WCA) was held under the chairmanship of Iran.

The meeting was organized by the Law Enforcement Academy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which serves as the Secretariat of the ARIN-WCA network together with UNODC.

The main purpose of the event is to summarize the work done in this area in 2023, as well as further expand interdepartmental international cooperation on the return of criminal assets.

More than 30 delegates from 10 countries attended the event including employees of the Prosecutor's Office, internal affairs, foreign affairs, justice, financial intelligence, anti-corruption and investigative agencies of Azerbaijan, Belgium, Britain, Iran, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, representatives of the Secretariats of the CARIN (Europol) and GlobE networks, as well as experts from UNODC, OSCE and the World Bank (StAR).

The meeting discussed the work done by the ARIN-WCA member countries in the field of criminal asset recovery, issues of effective network management and expansion of cooperation within its framework, and problems in practice. The participants presented best practices and successful asset recovery practices.

Also, within the framework of the general meeting, a training seminar was organized for representatives of the participating countries of the ARIN-WCA network on the topic: "Recovery of criminal assets – investigation and activities of asset recovery offices", in which experts from the CARIN network (Europol), UNODC, Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands presented effective mechanisms and legal tools for asset recovery from foreign countries by asset recovery offices, as well as shared their experience and best practices in this area.

In general, the events were held in a working and informative atmosphere, as a result of which the participants expressed their readiness for further active cooperation in the field of asset recovery and the development of ARIN-WCA.