TCI News
TCI: DPP’s attendance at 24th Conference of IAP
#Providenciales, September 26, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Eugene Otuonye, Q.C. was among the thousands of Prosecutors and Prosecutorial Agencies who gathered at the 24th Annual Conference and Meeting of the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina from the 15th – 19th of September 2019. The theme of the Conference was “International Cooperation A cross Different Legal Systems”.
Through Plenaries, Workshops and Special Interest Group sessions, the Conference deliberated on wide-ranging issues and challenges facing Prosecutors world-wide as they endeavor to discharge their prosecutorial mandate which is a key and critical part of the criminal justice system.
The Conference largely focused on dismantling the barriers to international cooperation among prosecutorial and investigative agencies to facilitate effective investigations and successful prosecutions of national and trans-national organized crimes that threaten the security and the economic, social and political well-being of peoples across the globe. These crimes include fraud, money laundering, bribery and corruption, human trafficking and associated offences, Firearms-related crimes, terrorism and financing of terrorism, among others.
The Conference also offered a platform to show case the IAP’s Prosecutors’ Exchange Programme by which prosecutorial skills, expertise, best practices and benchmarking are exchanged among members. The TCI Office of the DPP recently benefitted from this programme with the placement of a Specialist Prosecutor from Scotland in the TCI Office of the DPP for 6 weeks with financial sponsorship from Scotland Government and the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. It is in connection with this programme that the DPP, Mr. Otuonye, Q.C. was specially invited to make a well – received presentation to this gathering of world Prosecutors.
The IAP was established in 1995 at Vienna in Austria, under the auspices of the United Nations as the first and only worldwide organization of Prosecutors. Today, the IAP has organizational and individual membership of more than 300,000 Prosecutors from over 177 different countries and territories.
Commenting on the Conference, Mr. Otuonye said:
“It was such an honour to make presentation and, in the process, introduce the TCI as “beautiful by nature” to such a high-profile global stage. It was also a unique opportunity to network and establish relationships with Prosecutors from different parts of the world who possess cutting-edge specialties, expertise and experiences from whom we can easily draw assistance in times of needs”.
Eugene Otuonye, Q.C.
Director of Public Prosecutions