News

EU Sanctions Proposals: what do they mean and what to look out for

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday the development of a Directive on criminal penalties for the violation of Union law on restrictive measures and for new measures to be introduced under their planned Directive on asset recovery and confiscation. Under the new proposals, new EU-wide rules would come into force that cover several aspects related not only to the sanctions implemented with respect to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also more generally to other sanctions regimes and to asset recovery more generally.

New UK asset recovery framework: important elements for civil society

In 2022, the UK government published a new Framework for transparent and accountable asset return, designed to ‘ensure consistency, transparency, and accountability’ in the return of funds by the UK government. This framework relates to funds returned under both Articles 57(3)(a) or (b) of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) - in other words obligatory returns of funds stolen through corruption - and under Article 57(3)(c) of UNCAC, in cases where the return is discretionary. It therefore encompasses the majority of asset recovery cases the UK government might engage in. This post sets out what elements of this may be important to note for civil society working on asset recovery.

CiFAR “Investigate West Africa” programme: looking ahead

In May 2021, we launched the third installment of our “Investigate” training series, this time targeting francophone and anglophone journalists from West Africa and Europe. In partnership with the investigative center CENOZO, based in Burkina Faso, and other partner journalists from the OCCRP and the ICIJ, and supported by GIZ, we trained and mentored a cohort of 30 journalists to develop and publish their own financial investigations.