[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2212-2213]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      REMOVAL OF INJUNCTION OF SECRECY--TREATY DOCUMENT NO. 108-16

  Mr. FRIST. As in executive session, I ask unanimous consent the 
injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted 
to the Senate on February 23, 2004, by the President of the United 
States, U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Treaty 
Document 108-16.
  I further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read the 
first time; that it be referred with the accompanying papers to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the 
President's message be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The message of the President is as follows:
To the Senate of the United States:
  With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to 
ratification, I transmit herewith the United Nations Convention Against 
Transnational Organized Crime (the ``Convention''), as well as two 
supplementary protocols: (1) the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and 
Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and (2) 
the Protocol Against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, which 
were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 15, 
2000. The Convention and Protocols were signed by the United States on 
December 13, 2000, at Palermo, Italy.
  Accompanying the Convention and Protocols are interpretative notes 
for the official records (or ``travaux preparatoires'') that were 
prepared by the Secretariat of the Ad Hoc Committee that conducted the 
negotiations, based on discussions that took place throughout the 
process of negotiations. These notes are being submitted to the Senate 
for information purposes. I also transmit the report of the Department 
of State with respect to the Convention and Protocols.
  The Convention and Protocols are the first multilateral treaties to 
address the phenomenon of transnational organized crime. Their 
provisions are explained in the accompanying report of the Department 
of State. The report also sets forth proposed reservations and 
understandings that would be deposited by the United States with its 
instruments of ratification. With these

[[Page 2213]]

reservations and understandings, the Convention and Protocols will not 
require implementing legislation for the United States.
  The Convention and Protocols will be effective tools to assist in the 
global effort to combat transnational organized crime in its many 
forms, such as trafficking and smuggling of persons. They provide for a 
broad range of cooperation, including extradition, mutual legal 
assistance, and measures regarding property, in relation to serious 
crimes committed by an organized group that has a transnational 
element.
  The Convention also imposes on the States Parties an obligation to 
criminalize, if they have not already done so, certain types of conduct 
characteristic of transnational organized crime. For the Convention, 
these are: participation in an organized criminal group (i.e., 
conspiracy), money laundering, bribery of domestic public officials, 
and obstruction of justice. The Protocols require parties to 
criminalize trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants. These 
provisions will serve to create a global criminal law standard for 
these offenses, several of which (e.g., trafficking in persons) 
currently are not criminal in many countries. The Trafficking Protocol 
also includes important provisions regarding assistance to and 
protection of victims of trafficking.
  I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to 
the Convention and Protocols, and that it give its advice and consent 
to ratification, subject to the reservations and understandings 
described in the accompanying report of the Department of State.
                                                      George W. Bush.  
The White House, February 23, 2004.

                          ____________________