    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
    [February 23, 2004]
    [Pages 256-257]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Message to the Senate Transmitting the United Nations Convention Against
    Transnational Organized Crime and Two Supplementary Protocols
    February 23, 2004

    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

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    instruments of ratification. With these 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.