[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 40 (Monday, October 7, 1996)]
[Pages 1938-1939]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting the Inter-American Convention on 
Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad

September 30, 1996

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 Inter-American Convention on 
Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad, drawn up by the Committee on 
Juridical and Political Affairs within the Permanent Council of the 
Organization of American States (OAS) and composed of representatives of 
the Member States. The Convention was adopted and opened for signature 
at the twenty-third regular session of the General Assembly meeting in 
Managua, Nicaragua, on June 9, 1993, and signed on behalf of the United 
States at the OAS Headquarters in

[[Page 1939]]

Washington on January 10, 1995. The provisions of the Convention are 
explained in the report of the Department of State that accompanies this 
message.
    Although the United States is already a party to the multilateral 
Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, which 
entered into force for the United States, following Senate advice and 
consent to ratification, on July 1, 1985, only two other OAS Member 
States have become parties to that Convention. Ratification of the 
Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad would 
help fill a void by providing a mechanism for the reciprocal transfer of 
persons incarcerated in prisons in OAS Member States, to permit those 
individuals to serve their sentences in their home countries. A 
multilateral prisoner transfer convention for the Americas would also 
reduce, if not eliminate, the need for the United States to negotiate 
additional bilateral prisoner transfer treaties with countries in the 
hemisphere.
    I recommend that the Senate promptly give its advice and consent to 
the ratification of this Convention, subject to an understanding and a 
reservation that are described in the accompanying State Department 
report.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
September 30, 1996.

Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 1.