International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR): Phase VI of core contribution (2017-2020)

ICAR’s work directly targets Criminal Police Offices, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and financial institutes in partner countries.

Being demand-driven, ICAR only operates when asked to by a government.

People who ultimately profit from ICAR’s work in the end are those poorest who suffer from corruption through for example infant mortality and dropout rates, partly due to less spending on health and education.

ICAR’s outcome is to contribute to the quality and effectiveness of a country’s law enforcement and judicial system and thereby significantly strengthen the rule of law and public trust in government.

ICAR is pursuing two specific outcomes:

1. Partner countries are successful in obtaining convictions for corruption and related financial crimes;
2. Partner countries are successful at recovering stolen assets through these convictions
   

Principaux résultats attendus:  

Key outputs are achieved through four lines of action:

1. Case Advice
   ICAR partner countries effectively use their enforcement instruments with a view to recovering stolen assets.
2. Training
   ICAR trainees improve their capacity to conduct asset recovery cases  by at least 30% as a direct result of ICAR training.
3. Legal and Policy Work
   ICAR partner countries introduce state of the art investigative tools, legal instruments and/or policies and procedures in support of more effective asset recovery.
4. Global Policy dialogue, tools and research
   Innovative or improved responses or approaches to asset recovery challenges are discussed and/or introduced globally and domestically
   

Principaux résultats antérieurs:  

• More than USD 20 million could be returned to the Governments of Kenya and Peru as a result of ICAR’s support to those two countries.
• ICAR has contributed substantially to global policy initiatives, e.g. Guidelines for the Efficient Recovery of Stolen Assets (“Lausanne Guidelines”)
• ICAR’s work in training and hands-on case-based capacity building demonstrated significant long-term impact in Kenya, Peru, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tanzania.

Swiss level: This project will complement SDC’s work on governance and the work of other parts of the Swiss Administration such as the Swiss Directorate of International Law (DIL), the Department of Justice or the Office of the Attorney General to recover assets in Switzerland which have been stolen from developing countries.

International level: ICAR works closely with UNODC, the World Bank, the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR), the IMF, the OECD, the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Network (PNI), Interpol and the EU.

Phase 6 01.09.2017 - 31.12.2020   (Completed)