State/INL Pacific Islands Program

Program Components/Accomplishments:

• Pacific Anti-Money Laundering Program: The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the U.S. Department of State launched the Pacific Anti-Money Laundering Program (PALP) in September 2006 as a joint initiative. PALP was a four-year regional technical assistance and training program designed to assist the 14 members of the Pacific Islands Forum that are not also members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in establishing, enhancing, and implementing their anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CTF) regimes. The 14 members of the Pacific Islands Forum that received PALP assistance were the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The goal of PALP training and technical assistance was to support participating jurisdictions to comply with international FATF standards and relevant UN conventions and UN Security Council resolutions. PALP was essentially a regional outreach program, utilizing experienced mentors based in host countries to assist with legal, law enforcement, regulatory, and financial intelligence unit (FIU) development. PALP provided assistance on a wide range of AML/CTF issues, including legislative drafting, capacity building, and case support. Regional and bilateral training was also conducted for prosecutors and law enforcement officers and other key stakeholders. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) provided a total of more than $4 million for the PALP, which concluded in September 2010.
• Trans-Pacific Symposium Workshops on Alien Smuggling and Cross-Border Crimes: The Trans-Pacific Symposium (TransPac) (Nov. 2009) has served as the launching platform for a number of targeted Trans-Pacific initiatives and workshops. As part of the follow-up to TransPac INL/C partnered with New Zealand to hold a law enforcement cooperation capacity building workshop in Christchurch in 2010. That workshop, attended by Pacific Island officials, identified vulnerabilities, gaps and needs in Pacific Islands. Pursuant to that workshop INL is funding a sub-regional workshop, conducted by ICE, with assistance from the U.S. Embassy Port Moresby and the Royal Solomon Island Police Force to address alien smuggling and related transnational crimes. Participants will include law enforcement officials from PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Samoa, Tonga, the Philippines, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and Nauru. The integrated workshop will assist island states improve their law enforcement capabilities to combat illicit transnational criminal networks and activities, such as human smuggling, human trafficking and related cross border crimes. INL intends to fund additional TransPac border security related projects and workshops.
• United Nations Convention Against Corruption: INL global and regional programs to combat corruption have provided support to UNODC to promote ratification of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in the Pacific Islands region. Additionally, INL has promoted adoption of a mechanism to review UNCAC implementation and provides significant financial support for the review teams, including for Pacific Islands nations.