FOREWORD
It is my great pleasure and privilege to present this report of the Sixth Regional
Seminar on Good Governance for Southeast Asian Countries, which was held in Tokyo
from 12 – 14 December 2012. This was our second time to hold the Good GovernanceSeminar in Tokyo, and it was our great pleasure to welcome participants to the Japanese
capital. We hope that we have repaid the hospitality always extended to us on ourprevious visits to other countries that have hosted the Seminar.
The main theme of the Seminar was “International Cooperation: Mutual Legal
Assistance and Extradition”, and it was attended by five speakers from public andprivate institutions and sixteen participants, all criminal justice practitioners, fromCambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and VietNam. The Seminar was organized by UNAFEI, with the support of the Ministry ofForeign Affairs of Japan.
Corruption destroys nations. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, distortsbusiness activities and competition, and hinders sustainable development and prosperity.
It is also a threat to the security of societies as it creates environments in whichorganized crime, terrorism, and other forms of unlawful activity may prosper. Suchenormous negative impacts of corruption and its increasingly transnational aspects ledto the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), thefirst global, legally binding anti-corruption instrument, by the UN General Assembly on
31 October 2003.
Because corruption has become increasingly transnational, countries increasingly
rely on international cooperation to gather evidence and to seek the return of fugitives.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) devotes one full chapter
to “International cooperation”, and the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) has extensive provisions covering“Extradition” and “Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA)”.
While these provisions set the basic minimum standards for international
cooperation, there still remain practical obstacles and challenges such as problems ofjurisdiction, differences in criminal law and procedure, lack of international and internalcoordination, insufficient knowledge of legal requirements and restrictions, andtranslation and language problems. Enhancing practical knowledge and mutual
understanding and building a relationship of trust and confidence with foreigncounterparts can be the key to overcoming these obstacles.
The Sixth Regional Seminar aimed not only to develop contacts between Central
Authorities of the participating countries but also to deepen mutual understanding of thecurrent situation and mechanisms for fighting corruption by using formal and informal
channels for mutual legal assistance and extradition. Through discussion of the issues,participants exchanged experiences and knowledge of effective strategies, and bestpractices in the fields of mutual legal assistance and extradition were further improved.

It is my pleasure to publish this Report of the Seminar as part of UNAFEI’s mission,
entrusted to it by the United Nations, to widely disseminate meaningful information oncriminal justice policy.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation, on behalf of UNAFEI, tothe Department of Foreign Affairs of Japan, for its contribution in convening the Sixth
Regional Seminar.

Tomoko AKANE
Director, UNAFEI
November 2013