Enhancing Cooperation including mutual legal assistance against illicit arms brokering activities.

International cooperation, including mutual legal assistance, between states parties can be used in judicial proceedings and to investigate and prosecute illicit brokers and brokering activities. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) requires states parties to cooperate and, “where jointly agreed and consistent with their national laws, afford one another the widest measure of assistance in investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings in relation to violations of national measures” established as part of the implementation of the Treaty. Such international cooperation, including international law enforcement cooperation and mutual legal assistance, can be essential in investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings related to violations of national brokering regulations. Such cooperation is especially useful in cases of brokering involving the alleged or confirmed provision of false or forged transfer documentation (e.g. end-use or end-user certificates and documentation, or other documentation, licences, cargo manifests, etc. that accompany a transfer), front companies, or ship registrations. This is because such cases usually cut across multiple national jurisdictions and can therefore only be addressed through cooperation.



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