1. Site for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and extradition:
REMJA V
Washington, April 2004
Rosario Duaso Calés, Gordon Godfrey y
Pierre-Gilles Bélanger
Working Group on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters - OAS

2. Outline of presentation
Current status of the project
Progress and expansion
Managing material contents
Security and electronic mail
How can we cooperate?
Outline of presentation

3. Origins

4. How did the project begin?
Stages
I) 2000 – REMJA III and initial meetings of the working group
Purpose
Provide a working tool
Promote mutual assistance in criminal matters
Desired results
Increased communication
Ready access to judicial information
Greater efficicency for central authorities

5. The pilot project Contents Documents and explanatory forms
Legal instruments – legislation, treaties, agreements
Participating countries
4 of 34: Argentina, Bahamas, Canada and El Salvador
Languages: Spanish, English, French and Portuguese
Documents
370 documents
In HTML and PDF

6. How did the project begin?
Stages…
II) 2001 – Initiatives following the Quebec Summit
III) 2002 – Pilot project presented at REMJA IV in Port-of-Spain
Meeting of experts in Ottawa – 2003
Extended to all 34 OAS member countries
Potential for secure – 2004…

7. Users
Central authorities of member countries of the OAS
Professionals in the administration and throughout government
The legal community
But also…
The general public

8. Architecture: www.txlex.ca/mla (www:oea.org/juridico/mla)
Introductory page
Selecting a language
First page
General information
Access according to country

9. Architecture Country pages
Introductory material Introduction to the legal
system
Mutual assistance in criminal matters General
Documents-types of procedures
Legislation
Treaties
Multilateral agreements
Other similar documents

10. Expansion To over 30 countries Inclusion of extradition
Constantly growing store of material on MACM and extradition
In excess of 150 treaties
Close to 500 other documents
User-friendly design
More functions and operations
And….
Personalized on-site workspace

11. The system’s evolving architecture – the organization of information
Introduction
Presentation of the legal system
Basic texts
MACM
General section
Procedures: Standard documents and forms
Legislation
Jurisprudence
Other
Extradition
General sección
Procedures: Standard documents and forms
Legislation
Jurisprudence
Other
Bilateral treaties (MACM, Extradition)
Multilateral agreements on extradition and MACM

12. The system’s evolving architecture - Operations
Navigating
Facilitating country-to-country connections by including country links in the left margin
Highlight available languages on each link
Include “Go to end” and “Back to beginning” buttons
Internal navigation menu
Tools
Incorporate a search tool on each page
Members only section – Personalized on-site workspace
Design
New name for the site
Review the design to facilitate identification of hyperlinks

13. The system’s evolving architecture – Editorial line
Purpose:
Offer useful documents to the legal community
Sufficiently reliable for presentation in court
Achieve and maintain high level of reliability
Display titles, date, source, treatment (metadata)
Explanatory notes
Overcome LOC difficulties
Storage of digitalized images of documents
Country index:
Solution to the double version problem
Indication of the origin of documents

14. The system’s evolving architecture

15. Desired results General resources
Including main aspects of the legal framework for cooperation on criminal matters in the Americas
Useful resources
Sufficiently reliable for professional use

16. Importance of technology support structure
Main objetivos
Integrity of the data
Consistency
Approaches
Data management structure in XML
Planning the system for generation of the Web site

17. Private section
For useful information not of interest to the public
Work in preparation
Material from previous presentations
Contacts
Speeches
Recommendations
Survey results

18. Personalized workspace

19. Personalized workspace

20. Security and electronic mail

21. What is Groove?
Groove is an Internet-based tool for information exchange and collaboration.
Download or install the Groove program on your computer.
Create a username and secret password.
Begin an encrypted session (192-bit encryption).
Enter the addresses for your contacts, and
send an to them.
-         your contacts must also be registered in the program.
-         the program will store and re-sent messages if they are not online.
-         it will inform you when your contacts are online.
-         you are notified when messages are received.
-         you can chat with persons who are online.
Sessions are encrypted and reasonably secure.
-         however, there is no official classification for the pilot project.
-         nor is there any formal risk or threat evaluation.

22. How Groove-OAS operates

23. Invite Contacts to Chat Space
Notification message display status of request

24. Choose from “Known Contacts” list or OAS directory

25. Members can be invited to existing Workspaces or Create personalized WorkSpaces
Instantly synchronized with other members of space
Active – In WorkSpace
Online – logged into Groove but not in this WorkSpace
Not Online – Currently not logged into Groove
Suspended -
Displays all members of space and their immediate status
Unlimited number of WorkSpace allowed

26. Message Centre
Record of secure sent and received
Preview pane
Basic functionality- reply, forward, etc….
Quick links to account information

27. Espacios comunes

28. WorkSpace Members and Status
Collaborative Tools for this WorkSpace
Voice over IP capability
Instant Message Chat with other Active Members of the WorkSpace
Members can collaborate on files or navigate together within the WorkSpace in

29. Standard icons and symbols for ease of use
Add files from local or network drives that are encrypted within the WorkSpace
Files are shared within the WorkSpace
Additions to WorkSpaces, folders and files are displayed

30. Web Links Tool
Live links to Internet sites (shared favorites)

31. The Project:
1)Installation on an independent server in the OAS – February 2004
→ Purchase of licences for utilization of the system by all participating countries.
2) Preparation of training documents and the protocol on the use of confidential information and secure transmission of information between authorities
3) Training provided for the authorities of participating countries (March 2004)
4) Evaluation of the system

32. The Pilot Project: Bahamas Argentina Nicaragua (two ministries)
Los participantes en el piloto hasta ahora son:
El Salvador (two ministries)
Bahamas
Argentina
Nicaragua (two ministries)
United States
Canada (plus one member of Canada’s RCMP in Colombia)
Colombia
Chile (two ministries)
Paraguay (two ministries)
Trinidad

33. The Pilot Project: Canada Pierre-Gilles Bélanger (613) 957-0007
OAS Luiz Marcelo Azevedo Technical Secretariat for Legal Cooperation Mechanisms Secretariat for Legal Affairs Organization of American States (202)

34. Dr. Pierre-Gilles Bélanger, Abogado Senior Coordinator of the Working Group on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters justice.gc.ca Dr. Jorge García González, Director, Departamento de Cooperación y Difusión Jurídica