Towards a holistic and coordinated global legal framework on asset recovery

Abstract

Countries need finances to fulfil the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, in Africa, a key obstacle to financing development involves illicit financial flows. The justification for asset recovery is that, for centuries, developing countries, in particular those in Africa, have suffered the loss of vital resources through illicit outflows of their assets, depriving those countries of resources needed for economic development, the provision of social welfare and the maintenance of political stability. The focus on corruption is worth the attention, but it also results in a dearth of analyses of the entire system of illicit financial flows in the context of asset recovery. This is partly because, in most global frameworks and initiatives, a restrictive approach is taken that is focused on corruption and criminal activities, and yet such activities comprise only a small component of illicit financial flows.