On 17 March 2015, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, the UNODC Country Office in Afghanistan and the UNODC Terrorism Prevention Branch organized a ceremony to hand over the Dari and Pashto translations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations entitled International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation.
Senior officials from Afghanistan's partner agencies attended the ceremony. These included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Anti-Terrorism Prosecution Directorate, the Attorney General Office (ATPD-AGO), the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Afghanistan (FinTRACA), the Counter-Terrorism Department of the Ministry of Interior, the Counter -Terrorism Division of the Supreme Court, the Legislative Committee of the Parliament (Upper House), the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan Atomic Energy High Commission, the Independent Afghanistan Human Rights Commission, the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption, as well as representatives from the delegations of the international community based in Kabul, attended the ceremony.
A representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Director-General of FinTRACA and members of the Counter-Terrorism Committee, who spoke at the ceremony, expressed their appreciation for the UNODC's assistance, including the translation of the FATF Recommendations into Dari and Pashto.
The representative of the FinTRACA stated that the translation of the Recommendations into Dari and Pashto is crucial for Afghanistan, especially at a time, when the country's financial regulatory system is being reviewed by the FATF and needs to respond to the findings of the 2011 detailed assessment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In addition, the country will need to prepare itself for the next IMF assessment in 2018. The translated recommendations will be also an important tool in taking further legislative and operational actions to bring the national framework into full compliance with the FATF Recommendations.
After the interventions of officials of the Government of Afghanistan and UNODC, the ceremony ended with the handing over of the publications to the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.