The Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Asset Recovery, called the "Working Group on Asset Recovery" is a subsidiary body of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. This Working Group on Asset Recovery is responsible for assisting and advising the Conference of the States Parties in the implementation of its mandate with the return of proceeds of corruption. This function is pursuant to Chapter V of the Convention, which enshrines the recovery and return of stolen as a fundamental principle of the Convention.
Since its establishment in 2006, the Working Group on Asset Recovery holds one intersessional meeting per year, during which time participants are able to exchange information and develop recommendations to be presented to the Conference.
The workplan for the subsidiary bodies of the Conference for the period 2024-2025, which was approved by the Bureau of the Conference, is available here.
The Working Group on Asset Recovery was established by the Conference of the States Parties through its adoption of resolution 1/4 entitled 'Establishment of an intergovernmental working group on asset recovery'. In this resolution, the Conference of the States Parties established an open-ended intergovernmental working group in accordance with Article 63, paragraph 4 of UNCAC, together with rule 2 paragraph 2 of the rules of procedure of the Conference.
In the same resolution, the Conference established the functions of the Working Group to include assisting the Conference in accumulating cumulative knowledge in the area of asset recovery, facilitating the exchange of information, providing good practices and ideas to States and encouraging cooperation between requesting and requested States.
In its resolutions 2/3, 3/3, 4/4, and 5/3 the Conference of the States Parties decided that the Working Group should continue its deliberations with a view to further developing cumulative knowledge in the area of asset recovery and to share best practices in this area. Between 2012 and 2015 the Working Group focused on a multi-year workplan which was adopted during its Sixth session. In its resolution 6/2 the Conference of the States Parties directed the Working Group to focus on best practices for identifying victims of corruption and the parameters for compensation; identifying best practices and developing guidelines for proactive and timely sharing of information to enable States parties to take appropriate action, in accordance with article 56 of the Convention; and collect information, with the support of the Secretariat, regarding State parties' use of settlements and other alternative mechanisms.
Furthermore, in order to implement action according to Chapter V of UNCAC, the Conference of the States Parties has renewed its commitment to effective action on international cooperation in order to contribute to the successful recovery of the proceeds of corruption.