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As part of the G8 Presidency, the UK is hosting the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery.

A two-day event on the role of civil society in returning assets stolen from countries of the Arab Spring will be held in London on 3-4 September. This Special Session is being held under the auspices of the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery. It has been organised under the UK’s Presidency of the G8 and will be hosted in conjunction with the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) of the World Bank and UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Arab Forum on Asset Recovery was established last year to bring together the Arab Spring Countries, the G8, regional partners and other financial centres for a coordinated effort to trace and recover the significant sums of money stolen by former regimes. The G8 Leaders’ Communiqué from Lough Erne reiterated the G8’s high level of commitment to return stolen assets to the Arab Countries in Transition, including through participation in the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery.

This Special Session is the third one this year, following earlier workshops in Qatar and Egypt, all aimed at addressing technical challenges encountered by countries in the tracing of assets. It will bring together representatives from governments and civil society to explore the diverse contributions that civil society can make to asset recovery, from ground level support and raising awareness of the agenda, through to evidence gathering, and even legal action to recover stolen assets.