oLE 2010

Logo OLE2010

On September 3^rd the first international forum on transnational organised crime, illegal economies and globalisation “OLE – Otranto Legality Experience” ended with a public debate on the occasion of the anniversary of Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa assassination.

About 250 people attended the debate that saw the participation of Jurgen Roth (German writer and journalist), Nando Dalla Chiesa (Carlo Alberto's son), Mario Morcone (director of the Italian National Agency for the Management of Confiscated Assets), Michele Curto (president of FLARE Network) and Giancarlo Caselli (Public Prosecutor in Torino, former General Attorney in Palermo).

The forum has been participated by 200 people from all over the world who had the chance to follow seminars led by Italian and international experts on the topics of the forum. The programme was also enriched by public debates open to the population of Otranto, by visits to properties confiscated to local mafias that are now used for social purposes, by live music concerts, interactive workshops and a documentary-movie session. See the full programme.

Among guests and panelists were Emilio de Capitani (Civil Rights Commission at the European Parliament), Wiert Wiertsema (coordinator of the Capital Flows programme of Both ENDS), Andrea Baranes (director of Campaign for World Bank Reform), Monica Frassoni (president of the European Green Party), Hans G Nilsson (head of Division Council of the EU), Ivo Kotevski (assistant to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Macedonia – FYROM), Marco Bonabello (Legal Adviser on Organised Crime, OSCE Mission to Serbia), Alberto Perduca (Prosecutor in Torino, former Justice department EULEX mission), Rob Hornsby (senior lecturer in Criminology, Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University), Nicolas Giannakopoulos (author and co-founder of Organized Crime Observatory), John Christiansen (director of Tax Justice Network International), Yulia Latynina (Russina journalist, writer and radio host), Luigi De Magistris (MEP and former prosecutor), Pierre Moukala (president of the association Sfera Africa), Pedro Paez (former Minister of Finances of Ecuador), Moni Ovadia (actor, musician, singer and theatrical author), Luigi Ciotti (president of Libera), Stefano Manservisi (European Commission, Home Affairs DG Director-General), and many more. See the full list of panelists.

OLE 2010 intended to be the first edition of annual international meeting. From the 2011 edition, the forum will turn into a Summer School in which participants will be able to acquire University Credits for their personal study curricula. A summer school that intends to become a training opportunity for young generations on topics related to transnational organised crime and illegal economies.

We await you to Otranto for OLE 2011!

::: Overview

What is the relationship between illegal economy, transnational organised crime and financial globalisation? How the political changes, followed by the fall of the Berlin wall and the financialization of world economy, have been used by criminal organisations to strengthen and internationalise their activities? What are the mechanisms of finance and legal economy through which the penetration of criminal powers take place?

These are just some of the questions that the forum OLE - Otranto Legality Experience tried to give answers to: with the help of more than sixty representatives of the political, economical and juridical world, as well as with the testimony of victims of organised crime and the works of the most important associations committed to contrast international mafias.

A wild financial globalisation, deprived of clear rules, has favoured the strengthening of illegal economies; organised crime is behaving more and more on an international dimension and in some cases has reached an even stronger power than that of single countries.

In this context, the answers we have to find must necessarily be set on an international dimension, having the ability to link the action of legislative institutions and the international agencies working every day to counter organised crime on one side, with an initiative of deep change of the operative mechanisms of the contemporary international financial institutes.

In the absence of a similar initiative, these grey and overlapping areas are destined to grow, most of all in the financial world.

The goal of OLE is therefore not to make denounces, but to put to use a concrete analysis of the responsibilities of international organisations, governments, corporations and civil societies, in order to identify the most effective countermeasures against organised crime.

More than 200 participants from more than 30 countries attended OLE; all the participants have been selected by FLARE based on their curriculum vitae: activists, students, journalists, researchers, relatives and friends of victims of organised crime, all of them committed in the struggle against organised crime.

::: Contents

The morning sessions (from 30 August to 3 September) were divided in two plenary sessions and 27 seminars, subdivided in four themes:

Globalisation
Struggle against international organised crime
Role of the civil society
Case histories

In the afternoons (from 30 August to 2 September) meetings with civil society organisations operating on properties confiscated to mafias and visits to some of the most fascinating sites of Salento were scheduled. Interactive workshops, led by European FLARE partners, were scheduled too.

Three evening debates with the participation of international guests took place on 1, 2 and 3 September.

Contents - 30 August:

Presentation of the European Parliament proposals about the contrast strategies against international organised crime, with focus on security policies and at the last related European projects
Operative mechanisms of illegal finance

Contents - 31 August:

Geopolitical aspects of globalisation
Penetration of international organised crime in the world of communication and sport
Contrast to international organised crime in defence of human life and penetration in business
“Mondografie”, a video documentary session on international mafias, from organs trafficking to drug smuggling, and on the links with a wild kind of financial globalisation that call into question the rights to water, food and health

Contents - 1 September:

Links between legal and illegal economy through the analysis of local case histories (Africa Great Lakes region, Colombia, Mexico)

The mafia struggle for the control of some of the most profitable business sectors
Contribution of the victims in the struggle at international organised crime
Evening debate, with the presence of international guests, focused on rights and profits in global economy

Contents - 2 September:

Relationship between Italian mafia and Europe
The internationalisation of organised crime. Case study: Montenegro and the energy market
Evening debate, with the presence of international guests, focused on the countermeasure economy, justice and civil society can develop against organised crime

Contents - 3 September:

Analysis of business areas where international organised crime is more active
Contrast strategies developed by the European Commission
Public debate and evening commemoration, dedicated to all innocent victims of mafia and to the memory of Renata Fonte, killed on 31st march 1984