From February 17 to 19, 2016, a Plenary Meeting (the “Plenary”) of the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) was held in Paris, France. The FATF is an inter-governmental policy-making institution responsible for setting and monitoring international standards for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which is promulgated, among other ways, via a series of Recommendations for its member countries. This most recent Plenary was largely focused on advancing the FATF’s work to combat terrorist financing in a variety of sectors.
At the Plenary, the FATF adopted a Consolidated FATF Strategy on Combatting Terrorist Financing (“Consolidated Strategy”), which lays out an updated consolidation of the FATF’s stated “key objectives” to meet terrorist threats from perceived facilitating organizations that fund and support the terrorist groups or individuals. The Consolidated Strategy seeks to achieve the following: achieving a full understanding of the scope of terrorist financing, ensuring that FATF Recommendations provide appropriate counter measures and that member countries are maintaining compliance.
The published outcomes of the Plenary make special note that since 2015, the FATF has been “call[ing]” on its member states to provide more information on terrorist financing and identify barriers to “effective information sharing – at international and domestic levels.” The FATF has been reviewing this information and sharing practices and tools for overcoming these “barriers” with member states. The FATF has restated its commitment to ensuring the free flow of information in order to combat terrorist financing. The FATF reaffirmed their commitment to continue this work at all levels domestically and internationally, with government agencies and in the private sector.
This campaign to strengthen and remove perceived barriers to information sharing was reflected recently in Canada in the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015 (otherwise known as Bill C-51). This legislation garnered some significant concern about safeguards that might be necessary in an evolving world where information is shared between government agencies, the private sector and internationally. Charities and not-for-profits, particularly those that have programs internationally or that operate in “conflict zones” need to be aware of this increasingly free-flow of information globally, as it is being institutionalized and significantly increased. The impact of this globally shared information should not be underestimated as the information (which may include simple allegations) could lead to or be a part of potential revocation of charitable status and/or charges under the broad definition of “facilitation” of the Criminal Code, among other serious liabilities. For more information please see Anti-Terrorism & Charity Law Bulletin No. 39, which discusses the impact of Bill C-51 on charities and not-for-profits.