Plenary Meeting of the Network of Prosecutors and Central Authorities from Source, Transit and Destination Countries in response to Transnational Organized Crime in Central Asia and the South Caucasus (CASC Network), attended by representatives of CARICC, took place on 25 and 26 February 2021 via videoconference.

CASC Network is a UNODC initiative in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which aims to help improve international cooperation in criminal cases under investigation and to coordinate and establish contacts between prosecutors' offices of participating countries and prosecutors' offices of countries that are not members of the Network.

More than 50 participants were registered for the meeting, representing 8 member countries of the CASC Network, 10 invited countries as well as 7 international organizations and UNODC projects.

Mrs. Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia, delivered welcome remarks, noting the importance of developing international cooperation in countering crime.

The meeting discussed further steps for cooperation within the CASC Network and work plan for 2021, expanding interregional cooperation on criminal cases under investigation, sharing best practices and views on specific issues, including human trafficking, drug trafficking, asset recovery, and other relevant topics.

Centre employees offered a presentation on “CARICC: a Platform for International and Regional Cooperation”, which, among other things, demonstrated the Centre's existing capacity to assist in criminal investigations related to countering transnational organized crime.