The workshop will mark the first time such a group of countries sharing a common problem of organized crime will meet to discuss avenues by which to improve their co-operation to tackle drug trafficking and related crimes.

UNODC and the OSCE's Strategic Police Matters Unit will co-sponsor the workshop entitled "International Co-operation in Criminal Matters", to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 20 and 22 July 2010. The workshop is designed to fit within the framework of 2010-2013 UNODC Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries. It will also follow up on expert recommendations emerging from two regional co-operative events, which were organized by OSCE and UNODC in Astana in 2008 and Almaty in 2009. A follow-up regional workshop is planned in the sub-region in the fourth quarter of 2010, in order to focus on more specific issues identified.

Senior practitioners involved in criminal and legal affairs in the interested countries will learn to facilitate capacity-building of their national criminal justice systems, with emphasis on the Central Asian region, and to improve national and international legal co-operation and information exchange between the investigative agencies and central authorities from Central Asian region and other countries. The workshop will pay particular attention to extradition and mutual legal assistance, seizures, freezing and confiscation of assets, and exchange of data from criminal records. In addition, the workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to discuss problems their countries are facing in the field of extradition and mutual legal assistance, as well as to make recommendations for further actions, projects, and interventions at the regional level. Experts from Australia, the European Union, USA, UK, the Russian Federation, and UNODC, among others, will also be in attendance.

The governments of Canada and Italy are financing the workshop.