[dissent-tech] Whats being disscused at Sheffield G8 meeting?

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UK G8 Presidency Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting, Sheffield
15th – 17th June 2005 

The UK Presidency of the G8 - Justice and Home Affairs 
Background
The G8 (or "Group of Eight") is a multilateral group consisting of the world's major industrial democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Commission attends G8 meetings as an observer. The G8 address a wide range of international economic, political, and security issues. 

The G8 has its origin at an economic summit in 1975 convened by President Valery Giscard d'Estaing of France and attended by leaders from Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Italy and Canada joined this original "Group of Five" in 1976-7. Whilst Russia started to be involved in G7 meetings in 1992, it was only in 1998 that the name was formally changed to "G8". 

Work on Transnational Organised Crime
After the 1995 Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a group of experts was brought together to look for better ways to fight international crime. In 1996, this group (later known as the "Lyon Group") produced Forty Recommendations to combat international crime that were endorsed by the G8 Heads of State at their Summit Meeting in Lyon in June 1996. "Subgroups" of the Lyon Group thereafter were formed to address specific crime-related issues (e.g., legal processes for evidence-sharing, high-tech crime, and immigrations fraud and human trafficking). In December 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno hosted the first-ever meeting of her counterparts from the G8 countries and the Ministers issued their first joint Communiqué which endorsed the work of the Lyon group. The last three Presidencies of the G8 have hosted meetings of Justice and Home Affairs ministers. The Home Secretary will host a Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial meeting in Sheffield 15-17 June. 

Changes following September 11, 2001
In October 2001, senior representative of G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministries met in Rome to discuss steps for the G8 to take to combat international terrorism and decided to combine the G8's Lyon Group (fighting transnational organised crime) and the G8's Roma Group (fighting international terrorism). Since that time, the Lyon/Roma Group has met three times annually in joint session. While continuing important work to combat transnational organised crime, the group uses its resources to combat terrorism through such avenues as enhancements to legal systems, transport security, and tools for investigating terrorist uses of the Internet. 

Meetings under the UK Presidency of the G8, 2005
The UK will convene 3 meetings of the Lyon / Roma group. These will be in January, April and November. They will be chaired by senior officials from the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 

The Home Secretary will host a ministerial meeting on 15-17 June 2005 in Sheffield. 

G8 Transnational crime and Counter-terror objectives in 2005
The 2005 objectives combine work on the inherited agenda and a number of new initiatives. There are nearly 100 separate projects. The key areas of work are: 
   As lead country for counter-narcotics work in Afghanistan, the UK will continue to seek co-ordination of the G8 support for this work 


   The completion of several initiatives to enhance international travel security 


   International co-operation in combating immigration crime, with an emphasis on document fraud 


   International law enforcement co-operation, focussing on child protection, the expanded use of DNA and the international illegal trade in firearms 


   International co-operation in combating high-tech crime 


   Shared assessment of the threat from international terrorism and co-operation to counter the treat 


   The reinforcement of the principles of judicial co-operation and mutual legal assistance in the investigation and prosecution of transnational organised crime and terrorism 


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