The chief prosecutor of the International Legal Cooperation Directorate of the Attorney General's Office (FGR), Patricia Rizo, announced at a press conference that the XVI International Meeting on Criminal Sciences 2025 will be attended by prosecutors, attorneys general, comptrollers, ombudsmen, lawyers, and other professionals from related fields from some 20 countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, including Russia, Belarus, Vietnam, Venezuela, Mozambique, Colombia, Spain, and Cuba.
The main topics of the International Meeting include the protection and fight against transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, cybercrime, human trafficking, and corruption. The event will also serve to discuss criteria and interpretations regarding the problems of crime, its causes, consequences, and how to confront it.
The signing of cooperation agreements between the parties is expected, aimed at exchanging experiences and knowledge on issues of common interest, and strengthening ties with counterparts from around twenty countries, the FGR official stated.
The program includes special interventions, presentations, and panels of high scientific rigor.
Prior to the event, a pre-event workshop will be held on March 25th, addressing the challenges of criminal law related to various aspects, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, the environment, discrimination and gender violence, as well as the control of economic activity, crime in national companies, and related legal advice.
More than 450 Cuban and foreign delegates from 10 countries participated in person and 300 in the virtual format, for a total of almost 800 people, participated in the 15th International Meeting on Criminal Sciences 2023 and the 3rd Legality, Law and Society Event, the oldest on the subject held in Ibero America.
The 2023 edition featured the participation of Attorneys General or Deputy Attorneys General from Venezuela, Russia, Vietnam, Belarus, Bolivia, Mongolia, Colombia, Mozambique, Spain, and Canada, among other countries. Two bilateral cooperation agreements were signed between the Cuban Attorney General's Office and its counterparts in Venezuela and Bolivia.
The three days of events included intense scientific activity with 23 special presentations, 12 panels, and 53 lectures, attended by more than 30 PhDs in legal sciences from law schools in Cuba and other countries, as well as foreign professors, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, consultants, and students.
The closing ceremony was attended by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, accompanied by Yamila Peña Ojeda, Attorney General of the Republic; Rubén Remigio Ferro, President of the Supreme People's Court; and Gladys Bejerano Portela, Comptroller General of the Republic. The discussions focused on common legal problems faced by the participating nations, and the value of science in finding solutions was reaffirmed.
Some of the topics addressed on the agenda included the role of the State as a guarantee of effective public management; the State, society, and law in the fight against corruption and other associated manifestations; effective judicial protection; economic crimes; and gender, law, and violence prevention.
It was possible to confirm that, regardless of the specificities of each society, there are common problems and possible alternatives to them.
The topics discussed demonstrated the capacity of law to transform societal problems and effectively support the protection of the constitutional order and the rights and guarantees of individuals in these countries.
As part of the program, the challenges of the enforcement of sentences in Cuba and its impact on the penitentiary system, the legal profession, and the Prosecutor's Office, as well as the educational influences in penitentiary establishments, were also discussed.