On October 21, 2016, the Financial Action Task Force published Guidance to assist countries on the content required to comply with the obligation to criminalize terrorist financing. The Guidance builds on FATF Recommendation 5, which provides measures to assist countries in fulfilling their legal requirements under the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism 1999 and relevant United National Security Council Resolutions. The Guidance outlines various aspects that offenses relating to terrorist financing must cover when implemented by national legal systems. For example, a terrorist financing offense must cover all types of willful terrorist financing activity. The Guidance specifies that the requirement of willful conduct is largely based on the Terrorist Financing Convention and requires a mental element or mens rea, such that the conduct is deliberately committed with an unlawful intention. The Guidance also sets out the bases and rationale of the Convention and Resolutions to assist countries in the implementation of such requirements. The Guidance focuses on the specific elements of the Recommendation that have most commonly been identified as creating particular implementation challenges and provides examples of how such requirements have been implemented by differing legal systems.

The Guidance is available at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Guidance-Criminalising-Terrorist-Financing.pdf?_sm_au_=iVVHVWj7jP3TtnsN and the FATF Recommendations are available at: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/recommendations/pdfs/FATF_Recommendations.pdf?_sm_au_=iVVHVWj7jP3TtnsN.

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