A/HRC/25/52 had the highest average illicit outflows to gross domestic product ratio (5.7 per cent), indicating that the illicit financial outflows had a disproportionate impact on the continent.9 10. It is also notable that the amount of illicit financial flows exceeds official development assistance and foreign investment inflows.10 In 2009, for example, illicit financial flows out of Africa were more than three times the amount of official development assistance received.11 11. It is difficult to assess whether the rate of international recovery of stolen assets is satisfactory, since there is no mechanism to collect comprehensive information on all international asset recovery cases.12 According to the Asset Recovery Watch database of the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, $4 billion in stolen assets has been returned.13 Most of this falls under the category of returned proceeds of embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds, the return of which is mandatory under article 57, paragraph 3 (a) of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Other returned assets relate to other proceeds of corruption, mainly stemming from bribery and related cases (CAC/COSP/WG.2/2013/3, para. 88). 12. Asset Recovery Watch records about $1.3 billion in total pending returns. However, as the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Asset Recovery notes, that figure needs to be viewed in context, as it includes more than $400 million in restitution ordered in a single case where it is not know whether the defendants have the ability to pay and the $356 million judgment awarded by a court in the United States of America to the victims of human rights violations that took place during the Marcos era, which is still under appeal by the Marcos family (ibid., para. 91). 13. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, less than 1 per cent of illicit financial flows around the world are seized and frozen.14 However, the preliminary results of a 2012 survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative measuring the assets frozen and returned between 2010 and June 2012 show that there has been an increase in the volume of assets frozen and returned during that period: a total of $27 billion was frozen and about $4 billion returned or unfrozen/released. It is notable, however, that this increase was largely attributable to action taken in response to Security Council resolution 1970 (2011), which ordered the freezing of the assets of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime held internationally, with a total of $24 billion frozen and $3.6 billion returned or subsequently released.15 14. The estimates of returned assets provided above are restricted to cases of corruption and embezzlement and do not cover other forms of illicit financial flows. In assessing progress made in asset recovery, however, it is important to understand that as used in the Convention against Corruption, the term “asset recovery” refers to the recovery of the proceeds of corruption and related losses. As such, it is much narrower in scope than the flows included under the term “illicit financial flows”. It should also be mentioned that part of the second cycle of the review mechanism on the Convention, starting in 2015, will focus on the implementation of chapter V of the Convention and will thus provide more 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 6 Ibid., p. 11. OECD, “Measuring OECD responses”, p. 3. African Development Bank and Global Financial Integrity, “Illicit financial flows and the problem of net resource transfers from Africa: 1980-2009” (2013), p. 28. Note by the Secretariat on progress made in the implementation of asset recovery mandates (CAC/COSP/WG.2/2013/3), para. 88. See http://star.worldbank.org/corruption-cases/arwcases. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “Estimating illicit financial flows”, p. 7. OECD, “Measuring OECD responses”, p. 10.