A/HRC/43/66 political upheaval or internal turmoil in the foreign jurisdiction, their purpose being to preserve assets and prevent them from being transferred elsewhere. 3 22. More specifically, following the Arab Spring, laws leading to administrative freezes were adopted by a number of States members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Canada adopted the Freezing Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act and the Freezing Assets of Corrupt Foreign Officials (Tunisia and Egypt) Regulations, in which certain individuals were named. Such laws do not, however, go so far as to set out the steps for the return of the assets or for their use pending their repatriation. 23. The European Union has also adopted measures aimed at freezing the assets of persons who have misappropriated State funds of Egypt and Tunisia. Switzerland and the United States have done so in respect of Libya. In 2011, the Security Council, by its resolution 1973 (2011), decided to impose an asset freeze on members of the Qadhafi family and to freeze the funds and economic resources owned or controlled by the Libyan authorities, including those of the Central Bank of Libya, the Libyan Investment Authority and the Libyan National Oil Corporation. None of the measures, however, address how to utilize the frozen assets pending their eventual repatriation. IV. Approach guided by the findings of the High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa 24. With regard to the African continent, the problem of illicit financial flows was thoroughly analysed in the report of the High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa.4 25. Although the High-level Panel did not specifically address the issue of the utilization of illicit funds pending their repatriation, in the report, it included a set of findings that point the way forward for the countries of origin of funds. 26. The High-level Panel underlined the political nature of the issue, by acknowledging that the phenomenon and the effect of illicit financial flows required a solution which ultimately rested upon negotiations and enhanced international cooperation. 5 In fact, the political significance of the issue is evident from the ongoing work in various forums to find a plausible solution. However, according to the High-level Panel, efforts should be better coordinated to ensure consistency and success in tackling illicit financial flows. 6 27. The High-level Panel drew attention to the technical aspects of illicit financial flows and expressed concern about the divergent approaches in the work on disparate components of illicit financial outflows undertaken regionally by the African Union and regional economic communities and at the global level by the Group of 20, OECD, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations. 7 28. The High-level Panel further recommended that development partners help countries of origin to stop illicit financial flows (finding 14). The recommendation could be extended to wealthy countries of destination agreeing to the possibility of using frozen illicit assets to finance development projects in countries of origin. Doing so would require significant political will and acumen. It is an option that should be put on the negotiating table, and discussions should be held to identify the conditions under which such a novel procedure could take place. 3 4 5 6 7 6 Larisa Gray and others, Few and Far: the Hard Facts on Stolen Asset Recovery (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2014), p. 41. Economic Commission for Africa, “Illicit financial flows: report of the High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa” (Addis Ababa, 2015). Ibid., p. 65. Ibid. Ibid.