UN Maps Strategies to Combat Transnational Organised Crime
Participants also reviewed the implementation of the convention and its protocols on trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and illicit trafficking in firearms, as well on international cooperation in criminal matters and new and emerging crimes.
VIENNA, Austria: About 800 Government representatives, crime experts and civil society partners met in Vienna, for the ninth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC COP).
They discussed ways to improve the capacity of States Parties to combat transnational organized crime and to promote and review the implementation of the convention.
The opening session for the UNTOC COP last Monday was addressed by Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez, President of the Republic of Panama among others. UNTOC COP discussed global challenges of transnational organised crime and various strategies needed to counter crime based on the convention. Participants also reviewed the implementation of the convention and its protocols on trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and illicit trafficking in firearms, as well on international cooperation in criminal matters and new and emerging crimes.
Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva, Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan, spoke on Fiji’s recent ratification of the convention and its protocols in September last year.
This included Fiji’s jurisprudence on human trafficking in Fiji and the various initiatives recently undertaken by Fiji in collaboration with the UNODC.
‘There is a close synergy between prison reform and our international obligations under the UN Convention against Torture, and the recently ratified International Covenant on Civil Political Rights,” she said “Much of criminal justice reform in our country is based on the right to equitable and equal access to justice, cutting across barriers created by gender inequality, discrimination on the basis of disability, and or other forms of intersectional inequality.
“I must also stress that there is a close synergy between the Sustainable Development Goals, human rights and criminal justice reform.
“We need to bring this together and we urge the UN agencies to work closely together in bridging this gap”.
Over 40 side events examining a range of topics, including high-level side events on countering transnational organized crime, was held in the margins of the UNTOC COP. Ambassador Khan chaired a side event on contemporary slavery and trafficking of women which saw an extensive participation, including from civil society partners.
In addition to the side events, there were numerous exhibitions covering themes from terrorism prevention to trafficking in persons, anti-corruption and more.
The UNTOC COP concluded with a historic achievement in the adoption of the resolution establishing a review mechanism for the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols, after 10 years of intense negotiations.