25 May 1984

Meeting 21

Continuation of preparations for the Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders

The Economic and Social Council,

Recalling General Assembly resolutions 415(V) of 1 December 1950, 32/60 of 8 December 1977 and 36/21 of 9 November 1981,

Recalling also Council resolutions 1982/29 and 1982/30 of 4 May 1982,

Having considered the report of the Secretary-General and the note by the Secretariat relating to preparations for the Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders,

Conscious of the need to increase the publicity relating to the Seventh Congress, and the impact of its results,

Aware of the important work to be accomplished by the interregional preparatory meetings,

1. Takes note of the reports of the regional preparatory meetings with their respective recommendations on the substantive items of the provisional agenda for the Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders;

2. Takes note also of the discussion guide for the regional and interregional preparatory meetings for the Seventh Congress;

3. Recommends the Seventh Congress to consider in depth the resolutions adopted at the regional preparatory meetings;

4. Recommends also the Seventh Congress to finalize, under item 3 of its provisional agenda, the guiding principles for crime prevention and criminal justice in the context of development and a new international economic order as reviewed by the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control on the basis of the observations made at the regional preparatory meetings, and to make every effort to secure their adoption for the strengthening of international co-operation in this field;

5. Decides that the Seventh Congress should be held from 26 August to 6 September 1985, with two days of pre-Congress consultations;

6. Decides also that items 1, 2, 3 and 8 of the provisional agenda should be considered in plenary meeting, and that items 4 and 7 should be allocated to Committee I and items 5 and 6 to Committee II;

7. Decides further that the general theme for the Seventh Congress should be "Crime prevention for freedom, justice, peace and development";

8. Approves the documentation for the Seventh Congress as outlined by the Secretary-General;

9. Invites Governments to finalize national preparations related to the Seventh Congress, including the submission of national papers, and to consider the inclusion of national correspondents in their delegations to the Congress;

10. Invites representatives of the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control attending the interregional preparatory meetings for the Seventh Congress to ensure that reports of the meetings, with related recommendations, are in conformity with the policy guidelines given by the Committee;

11. Requests the Secretary-General to appoint a Secretary-General for the Seventh Congress, in accordance with the standard practice for major United Nations conferences;

12. Also requests the Secretary-General to invite 25 expert consultants to participate in the Seventh Congress, at the expense of the United Nations, as was done on the occasion of the Sixth Congress, so as to ensure that adequate expertise is provided to the Congress by each region for each substantive item of the provisional agenda;

13. Further requests the Secretary-General, in the organization of the Seventh Congress, to include the following activities:

(a) Lectures to be given by outstanding experts and scholars selected on the basis of equitable geographical distribution;

(b) Research workshop on youth crime and juvenile justice, to be organized with the joint co-operation of the United Nations Social Defence Research Institute, the United Nations regional institutes for the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders and competent national and international research institutes;

(c) Ancillary meetings of non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council concerning items of the provisional agenda, in accordance with existing legislative regulations;

(d) Meetings for professional and geographical interest groups;

(e) General meeting of national correspondents;

14. Urges the Secretary-General to strengthen the information programme related to the Seventh Congress.