United Nations Wire Alert

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

CRIME: UN Congress Pushes For Cross-Border Cooperation

Globalization, technological advances in transportation and telecommunications, and strengthening criminal justice are high on the agenda of the 10th UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders convening in Vienna this week (UN release, 6 Apr).

Some 2,000 officials and experts are expected to attend the meeting, which will end on 17 April (Xinhua News Agency, 11 Apr).

New developments in crime prevention; accountability and fairness in the justice process for offenders and victims; combating corruption; and trafficking in human beings -- especially in women and children -- will be discussed. Promoting the rule of law and strengthening the criminal justice system and crimes related to computer technology are also on the agenda (UN release).

UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette said the opening of borders has led some to jump on the globalization bandwagon to create transnational criminal networks to boost illegal profits. "To them, opening borders mean it is easier to traffic in women and children for forced labor and prostitution, to smuggle drugs and arms, and to escape justice," she said. "Open economies mean more businesses to extract bribes from and new shares of illegal markets to be won. Technological progress means new opportunities for child pornography, falsification of documents and money laundering" (UN release II, 6 Apr).

Officials are expected to adopt a declaration at the end of the congress that will be submitted for consideration and action at the Millennium Assembly in New York in September. The declaration emphasizes state responsibility to establish and maintain a fair, accountable, ethical and efficient criminal justice system. It also stresses that each state should ratify the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three protocols.

The proposed convention, being drafted by a special committee established by the General Assembly, would oblige governments to:

* Criminalize offenses committed by organized crime groups, including corruption and corporate offenses;

* Crack down on money laundering and the proceeds of crime;

* Speed and widen the reaches of extradition;

* Protect witnesses testifying against criminal groups;

* Tighten cooperation to seek out and prosecute suspects;

* Boost prevention of organized crime at national and international levels; and

* Develop a series of protocols containing measures to combat specific acts of transnational organized crime (UN release).

"If criminals are going global, those authorities fighting them must also launch a global effort and create effective networks for technical, legal and judicial cooperation, or they will always be one step behind," Frechette said (Xinhua News Agency).

"The convention ... will provide us with a major weapon to foster international cooperation in fighting organized crime," said Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UN release).