Report on the 18th Session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice - 16th – 24th April 2009

In 2007 the IBSSA joined IFNGO (International Federation of Non Governmental Organisations – for Prevention of Drug and Substance Abuse), which federation includes non-governmental organisations from around the world that are concerned with anti-drug activities, and represents them in the UN and its various organisations.

IFNGO was invited to attend the 18th Session of the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which was held between 16 – 24 April at the Vienna International Centre (VIC) in Vienna / Austria, for that very reason the IBSSA – being associated member of IFNGO – was also welcomed to be present this significant event.

The IFNGO delegation was led by Prof. George POPPER – President of IBSSA. 

Opening the Conference the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria COSTA, warned that “crime has gone global” and “poses a security threat to cities, nations and entire regions”. The 18^th Session addressed world crime trends and responded at a time of an unprecedented rise in organised crime.As Mr. Costa pointed out in his opening remarks, drug cartels are spreading violence in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. West Africa is under attack from narco-trafficking. Collusion between insurgents and criminal groups threatens the stability of West Asia, the Andes and parts of Africa, fuelling the trade in smuggled weapons, the plunder of natural resources and piracy. Kidnapping is rife from the Sahel to the Andes, while human trafficking has spread throughout the world. Some city neighbourhoods have been overrun by gangs, while cyber-crime and economic fraud threaten citizens and states. The Executive Director of UNODC predicted that this situation would worsen as a result of the financial crisis, although he said that there could be a silver lining: an end to bank secrecy, tax havens, as well as regulation and compliance failure.

Mr. Costa said that the blueprints for dealing with this challenge already exist, like the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the United Nations Convention against Corruption. But “implementation has been patchy, there is almost no information on world crime, and efforts to fight crime have been disjointed”. As a result, he said, “countries face a crime situation of their own making”. He urged countries to use this crisis “to change the way we fight crime and corruption”.

“The political will of States is mightier than the greed and firepower of criminal groups”, he said. He urged greater international cooperation to fight organized crime, saying “working together does not mean surrendering sovereignty, it means defending it”.

During the current session, in addition to reviewing ways to prevent crime and strengthen criminal justice, the 40-member Commission held thematic debates on economic fraud and identity-related crime as well as penal reform and the reduction of prison overcrowding.

2^nd May 2009

IBSSA HQ