Excerpts from document A/61/100 [F] [S] [A] [C] [R]
● Item 98: Crime prevention and criminal justice.
Documents:
The First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders was held at Geneva in 1955, the Second Congress in London in 1960, the Third Congress in Stockholm in 1965, the Fourth Congress in Kyoto in 1970, the Fifth Congress at Geneva in 1975, the Sixth Congress in Caracas in 1980, the Seventh Congress in Milan in 1985, the Eighth Congress in Havana in 1990, the Ninth Congress in Cairo in 1995, the Tenth Congress in Vienna in 2000 and the Eleventh Congress in Bangkok from 18 to 25 April 2005.
At its forty-sixth session, the General Assembly recommended that a commission on crime prevention and criminal justice be established as a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (resolution 46/152).
At its forty-seventh to fifty-ninth sessions, the General Assembly continued its consideration of the question (resolutions 47/87, 47/89, 47/91, 48/101 to 48/103, 49/156 to 49/159, 50/145 to 50/147, 51/59 to 51/63, 52/85 to 52/91, 53/110 to 53/114, 54/125 to 54/131, 55/25, 55/59 to 55/64, 55/188, 55/255, 56/119, 56/120, 57/169 to 57/171, 57/173, 58/4, 58/135 to 58/140 and 59/151 to 59/159, and decision 59/523).
♦ Follow-up to the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
At its fifty-seventh session, the General Assembly decided that the main theme of the Eleventh Congress should be “Synergies and responses: strategic alliances in crime prevention and criminal justice”; and accepted with gratitude the offer of the Government of Thailand to host the Eleventh Congress (resolution 57/171).
At its fifty-eighth session, the General Assembly decided to hold the Eleventh Congress from 18 to 25 April 2005; and also decided that the high-level segment would be held during the last three days of the Congress (resolution 58/138).
At its sixtieth session, the General Assembly endorsed the Bangkok Declaration on Synergies and Responses: Strategic Alliances in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, adopted by the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and approved by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its fourteenth session and subsequently by the Economic and Social Council in its resolution 2005/15; invited Governments to implement the Bangkok Declaration and the recommendations adopted by the Eleventh Congress in formulating legislation and policy directives; requested the Secretary-General to distribute the report of the Eleventh Congress, including the Bangkok Declaration, to Member States, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations, ensuring that its recommendations were disseminated as widely as possible, and to seek proposals by Member States for ways and means of ensuring appropriate follow-up to the Bangkok Declaration for consideration and action by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its fifteenth session; and also requested the Secretary-General to submit to the Assembly at its sixty-first session a report on strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity, including a chapter on the Bangkok Declaration, the recommendations adopted by the Eleventh Congress and the implementation of the resolution (resolution 60/177).
♦ United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders
At its sixtieth session, the General Assembly reiterated the need to strengthen further the capacity of the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders to support national mechanisms for crime prevention and criminal justice in African countries; urged the States members of the Institute to make every possible effort to meet their obligations to the Institute; requested the Secretary-General to intensify efforts to mobilize all relevant entities of the United Nations system to provide the necessary financial and technical support to the Institute to enable it to fulfil its mandate; also requested the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to mobilize the financial resources necessary to maintain the Institute with the core professional staff required to enable it to function effectively in the fulfilment of its mandated obligations; called upon the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to work closely with the Institute; requested the Secretary-General to enhance the promotion of regional cooperation, coordination and collaboration in the fight against crime, especially in its transnational dimension; also requested the Secretary-General to make concrete proposals, including the provision of additional core professional staff, to strengthen the programmes and activities of the Institute and to report to the Assembly at its sixty-first session on the implementation of the resolution (resolution 60/176).
♦ Strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity
At its sixtieth session, the General Assembly requested the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue its efforts to provide Member States with technical assistance, upon request, to strengthen international cooperation in preventing and combating terrorism through the facilitation of the ratification and implementation of the universal conventions and protocols related to terrorism; called upon the Secretary-General to enhance further the effectiveness of the global programmes addressing trafficking in human beings, including support and protection of victims, corruption, organized crime, money-laundering and terrorism; invited all States to increase their support to the operational activities of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme through voluntary contributions to the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Fund or through voluntary contributions in direct support of such activities; requested the Secretary-General to continue to provide the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with adequate resources to enable it to promote in an effective manner, under the guidance of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the implementation of the Convention and the Protocols thereto and to discharge its functions as the secretariat of the said Conference of the Parties, in accordance with its mandate, and also requested the Secretary-General to transmit to the Assembly the reports of the above-mentioned Conference; further requested the Secretary-General to take all necessary measures to provide adequate support to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, as the principal policymaking body in this field, in performing its activities; urged all States and competent regional economic integration organizations that had not yet done so to sign, ratify or accede to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention) and the Protocols thereto, as well as the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the international conventions and protocols related to terrorism, including the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism; encouraged States to make adequate and regular voluntary contributions for the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto, and for the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which had entered into force on 14 December 2005; and requested the Secretary-General to submit a report on the implementation of the resolution to the Assembly at its sixty-first session (resolution 60/175).
By its resolution 2005/17 on international cooperation in the fight against transnational organized crime, the Economic and Social Council requested the Secretary-General to transmit to the General Assembly the report of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
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