Takes note of the reports of the Secretary-General, submitted to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its sixth session, on the implementation of the Naples Political Declaration and Global Action Plan against Organized Transnational Crime3 and on the question of the elaboration of an international convention against organized transnational crime;4
Takes note also of the forty recommendations elaborated and endorsed by the Senior Experts Group on Transnational Organized Crime, which met at Lyon, France, from 27 to 29 June 1996, which are contained in annex I to Economic and Social Council resolution 1997/22;
3
Takes note further of the report of the informal meeting on the question of the elaboration of an international convention against organized transnational crime, held at Palermo, Italy, from 6 to 8 April 1997,5 and expresses its appreciation to the Fondazione Giovanni e Francesca Falcone for organizing and acting as host to the meeting;
Reiterates the high priority accorded to the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme as well as to its work on action against organized transnational crime in general and the implementation of the Naples Political Declaration and Global Action Plan in particular;
5
UrgesStates to continue making every effort possible to implement the Naples Political Declaration and Global Action Plan fully by taking the most appropriate legislative, regulatory and administrative measures, including those aimed at prevention;
6
Requeststhe Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to continue its review of the implementation of the Naples Political Declaration and Global Action Plan as a matter of high priority;
7
Invitesdeveloping countries and countries with economies in transition to undertake action against organized transnational crime and to promote international cooperation in this field as priorities in their development efforts and to include in their requests for assistance to the United Nations Development Programme, as part of the country programme framework of the Programme, projects on action against organized transnational crime and money laundering, with a view to upgrading national institutional capacities and professional expertise in these fields;
8
Calls uponthe United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and other international, regional and national funding agencies to give favourable consideration to project proposals on strengthening national or regional capacities and creating the expertise required for the prevention and control of organized transnational crime and money laundering that are elaborated and submitted to them by the Centre for International Crime Prevention of the Secretariat;
9
Requeststhe Secretary-General to continue his work on the central repository established pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/27, with a view to increasing, maintaining and updating the data and other information contained in the repository and making such information available to States and, for this purpose, to continue collecting information and material, taking into account the methodological points and categorization of data listed in annex II to Economic and Social Council resolution 1997/22, including legislative and regulatory texts on the prevention and control of organized transnational crime, as well as reports on preventive measures;
10
Calls uponall States and relevant international organizations and institutes affiliated and associated with the United Nations to assist the Secretary-General in the implementation of paragraph 9 above by providing him with data and other information, as well as legislative and regulatory texts, and to keep such data up to date;
11
Requeststhe Secretary-General to continue to provide States with advisory services and other forms of assistance on request in the field of prevention and control of organized transnational crime;
12
Also requeststhe Secretary-General to assist States in collecting and systematizing data and other information on the occurrence, dimensions and patterns of organized transnational crime by designing and undertaking a comparative study on the situation of organized transnational crime throughout the world;
13
Further requeststhe Secretary-General to review the data submitted to the central repository and to take that data into account in developing model legislation against organized transnational crime as well as technical manuals for law enforcement and judicial personnel and for agencies engaged in preventive activities;
14
Decides to establish an inter-sessional open-ended intergovernmental group of experts, from within existing resources or, where possible, funded by extrabudgetary resources, if made available, for the purpose of elaborating a preliminary draft of a possible comprehensive international convention against organized transnational crime, which would submit a report thereon to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its seventh session;
15
Welcomes the generous offer of the Government of Poland to organize and host a meeting of the intergovernmental group of experts;
16
Requeststhe intergovernmental group of experts, when elaborating the preliminary draft:
a
To take into account existing multilateral instruments, the draft United Nations framework convention against organized crime presented by the Government of Poland at the fifty-first session of the General Assembly,6 contained in annex III to Economic and Social Council resolution 1997/22, the report of the Chairman of the Working Group on the Implementation of the Naples Political Declaration and Global Action Plan against Organized Transnational Crime and the Question of the Elaboration of an International Convention against Organized Transnational Crime, contained in annex IV to Council resolution 1997/22, the principles indicated in the forty recommendations mentioned in paragraph 2 above and the observations and proposals made by other member States during the sixth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, including those contained in annexes V and VI to Council resolution 1997/22, as well as those contained in the report of the Secretary-General on the question of the elaboration of an international convention against organized transnational crime3 and the principles contained in the report of the Secretary-General on measures to prevent trafficking in children;7
To give priority consideration to the following issues:
i
Measures for judicial and police cooperation, particularly in relation to mutual assistance, extradition, money laundering and confiscation of illicit assets, protection of witnesses, information sharing, training and other forms of technical assistance;
ii
Identification of the scope of application of the above-mentioned measures, having particular regard to the documents contained in annexes III and IV to Council resolution 1997/22, referred to in subparagraph (a) above;
iii
Provisions related to criminal offences, particularly in the areas of criminal associations, conspiracy and money laundering;
c
Also to consider indicating the need for special provisions related to specific types of crime, such as trafficking in children, corruption, offences related to firearms, trafficking in illegal migrants and theft of motor vehicles, that may be the subject of international instruments, whether associated with or separate from the draft convention;
17
Requeststhe Secretary-General to provide the Centre for International Crime Prevention of the Secretariat with adequate resources for the preparation and servicing of the meeting of the intergovernmental group of experts;
18
Requeststhe Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to report through the Economic and Social Council to the General Assembly at its fifty-third session on the progress achieved in its work on this question.
