Strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in Particular Its Technical Cooperation Capacity

A/RES/69/197View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 105 Crime prevention and criminal justice, published in 2015.

What other versions does this mandate have?

24 versions · 1999–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/229

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/229	Strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity	14,275	61%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/229	Strengthening the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity	14,720	81%Compare
2023	A/RES/77/237	Strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity	12,938	87%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/187	Strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity	12,100	86%Compare
2020	A/RES/75/196	Strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity	11,510	94%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

23 reports · 2004–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/98	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/80/229
2025	A/80/157	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/229
2024	A/79/225	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/229
2023	A/78/264	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/237
2022	A/77/127	Implementation of the mandates of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/187

What subjects does this mandate have?

12 subjects

Corruption Counter-Terrorism Crime Prevention Criminal Justice Drug Traffic International Cooperation Law Enforcement Organized Crime Technical Cooperation Terrorism Transnational Crime Trust Funds

What’s in this document?

53 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to resolutions 64/293, 68/187, 68/188, 68/192, 68/193 and 68/195;²¹

²¹A/69/94.

Reaffirms that the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols theretoError: Reference source not found represent the most important tools of the international community for fighting transnational organized crime;

Notes with appreciation that the number of States parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime²² has reached 183, which is a significant indication of the commitment shown by the international community to combating transnational organized crime;

²²United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2225, No. 39574.

Urges Member States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying or acceding to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 as amended by the 1972 Protocol,Error: Reference source not found the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971,Error: Reference source not found the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988,Error: Reference source not found the United Nations Convention against CorruptionError: Reference source not found and the international conventions and protocols related to terrorism, and urges States parties to those conventions and protocols to make efforts towards their full implementation;

Recalls article 32 of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and General Assembly resolution 68/193, in which, inter alia, the need for the establishment of a mechanism to review the implementation of the Convention and the Protocols thereto by States parties was reiterated, and underlines that the review of the implementation of the Convention is an ongoing and gradual process and that it is necessary to explore all options regarding the establishment of a mechanism to assist the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in the review of the implementation of the Convention and the Protocols thereto, and invites Member States to continue the dialogue in this regard;

Notes the progress made during the third meeting of the open-ended intergovernmental Expert Group on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, held in Vienna from 25 to 28 March 2014,Error: Reference source not found and requests Member States to support the process of revision of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners²³in line with General Assembly resolution 65/230 of 21 December 2010, and to strengthen all efforts to address the issue of prison overcrowding;

²³Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments, Volume I (First Part), Universal Instruments (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.XIV.4 (Vol. I, Part 1)), sect. J, No. 34.

Notes with appreciation the work of the open-ended intergovernmental expert group to conduct a comprehensive study of the problem of cybercrime and responses to it by Member States, the international community and the private sector, including the exchange of information on national legislation, best practices, technical assistance and international cooperation, with a view to examining options to strengthen existing and to propose new national and international, legal or other responses to cybercrime, and encourages the expert group to enhance its efforts to complete its work and to present the outcome of the study to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in due course;

Reaffirms the importance of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme in promoting effective action to strengthen international cooperation in crime prevention and criminal justice, as well as of the work of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in the fulfilment of its mandate in crime prevention and criminal justice, including providing to Member States, upon request and as a matter of high priority, technical cooperation, advisory services and other forms of assistance, and coordinating with and complementing the work of all relevant and competent United Nations bodies and offices;

Urges Member States to be represented at the Thirteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at the highest possible level, and encourages States to continue their preparations for the Congress with a view to making focused and productive contributions to the discussions and to promoting the participation of United Nations organs and related agencies, other intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, as well as individual experts and consultants, in accordance with relevant resolutions and rules of procedure;

Underscores that respect for and promotion of crime prevention and criminal justice as well as of the rule of law should be given due consideration in relation to the post-2015 development agenda;

Recommends that Member States, as appropriate to their national contexts, adopt a comprehensive and integrated approach to crime prevention and criminal justice reform, based on baseline assessments and data collection and focusing on all sectors of the justice system, and develop crime prevention policies, strategies and programmes, including ones that focus on early prevention by using multidisciplinary and participatory approaches, in close cooperation with all stakeholders, including civil society, and requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to provide technical assistance, upon request, to Member States for this purpose;

Encourages all States to have national and local action plans for crime prevention in order to take into account, in a comprehensive, integrated and participatory manner, inter alia, factors that place certain populations and places at higher risk of victimization and/or of offending and to ensure that such plans are based on the best available evidence and good practices, stresses that crime prevention should be considered an integral element of strategies to foster social and economic development in all States, and in this regard welcomes Economic and Social Council resolution 2014/21 of 16 July 2014 on strengthening social policies as a tool for crime prevention;

Calls upon Member States to strengthen their efforts to cooperate, as appropriate, at the bilateral, subregional, regional and international levels to counter transnational organized crime effectively;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to enhance its efforts, within existing resources and within its mandate, in providing technical assistance and advisory services for the implementation of its regional and subregional programmes in a coordinated manner with relevant Member States and regional and subregional organizations;

Also requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to provide, within its mandate, technical assistance to Member States, upon their request, in the areas of crime prevention and criminal justice, with a view to strengthening the capacity of national criminal justice systems to investigate, prosecute and punish all forms of crime, while protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of defendants, as well as the legitimate interests of victims and witnesses, and to ensure access to effective legal aid in criminal justice systems;

Encourages Member States to strengthen their efforts in combating cybercrime and all forms of criminal abuse of information and telecommunications technologies and to enhance international cooperation in this regard;

Emphasizes the importance of protecting persons in vulnerable groups or situations, and in that regard expresses its concern about the increase in the activities of transnational and national organized criminal groups and others who profit from crimes against migrants, especially women and children, without regard for dangerous and inhumane conditions and in flagrant violation of national laws and international law;

Calls upon Member States to reinforce international cooperation for preventing and combating the smuggling of migrants and for the prosecution of smugglers, in accordance, as appropriate, with article 6 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,²⁴ and with national laws and legislation, while effectively protecting the rights and respecting the dignity of smuggled migrants and internationally recognized principles of non-discrimination and other applicable obligations under relevant international law, taking into account the special needs of women, children, especially when unaccompanied, and persons with disabilities and older persons, and in this regard calls upon the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue its technical assistance to Member States in accordance with the above-mentioned Protocol;

²⁴United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2241, No. 39574.

Encourages Member States to ensure that, in investigating and prosecuting the smuggling of migrants, the concurrent undertaking of financial investigations is considered, with a view to tracing, freezing and confiscating proceeds acquired through that crime, and to consider the smuggling of migrants to be a predicate offence of money-laundering;

Emphasizes the importance of preventing and combating all forms of trafficking in persons, and in this regard expresses its concern about the activities of transnational and national organized criminal groups and others who profit from such crimes, including for the purpose of organ removal, and calls upon Member States to strengthen national efforts to combat all forms of trafficking in persons and to protect and assist the victims of trafficking in accordance with all relevant legal obligations and in collaboration with international organizations, civil society and the private sector;

Invites Member States to strengthen the crime prevention and criminal justice response to the gender-related killing of women and girls, in particular measures to support the capacity of Member States to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish all forms of such crime;

Urges the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to provide within its mandate technical assistance to Member States, upon their request, to combat money-laundering and the financing of terrorism through the Global Programme against Money-Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and the Financing of Terrorism, in accordance with United Nations-related instruments and international standards, including, where applicable, standards and relevant initiatives of regional, interregional and multilateral organizations and intergovernmental bodies against money-laundering, inter alia and as appropriate, the Financial Action Task Force, in accordance with national legislation;

Urges Member States to strengthen bilateral, regional and international cooperation to enable the return of assets illicitly acquired from corruption to the countries of origin, upon their request, in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption for asset recovery, in particular chapter V, requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, within its existing mandate, to continue to provide assistance to bilateral, regional and international efforts for that purpose, and also urges Member States to combat and penalize corruption, as well as the laundering of its proceeds;

Welcomes the progress achieved by the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in the implementation of their respective mandates, and calls upon States parties to give full effect to the resolutions adopted by those bodies;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to foster international and regional cooperation, including by facilitating the development of regional networks active in the field of legal and law enforcement cooperation in the fight against transnational organized crime, where appropriate, and by promoting cooperation among all such networks, including by providing technical assistance where it is required, recognizing the efforts made by the Office to establish and assist such networks;

Urges the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to increase collaboration with intergovernmental, international and regional organizations that have transnational organized crime mandates, as appropriate, in order to share best practices, foster cooperation and take advantage of their unique and comparative advantage;

Recognizes the efforts made by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to assist Member States in developing their abilities and strengthening their capacity to prevent and combat kidnapping, and requests the Office to continue to provide technical assistance with a view to fostering international cooperation, in particular mutual legal assistance, aimed at countering effectively this growing serious crime;

Draws attention to the emerging policy issues identified in the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the mandates of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, with particular reference to the technical cooperation activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, namely, piracy, cybercrime, the use of new information technologies to abuse and exploit children, trafficking in cultural property, illicit financial flows, environmental crime, including illicit trafficking in endangered species of wild fauna and flora, as well as identity-related crime, and invites the Office to explore, within its mandate, ways and means of addressing those issues, bearing in mind Economic and Social Council resolution 2012/12 of 26 July 2012 on the strategy for the period 2012–2015 for the Office;

Invites Member States and requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, within its existing mandate, to continue to strengthen the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of accurate, reliable and comparable data and information, including, as appropriate, data disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant criteria, and strongly encourages Member States to share such data and information with the Office;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to develop, in close cooperation with Member States, technical and methodological tools and trend analyses and studies to enhance knowledge on crime trends and support Member States in designing appropriate responses in specific areas of crime, in particular in their transnational dimension, taking into account the need to make the best possible use of existing resources;

Urges Member States and relevant international organizations to develop national and regional strategies, as appropriate, and other necessary measures, in cooperation with the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, to address effectively transnational organized crime, including drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, as well as corruption and terrorism;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to assist Member States, upon request, in combating illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition and to support them in their efforts to address the links with other forms of transnational organized crime, through, inter alia, legislative assistance, technical support and enhanced data collection and analysis;

Encourages Member States to enhance the effectiveness of countering criminal threats to the tourism sector, including terrorist threats through, when appropriate, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other relevant international organizations, in cooperation with the World Tourism Organization and the private sector;

Urges States parties to make effective use of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime for broad cooperation in preventing and combating all forms and aspects of trafficking in cultural property and related offences, especially in returning such proceeds of crime or property to their legitimate owners, in accordance with article 14, paragraph 2, of the Convention, and invites States parties to exchange information on all forms and aspects of trafficking in cultural property and related offences, in accordance with their national laws, and to coordinate administrative and other measures taken, as appropriate, for the prevention, early detection and punishment of such offences, also reaffirming in this regard the importance of the International Guidelines for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Responses with Respect to Trafficking in Cultural Property and Other Related Offences as adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 69/196, by the Economic and Social Council in its resolution 2014/20 and by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and other related documents adopted on this item by the Commission at its twenty-third session;²⁵

²⁵See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2014, Supplement No. 10 (E/2014/30).

Urges Member States to introduce effective national and international measures to prevent and combat illicit trafficking in cultural property, including publicizing legislation, international guidelines and related technical background documents, and offering special training for police, customs and border services, and to consider such trafficking a serious crime, as defined in the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

Encourages Member States to make trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora involving organized criminal groups a serious crime, as defined in article 2, paragraph (b), of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, in order to ensure that adequate and effective means of international cooperation can be afforded in the investigation and prosecution of those engaged in trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora;

Strongly encourages Member States to take appropriate measures, consistent with their domestic legislation and legal frameworks, to strengthen law enforcement and related efforts to combat individuals and groups, including organized criminal groups, operating within their borders, with a view to preventing, combating and eradicating international trafficking in wildlife, forest products, including timber, and other forest biological resources harvested in contravention of national laws and relevant international instruments;

Calls upon Member States to take appropriate and effective measures to prevent and combat trafficking in precious metals and stones by organized criminal groups, including, where appropriate, the adoption and effective implementation of the necessary legislation for the prevention, investigation and prosecution of illicit trafficking in precious metals and stones;

Reaffirms the importance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and its regional offices in building capacity at the local level in the fight against transnational organized crime and drug trafficking, and urges the Office to consider regional vulnerabilities, projects and impact in the fight against transnational organized crime, in particular in developing countries, when deciding to close and allocate offices, with a view to maintaining an effective level of support to national and regional efforts in those areas;

Encourages Member States to continue to support the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in providing targeted technical assistance, within its existing mandate, to enhance the capacity of affected States, upon their request, to combat piracy and other forms of crime committed at sea, including by assisting Member States in creating an effective law enforcement response and strengthening their judicial capacity;

Encourages States parties to continue to provide full support to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption and their subsidiary bodies, including providing information to the conferences of the parties to the conventions regarding compliance with the treaties;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with adequate resources to promote, in an effective manner, the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 and the United Nations Convention against Corruption, and to discharge its functions as the secretariat of the conferences of the parties to the conventions, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, as well as the United Nations congresses on crime prevention and criminal justice, in accordance with its mandate;

Reiterates its request to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to enhance its technical assistance to Member States, 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, in close consultation with the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1373 (2001) concerning counter-terrorism (the Counter-Terrorism Committee) and its Executive Directorate, as well as to continue to contribute to the work of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, and invites Member States to provide the Office with appropriate resources for its mandate;

Requests, furthermore, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to provide technical assistance to Member States, upon request, to strengthen the rule of law, taking also into account the work undertaken by the Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group of the Secretariat and other relevant United Nations bodies;

Encourages Member States to take relevant measures, as appropriate to their national contexts, to ensure the diffusion, use and application of the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice, including the consideration and, where they deem it necessary, dissemination of existing manuals and handbooks developed and published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime;

Urges States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption to continue to provide full support to the review mechanism adopted by the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in collaboration and close consultation with Member States and within existing resources, to continue to support the enhancement of capacity and skills in the field of forensic sciences, including the setting of standards, and the development of technical assistance material for training, such as manuals, compilations of useful practices and guidelines and scientific and forensic reference material, for law enforcement officials and prosecution authorities, and to promote and facilitate the establishment and sustainability of regional networks of forensic science providers in order to enhance their expertise and capacity to prevent and combat transnational organized crime;

Reiterates the importance of providing the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme with sufficient, stable and predictable funding for the full implementation of its mandates, in conformity with the high priority accorded to it and in accordance with the increasing demand for its services, in particular with regard to the provision of increased assistance to developing countries, countries with economies in transition and countries emerging from conflict, in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice reform;

Urges all Member States to provide the fullest possible financial and political support to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime by widening its donor base and increasing voluntary contributions, in particular general-purpose contributions, so as to enable it to continue, expand, improve and strengthen, within its mandates, its operational and technical cooperation activities;

Expresses concern regarding the overall financial situation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, emphasizes the need to provide the Office with adequate, predictable and stable resources and to ensure their cost-effective utilization, and requests the Secretary-General to continue to report, within existing reporting obligations, on the financial situation of the Office and to continue to ensure that the Office has sufficient resources to carry out its mandates fully and effectively;

Invites States and other interested parties to make further voluntary contributions to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the United Nations Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its seventieth session on the implementation of the mandates of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, reflecting also emerging policy issues and possible responses;

Also requests the Secretary-General to include in the report referred to in paragraph 52 above information on the status of ratifications of or accessions to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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