The Rule of Law, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals

A/RES/73/185View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 109 Crime prevention and criminal justice, published in 2018.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 13	International drug control, crime and terrorism prevention and criminal justice	377

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 13	International drug control, crime and terrorism prevention and criminal justice	377	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Coordination Within UN System Crime Prevention Criminal Justice International Cooperation Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

22 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms the importance of its resolution 70/1, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which includes the commitment to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels;

Urges Member States to continue to recognize the cross-cutting nature of the rule of law, crime prevention and criminal justice and development, and recommends that such linkages and interrelationships be properly addressed and further elaborated, while reiterating the commitments made with regard to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular in connection with the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16;

Renews its call upon relevant entities of the United Nations system to continue cooperating and coordinating their activities, within their respective mandates, to promote a more integrated approach to the provision of assistance for building capacity in the area of the rule of law and criminal justice reform and to further explore joint projects in that area;

Reiterates its invitation to Governments to take into consideration the Doha Declaration on Integrating Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice into the Wider United Nations Agenda to Address Social and Economic Challenges and to Promote the Rule of Law at the National and International Levels, and Public Participation, adopted by the Thirteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,2 when formulating legislation and policy directives and to make every effort, where appropriate, to implement the principles contained therein in conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations;

Emphasizes the commitment expressed in the Doha Declaration to holistic and comprehensive approaches to countering crime, violence, corruption and terrorism in all their forms and manifestations, and to ensuring that those responses are implemented in a coordinated and coherent way, along with broader programmes or measures for social and economic development, poverty eradication, respect for cultural diversity, social peace and social inclusion;

Urges Member States to mainstream crime prevention strategies with a gender perspective that are aimed at children and youth into all relevant social and economic policies and programmes, including those addressing education, health, civic participation, socioeconomic opportunities, information and communications technology and public safety and security, in order to protect children and youth from social marginalization and exclusion and to reduce their risk of becoming victims or offenders, and to this end to strive to achieve all relevant Sustainable Development Goals, including Goals 3 to 5, 8 to 11, 16 and 17;

Also urges Member States to adopt integrated and comprehensive responses to violence against women in order to reduce risks of gender-related killing through early intervention and risk assessment, exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish gender-related killing of women and girls, ensure equal protection of women under the law and equal access to justice, consider adopting an integrated, multidisciplinary and gender-sensitive approach to the prevention, investigation, prosecution and punishment of gender-related killing of women and girls to minimize the risk of secondary victimization in the criminal justice system, develop appropriate mechanisms and enhance capacities for forensic investigations to identify human remains and missing persons and, to these ends, strive to achieve all relevant Sustainable Development Goals, including Goals 5 and 16;

Invites Member States to promote educational programmes related to crime prevention and criminal justice, in particular for young people, that foster an understanding of justice and the rule of law, which is an approach to be taken by Governments towards the general public to promote trust and respect for the law and its enforcement, and, to these ends, to strive to achieve all relevant Sustainable Development Goals, including Goals 4 and 16;

Also invites Member States to intensify, in line with their domestic legal frameworks, national and international efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination, including racism, religious intolerance, xenophobia and gender-related discrimination by, inter alia, raising awareness, developing educational materials and programmes and considering, where appropriate, drafting and enforcing legislation against discrimination and, to these ends, to strive to achieve all relevant Sustainable Development Goals, including Goals 4, 5, 8, 10 and 16;

Encourages Member States, with the active participation of the private sector, to promote crime prevention and social inclusion programmes and employability schemes for vulnerable members of society, including victims and those released from prison, and, to these ends, to strive to achieve all relevant Sustainable Development Goals, including Goals 1 to 5, 8, 10, 11 and 16;

Also encourages Member States to adopt effective measures to prevent and counter the serious problem of crimes that have an impact on the environment, such as trafficking in wildlife, including fauna and flora as protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora,⁴ and poaching, as well as illicit trafficking in forest products, including timber, and, to these ends, to strive to achieve all relevant Sustainable Development Goals, including Goals 13 to 16;

⁴United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 993, No. 14537.

Acknowledges the ongoing work of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, within its mandate, in the area of education for justice, including under the Education for Justice initiative, which is a key component of the Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, and requests the Office to continue its efforts to promote education on the rule of law and justice in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and other relevant stakeholders;

Notes that the main theme of the Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, to be held in Kyoto, Japan, in 2020, will be “Advancing crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law: towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda”, and looks forward to fruitful discussions at the regional preparatory meetings and at the Congress on that subject;

Invites Member States participating in the regional preparatory meetings for the Fourteenth Congress to make specific proposals and recommendations in line with its theme, related to the advancement of the rule of law, for consideration by the Congress;

Welcomes the efforts of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to assist Member States in improving systems for collecting and analysing data on crime prevention and criminal justice at all levels, where necessary, including gender-specific data, in order to promote the rule of law and achieve sustainable development, and notes the application of the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes;

Requests 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 into account the work undertaken by other United Nations entities, within existing mandates, as well as regional and bilateral efforts, and to continue to ensure coordination and coherence, including through the Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to provide the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with adequate resources to support, in an effective manner, its efforts towards the implementation of its mandates and, as appropriate, the global follow-up and thematic review relating to its existing mandates, which are essential for strengthening the maintenance of the rule of law at the national and international levels, including by providing special support to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to enable it to actively contribute, as appropriate, to the global follow-up to and thematic review of progress made by Member States in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as set forth in General Assembly resolution 70/299;

Encourages Member States to take relevant measures, as appropriate to their national contexts, to promote 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, handbooks and capacity-building material developed and published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime;

Welcomes the efforts of the Secretary-General towards stronger coordination and integration of rule of law assistance, through specialized and relevant international organizations, in order to enhance predictability, coherence, accountability and effectiveness in the delivery of rule of law assistance at the national and international levels, and encourages further participation by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in such arrangements, in particular with regard to police, justice and corrections;

Invites the institutes of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme network to continue to include in their work programme the issue of the rule of law and the provision of assistance to States, at their request, in responding to the challenges posed to the rule of law and development, as well as to strengthen their efforts to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Calls upon Member States, international organizations and all relevant stakeholders to provide to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime their views on advancing crime prevention and criminal justice, in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 16, as well as their views on the contribution that the Fourteenth Congress, considering its main theme, could make to the furtherance of these issues, and requests the Office to report to the Congress on that matter;

Invites Member States and other donors to provide extrabudgetary resources for the purposes set out in the present resolution, in accordance with the rules and procedures of the United Nations.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?