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

A/RES/78/229View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 107 Crime prevention and criminal justice, published in 2023.

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?

5 subjects

Capacity Building Crime Prevention Criminal Justice Technical Cooperation Transnational Crime

What’s in this document?

93 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to resolution 77/237;⁴⁸

⁴⁸A/78/264.

Reaffirms its resolution 70/1, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which, inter alia, includes the commitment to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels;

Underlines the important role of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in actively contributing to the accelerated implementation of the 2030 Agenda, within its mandate, and in contributing to the follow-up to the Sustainable Development Goals Summit held in September 2023;

Calls upon all Member States, when appropriate, to take into consideration the Kyoto Declaration on Advancing Crime Prevention, Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law: Towards the Achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted at the high-level segment of the Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, held in Kyoto, Japan, from 7 to 12 March 2021, 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, and requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to provide technical assistance, upon request, to Member States;

Encourages Member States to promote the integrity, accountability, honesty and responsibility of criminal justice practitioners and institutions through specialized and appropriate training, and the application of codes or standards of conduct, and in this context notes the work of the Global Judicial Integrity Network aimed at strengthening judicial integrity;

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, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the international conventions and protocols related to terrorism, and urges States parties to those conventions and protocols to make efforts towards their effective implementation, particularly with regard to preventing and combating transnational organized crime, including cybercrime;

Reaffirms that the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto represent the most important tools of the international community for fighting transnational organized crime, including cybercrime, notes with appreciation that the number of States parties has reached 192, which is a significant indication of the commitment shown by the international community to combating transnational organized crime, and recalls in this respect resolution 10/4 of 16 October 2020 of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,⁴⁹ in which the Conference emphasized the continued relevance of the Convention, including in countering new, emerging and evolving forms of transnational organized crime, and urges States parties to make, consistent with their national legislation, the widest possible use of the Convention as a legal basis for international cooperation in criminal matters, taking note in this respect of the relevant United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime digest of cases, which was released in October 2021;

⁴⁹See CTOC/COP/2020/10, sect. I.A.

Recognizes that technical assistance and economic development are fundamental to ensuring the effective implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto, and recalls in this regard article 30 of the Convention;

Urges States parties to actively participate in the review process of the Mechanism for the Review of the Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto, in accordance with resolution 10/1 of 16 October 2020 of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,⁵⁰ including by ensuring that the focal points and experts are nominated in a timely manner and that voluntary contributions are made to ensure that the Secretariat can effectively support the process, as well as to implement observations emanating therefrom, including, where appropriate, by requesting technical assistance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to this end;

⁵⁰Ibid.

Encourages States parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime to submit case law, legislation and other relevant responses to the knowledge management portal known as Sharing Electronic Resources and Laws on Crime;

Welcomes the resolutions adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh sessions, held in Vienna from 17 to 21 October 2016, from 15 to 19 October 2018, from 12 to 16 October 2020 and from 17 to 21 October 2022, respectively, to promote greater use of the Convention by central and other competent authorities in extradition and mutual legal assistance and to enhance the effectiveness of these authorities and to strengthen, as appropriate, the implementation of the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

Encourages Member States to implement the commitments made in the political declaration entitled “Our common commitment to effectively addressing challenges and implementing measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation”, adopted at the thirty-second special session of the General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters from 2 to 4 June 2021;

Urges States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption to continue to provide full support to the Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the Convention adopted by the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention, welcomes the progress made under the second cycle of the Review Mechanism and calls upon States parties to ensure the timely conclusion of the second review cycle and to participate in preparations for the next review phase, and further notes with appreciation that the number of States parties has reached 190, which is a significant indication of the commitment shown by the international community to combating corruption and related crimes;

Also urges States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption to increase their efforts and to take measures to prevent and counter corruption, with the necessary focus on, among others, acts of corruption that involve vast quantities of assets, without undermining their commitment to preventing and countering corruption at all levels and in all forms, calls upon States parties to the Convention to take measures to ensure that legal and natural persons are held accountable for corruption offences, including when they involve bribery and vast quantities of assets, in accordance with the Convention, and notes with appreciation the creation of regional anti-corruption hubs by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to better support States parties in these endeavours;

Takes note of progress made in operationalizing the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities under the auspices of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and encourages States to participate in and make best use of this network, as appropriate;

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, including providing information regarding compliance with the treaties;

Encourages Member States, in accordance with their domestic law, to strengthen the capacity of their respective criminal justice systems to investigate, prosecute and punish crime, while supporting an accessible, effective, fair, humane, transparent and accountable criminal justice system and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of defendants, as well as the rights and legitimate interests of victims and witnesses, and to adopt and reinforce measures to ensure access to effective legal aid in criminal justice systems, as called for in its resolution 78/227 on equal access to justice for all;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to provide technical assistance to Member States, upon request, including, inter alia, in the field of international cooperation in criminal matters, to strengthen the rule of law, also 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;

Calls for greater coordination and coherence among United Nations entities and with stakeholders, including donors, host countries and recipients of capacity-building, in countering 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;

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, and stresses that crime prevention should be considered an integral element of strategies to foster social and economic development in all States, in accordance with the commitments contained in General Assembly resolutions 70/1 and 70/299;

Recommends that Member States adopt multisectoral crime prevention policies and programmes for youth and increase their meaningful and inclusive participation therein, including through sport and education, taking into consideration their varying needs, and safeguard their well-being, recognizing that youth may face specific challenges and risk factors that make them particularly vulnerable to crime, all forms of violence, terrorism and victimization, and in this respect recalls its resolutions 74/170 and 76/183, entitled “Integrating sport into youth crime prevention and criminal justice strategies”, Economic and Social Council resolution 2016/18 of 26 July 2016, entitled “Mainstreaming holistic approaches in youth crime prevention”, and further recalls the provision of the Kyoto Declaration on empowering youth by organizing social, educational, cultural, recreational, sports-related youth programmes and youth forums;

Takes note of the launch of the Sport against Crime: Outreach, Resilience, Empowerment (SC:ORE) initiative for at-risk youth developed jointly by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with the International Olympic Committee to integrate sport into youth crime prevention initiatives, and requests the Office to continue, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources and in close consultation with Member States, its relevant efforts;

Invites Member States to consider policy recommendations identified in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Report on Corruption in Sport, where appropriate, to address risks to people in vulnerable situations, in particular children and young athletes, posed by corruption in sport, with a view to promoting fair competition, healthy lives and principles of integrity and to creating an atmosphere of intolerance towards corruption in sport;

Takes note of the progress made under the Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) initiative by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and requests the Office to continue, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources and in close consultation with Member States, its efforts to develop educational materials on fighting corruption and on the rule of law, and enhance cooperation with and build the capacity of relevant criminal justice authorities and educational institutions;

Encourages States to continue to build on the discussions of important forums such as the high-level debate of the General Assembly held on 15 June 2023 on the theme “Equal access to justice for all: advancing reforms for peaceful, just and inclusive societies”, and urges the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to facilitate sharing information on challenges, lessons learned, best practices and enabling factors needed to enhance the functioning of criminal justice systems to ensure equal access to justice for all;

Invites the President of the General Assembly, in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and with the involvement of relevant stakeholders, to hold, within existing resources and during the seventy-eighth session, a high-level debate on the theme “Crime prevention and sustainable development through sports” and to prepare a summary of the discussion for transmission to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and to all Member States;

Also invites the President of the General Assembly, in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and with the involvement of relevant stakeholders, to hold, within existing resources and during the seventy-ninth session, a high-level debate on the theme “A second chance: addressing the global prison challenge”, to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) by its resolution 70/175, and to prepare a summary of the discussion for transmission to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and to all Member States;

Urges Member States, in cooperation with the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, to develop national, subregional, regional and international strategies, with the support of relevant international organizations, as appropriate, and other necessary measures, including the establishment, in accordance with international obligations and domestic legislation, of designated central and competent authorities and effective points of contact dedicated to facilitating the procedures related to international cooperation, including for extradition and mutual legal assistance requests, in order to effectively address transnational organized crime; to strengthen all forms of cooperation in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption for asset recovery, in particular chapter V, with the cooperation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, within its existing mandate; and to inform accordingly the Office about existing or updated contact details of such authorities and points of contact to facilitate international cooperation as appropriate;

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 in respect of all forms of organized crime, including piracy and transnational organized crime committed at sea, cybercrime, criminal misuse of the Internet and other information and communications technologies as well as such misuse for terrorist purposes, the misuse of new information technologies to abuse and exploit children, trafficking in cultural property and artefacts, illicit financial flows, money-laundering, economic and financial crimes, including fraud, as well as tax and corporate crimes, match-fixing, counterfeiting in trademark goods, illicit trafficking in endangered species of wild fauna and flora and other crimes that affect the environment, such as trafficking in timber, hazardous waste, precious metals, stones and other minerals, drug trafficking, kidnapping, trafficking in persons, including the support and protection, as appropriate, of victims and survivors, their families and witnesses, organ trafficking, smuggling of migrants and illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, direct and indirect trade in oil and refined oil products with organized criminal and terrorist groups, as well as corruption and terrorism;

Encourages Member States to collect relevant information and to further identify, analyse and counter any existing, growing or potential links, in some cases, between transnational organized crime, the illicit access to, trafficking in and diversion of firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, illicit drug-related activities, money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, in order to enhance criminal justice responses to those crimes, and calls upon the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, within its relevant mandates, to support, upon request, the efforts of Member States in that regard;

Calls upon Member States to strengthen cooperation at the international, regional, subregional and bilateral levels to counter the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, including those who are returning and relocating, including through enhanced operational and timely information-sharing, logistical support, as appropriate, and capacity-building activities, such as those provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to share and adopt best practices to identify foreign terrorist fighters, to prevent the travel of foreign terrorist fighters from, into or through Member States, to prevent the financing, mobilization, recruitment and organization of foreign terrorist fighters, to prevent and counter violent extremism as and when conducive to terrorism, to enhance efforts to implement prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies, taking into account gender and age dimensions, and to ensure that any person who participates in the financing, planning, preparation or perpetration of terrorist acts or in the supporting of terrorist acts is brought to justice, in compliance with obligations under international law, as well as applicable domestic law, and requests the Office to continue to provide technical assistance, upon request, in this regard in cooperation and coordination with the Office of Counter-Terrorism and the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities;

Calls upon the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to further enhance technical assistance, upon request, for building the capacity of Member States to become party to and implement the international conventions and protocols related to counter-terrorism, including through targeted programmes and the training of relevant criminal justice and law enforcement officials, upon request, and the development of technical tools, publications and programmes, within its mandate, and in this respect takes note with appreciation of the development of the Global Programme on Preventing and Countering Terrorism of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which enables the Office to pursue partnership-based and people-centred technical assistance in support of Member States’ requests for technical assistance on the international conventions and protocols against terrorism;

Calls upon Member States to address the threat posed by radicalization to terrorism in prisons, and calls upon the United Nations, especially the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to continue to support Member States in this regard in cooperation and coordination with the Office of Counter-Terrorism and the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities;

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;

Reaffirms the importance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and its country and regional offices in building capacity at the local level in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, and urges the Office to consider regional vulnerabilities, projects and impacts in the fight against transnational organized crime in all its forms, 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;

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, efforts towards 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, and requests the Secretariat to continue to provide support to the Commissions within their respective mandates, enabling them to actively contribute, as appropriate, to the global follow-up and the thematic review of progress made by Member States in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as set forth in resolutions 70/299, and 72/305 of 23 July 2018 and its resolution 78/225 on enhancing the contributions of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to the accelerated implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

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 research, 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, also considering the extension of the mandate of the standing open-ended intergovernmental working group on improving the governance and financial situation of the Office, 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 to the United Nations voluntary trust fund on contemporary forms of slavery;

Calls upon Member States to intensify 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 requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue providing technical assistance and capacity-building, upon request, to Member States in support of such efforts and urges Member States to provide extrabudgetary resources for these purposes;

Emphasizes the importance of protecting those in vulnerable situations, regardless of their status, who may be subject to multiple and aggravated forms of discrimination, 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 ensure equal access to justice for all, in order to reach the relevant Sustainable Development Goals and to follow up on the provisions of the Kyoto Declaration and its resolution 78/227 on equal access to justice for all;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to develop technical tools and training material based on United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice and to continue to provide technical and material assistance to Member States, upon request, to ensure access to justice for all;

Calls upon Member States to implement, when appropriate, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), bearing in mind their spirit and purpose, and to intensify their efforts to address the challenge of prison overcrowding through appropriate criminal justice reforms, which should include, where appropriate, a review of penal policies and practical measures to reduce pretrial detention, to enhance the use of non-custodial sanctions and measures and to improve access to legal aid to the extent possible, bearing in mind the United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems, and requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to provide technical assistance to Member States, upon request, in this respect;

Reaffirms its resolutions 76/182 of 16 December 2021, 77/232 of 15 December 2022 and 78/224 of 19 December 2023 on reducing reoffending through rehabilitation and reintegration, and encourages Member States to promote a rehabilitative environment in correctional facilities and multi-stakeholder partnerships to reduce reoffending by fostering inter-agency coordination among relevant government authorities;

Emphasizes the need for all Member States to promote, where appropriate, cooperation on the transfer of sentenced persons to serve the rest of their sentences in their own countries, conclude bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrangements in this regard as necessary, taking into consideration the rights of sentenced persons and issues relating to consent, rehabilitation and reintegration, as appropriate, and raise awareness among these prisoners about the availability of such measures;

Invites Member States to mainstream a gender perspective into their criminal justice systems, including by the use of non-custodial measures for women, when appropriate, and by improving the treatment of women prisoners, taking into consideration the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules),⁵¹ and by developing and implementing national strategies and plans to promote the full protection of women and girls from all acts of violence and to strengthen the crime prevention and criminal justice response to the gender-related killing of women and girls, in particular by taking measures to support the practical capacity of Member States to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish all forms of such crime, and welcomes in this respect the practical tools recommended by the open-ended intergovernmental expert group on gender-related killing of women and girls at its meeting held in Bangkok from 11 to 13 November 2014;

⁵¹Resolution 65/229, annex.

Also invites Member States to integrate child- and youth-related issues into their criminal justice reform efforts, recognizing the importance of protecting children from all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse, consistent with the obligations of parties under relevant international instruments, and to develop comprehensive child-sensitive justice policies focused on the best interests of the child, consistent with the principle that the deprivation of liberty of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

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, upon request, with a view to fostering international cooperation, in particular mutual legal assistance, aimed at countering effectively this growing serious crime;

Calls upon Member States to consider ratifying or acceding to, and for States parties to effectively implement, the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 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 and with national laws and legislation, while effectively protecting the rights and respecting the dignity of smuggled migrants, consistent with the 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 collaboration with international organizations, civil society and the private sector, 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 Protocol;

Takes note of the first Global Study on Smuggling of Migrants published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as well as of its global Observatory on Smuggling of Migrants, and encourages Member States to promote the reliable collection of relevant data and research, at the national and, as appropriate, the regional and international levels, invites the Office to systematically collect data and information from Member States on migrant smuggling routes, the modi operandi of migrant smugglers and the role of transnational organized crime, and invites Member States and other donors to provide extrabudgetary resources for this purpose;

Encourages Member States to ensure that, in investigating and prosecuting trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants, the concurrent undertaking of financial investigations is a standard practice, with a view to tracing, freezing and confiscating proceeds acquired through those crimes, and to consider trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants to be predicate offences of money-laundering;

Takes note of the periodical publication by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime of the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, recognizes that the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons is a useful resource facilitating information-sharing on the nature, scope and trends of trafficking in persons, as well as modi operandi of traffickers, and encourages Member States to submit to the Office information on patterns, forms and flows of trafficking in persons for purposes of compiling future global reports;

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 consider ratifying or acceding to, and for States parties, in accordance with their obligations, to fully and effectively implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as 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, 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 Protocol;

Requests 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, including the phenomenon of travelling, returning and relocating foreign terrorist fighters, especially with regard to extradition and mutual legal assistance, and its financial sources, through the facilitation of the ratification and implementation of the universal conventions and protocols related to terrorism, in close consultation and cooperation 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 contribute to the work of the Office of Counter-Terrorism, established in accordance with resolution 71/291, and of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities, and invites Member States to provide the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with appropriate resources for its mandate;

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;

Notes with appreciation the progress made by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in coordination with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and other institutions, on the development of a methodology to produce estimates of the total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows, and encourages the Office, within its relevant mandates and in cooperation with Member States, to continue its work on studying illicit financial flows related to criminal activities, in line with this methodology;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to provide, upon request and without prejudice to the competence of the Office of Counter-Terrorism as set out in the report of the Secretary-General of 3 April 2017,⁵² technical assistance for building the capacity of Member States in the development and implementation of assistance and support programmes for victims of terrorism, including victims of gender-based violence committed by terrorists, in accordance with relevant national legislation, human rights and applicable international law, with emphasis on the particular needs of women and children, and takes note in this regard of the Model Legislative Provisions to Support the Needs and Protect the Rights of Victims of Terrorism, developed by the Office together with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Office of Counter-Terrorism;

⁵²A/71/858.

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

Affirms that attacks intentionally directed against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, or historic monuments, or hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, may amount to war crimes, stresses the importance of holding accountable perpetrators of attacks intentionally directed against the above-mentioned buildings, provided that they are not military objectives, and calls upon all States to take appropriate action to this end within their jurisdiction in accordance with applicable international law;

Urges States parties to consider using the international cooperation provisions of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the United Nations Convention against Corruption, in applicable and appropriate cases, to investigate and prosecute the smuggling of commercial goods;

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, including money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, especially in returning such confiscated proceeds of crime or property to their legitimate owners, in accordance with article 14, paragraph 2, of the Convention;

Encourages States parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime to promptly notify countries of origin when objects that may be cultural property removed from their territory are identified, and to exchange information and statistical data on all forms and aspects of trafficking in cultural property and related offences, and reaffirms 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 on the International Guidelines, and resolution 11/4 of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, entitled “Strengthening crime prevention and criminal justice responses to protect cultural property, especially with regard to its trafficking in any situations, including in the context of all armed conflicts and natural disasters”;

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 invites Member States to make trafficking in cultural property and related offences, including stealing from and looting of archaeological and other cultural sites, a serious crime, as defined in article 2 (b) of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

Also urges Member States to take decisive steps at the national level to prevent, combat and eradicate the illegal trade in wildlife, on both the supply and demand sides, including by strengthening the legislation necessary for the prevention, investigation and prosecution of such illegal trade, as well as by strengthening enforcement and criminal justice responses, in accordance with national legislation and international law, acknowledging that the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime can provide valuable technical assistance in this regard;

Calls upon Member States to make illicit trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora and other crimes that affect the environment, such as trafficking in wildlife, timber and hazardous waste, involving organized criminal groups a serious crime in accordance with their national legislation and with article 2 (b) of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

Also calls upon Member States to develop or amend national legislation, as necessary and appropriate, in accordance with fundamental principles of their domestic law, so that crimes that affect the environment falling within the scope of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime are treated as predicate offences, as defined in the Convention and as mandated in its article 6, for the purposes of money-laundering offences and are actionable under domestic legislation on proceeds of crime, so that assets derived from crimes that affect the environment can be seized, confiscated and disposed of;

Encourages States parties to provide one another with the broadest possible cooperation, including mutual legal assistance, in preventing, investigating and prosecuting transnational organized crimes that affect the environment and related offences covered by the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto;

Calls upon Member States to take appropriate and effective measures to prevent and combat trafficking in timber, hazardous waste and other wastes, precious metals, stones and other minerals by organized criminal groups, including, where appropriate, the adoption and effective implementation of the necessary legislation for the prevention, investigation and prosecution of such crimes;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources, within its mandate, and in cooperation with relevant competent intergovernmental organizations, to provide technical assistance and capacity-building to Member States, upon request, for the purposes of supporting their efforts to effectively prevent and combat crimes that affect the environment, as well as corruption and money-laundering related to such crimes;

Strongly encourages Member States, in accordance with their national legislation, to improve and enhance the collection, quality, availability and analysis of data on crimes that affect the environment, consider undertaking national statistical capacity-building in this regard and share such data on a voluntary basis with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, consistent with its mandate, in order to strengthen research and analysis on global trends and patterns in crimes that affect the environment, including trafficking in wildlife, and to improve the effectiveness of strategies aimed at preventing and combating them;

Encourages Member States to continue to support the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in providing tailor-made 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;

Notes with appreciation the past work, results and recommendations of the open-ended intergovernmental Expert Group to Conduct a Comprehensive Study on Cybercrime, a useful forum for practitioners to exchange best practices and experiences;

Encourages Member States to strengthen their efforts in preventing and combating cybercrime and all forms of criminal misuse of information and communications technologies, and to enhance international cooperation involving electronic evidence in this regard;

Also encourages Member States to strengthen their efforts in preventing and combating all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and in this regard reiterates its request to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to provide technical assistance and capacity-building activities, upon request, in preventing and combating child sexual exploitation and abuse, both online and offline;

Notes with appreciation the progress of the work of the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes, including the holding of the Ad Hoc Committee’s fourth, fifth and sixth negotiating sessions from 9 to 20 January, from 11 to 21 April and from 21 August to 1 September 2023, respectively, encourages Member States to continue to engage in the work of the Ad Hoc Committee, and further encourages the participation of relevant stakeholders, in line with the road map and mode of work of the Ad Hoc Committee approved at its first session;

Notes that, where applicable and without prejudice to the positions of non-States parties, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition are among the principal legal instruments to prevent and combat the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms and their parts and ammunition;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to continue to assist Member States, upon request, in combating the 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, improved data collection and analysis and strengthened national statistical systems, and in this respect invites Member States to provide the Office with relevant information and, consistent with domestic law, suitably disaggregated data;

Encourages Member States to implement resolution 11/6 of 21 October 2022 of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, entitled “Strengthening international cooperation to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition”,⁵³ as well as Commission on Narcotic Drugs resolution 65/2, entitled “Strengthening international cooperation to address the links between illicit drug trafficking and illicit firearms trafficking”;

⁵³See CTOC/COP/2022/9, sect. I.A.

Urges Member States to exchange good practices and experiences of practitioners who are involved in combating illicit trafficking in firearms and to consider the use of available tools, including marking and record-keeping, to facilitate the tracing of firearms and, where possible, their parts and components and ammunition, in order to enhance criminal investigations into illicit trafficking in firearms;

Urges States parties to the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition to reinforce their control measures in line with the Protocol and other relevant international legal instruments to which they are party, and seek the support and cooperation of manufacturers, dealers, importers, exporters, brokers and commercial carriers of firearms, their parts and components and ammunition with a view to increasing the effectiveness of import, export and transit controls, including, where appropriate, border controls, and of police and customs transborder cooperation, and takes note of the first United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Study on Firearms Trafficking;

Notes the results of the tenth meeting of the Working Group on Firearms, held in Vienna from 3 to 5 May 2023, and invites States parties to take measures, as appropriate and consistent with their domestic laws, to implement the recommendations resulting from the Working Group meetings, in order to contribute to strengthening international cooperation against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms;

Calls upon Member States to intensify all efforts to address the world drug problem, based upon the principle of common and shared responsibility and through a comprehensive and balanced approach, including through more effective bilateral, regional and international cooperation among judicial and law enforcement authorities, in accordance with international law, to counter the involvement of organized criminal groups in illicit drug production and trafficking and related criminal activities and to take steps to reduce the violence that accompanies drug trafficking;

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, regular data collection and analysis, and focusing on all sectors of and linkages within 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;

Reiterates its invitation to Member States to gradually adopt the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes and to strengthen national statistical systems of criminal justice, 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, timely and comparable data and information, including, as appropriate, real time data, and data disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant criteria, and strongly encourages Member States to share such data and information with the Office;

Takes note of the global studies on the smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons, trafficking in firearms and intentional homicide, including on the gender-related killing of women and girls, that have been produced by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and thus provide data-driven analyses in support of policy development at the national and international levels, and requests the Office to continue to develop, in close cooperation with Member States, technical and methodological tools and trend analyses and studies to enhance knowledge of crime trends and support Member States in designing appropriate responses in specific areas of crime, in particular in their transnational dimension and in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals, taking into account the need to make the best possible use of existing resources;

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, handbooks and capacity-building material, including e-learning training materials, developed and published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime;

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 support criminal justice proceedings and prevent and combat transnational organized crime;

Welcomes the Kyoto Declaration, and requests the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, in accordance with its mandate, to continue to implement the appropriate policy and operational measures for the follow-up to the Kyoto Declaration, including through the holding of intersessional thematic discussions to facilitate the sharing of information, good practices and lessons learned among Member States and relevant stakeholders, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources;

Calls upon all Member States to actively participate in the follow-up to the Kyoto Declaration by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and to be actively engaged in the preparations for the Fifteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2026;

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

Decides to consider the question of strengthening the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity, at its eightieth session.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

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