WUNRN
ORGANIZED CRIME–UN CONVENTION & TRAFFICKING PROTOCOL–DIVERSE ILLEGAL OPERATIONS–ALERT TO WOMEN AS POTENTIAL VICTIMS
The very fact that the UN Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime has a Trafficking protocol that particularly notes trafficking
of women and children - Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime – shows its specific
importance for women and girls. Women and girls are increasingly often the
victims of Organized Crime as trafficking victims, as victims of illegal migrant
smuggling, as victims of fraudulent medications, as victims of identity theft,
victims of cybercrimes, financial frauds and money laundering, and even organ
trafficking. The UN Office of Drugs & Crime provides information resources
for our alertness to the truly global existence of the many forms of organized
crime. Best we be alert, attentive, and pro-active for our safety, security,
well-being.
http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/unvienna.html
The United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC): from
headquarters at the Vienna International Centre and through a network of
field offices around the world, UNODC helps Member States to reduce their
vulnerability to drugs and crime, and to promote security and justice for all.
The normative instruments include three drug control treaties, the United
Nations Convention against Corruption and the UN Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime with its supplementary Protocols on migrant
smuggling, the trafficking of human beings and firearms control. There are also
16 international instruments to counter terrorism. As crime trends evolve,
UNODC adapts in order to help States address new challenges like cyber-crime,
identity-related theft, environmental crime, and piracy.
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Organized
Crime
What is
transnational organized crime? | United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime | Overview of the
work of UNODC in relation to organized criminal activities | Transnational
Organized Crime Campaign
Organized crime threatens peace and human security,
violates human rights and undermines economic, social, cultural, political and
civil development of societies around the world.
Transnational
organized crime manifests in many forms, including as trafficking in drugs,
firearms and even persons. At the same time, organized crime groups exploit
human mobility to smuggle migrants and undermine financial systems through money laundering. The vast sums of money involved can
compromise legitimate economies and directly impact public processes by
'buying' elections through corruption. It yields high profits for its culprits
and results in high risks for individuals who fall victim to it. Every year,
countless individuals lose their lives at the hand of criminals involved in
organized crime, succumbing to drug-related health problems or injuries
inflicted by firearms, or losing their lives as a result of the unscrupulous
methods and motives of human traffickers and smugglers of migrants.
Organized
crime has diversified, gone global and reached macro-economic proportions:
illicit goods may be sourced from one continent, trafficked across another, and
marketed in a third. Transnational organized crime can permeate government
agencies and institutions, fuelling corruption, infiltrating business and politics, and hindering
economic and social development. And it is undermining governance and democracy
by empowering those who operate outside the law.
The
transnational nature of organized crime means that criminal networks forge
bonds across borders as well as overcome cultural and linguistic differences in
the commission of their crime. Organized crime is not stagnant, but adapts as new crimes emerge and as relationships between criminal
networks become both more flexible, and more sophisticated, with ever-greater
reach around the globe.
In
short, transnational organized crime transcends cultural, social, linguistic
and geographical borders and must be met with a concerted response.
The
UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and Its Protocols
UNODC
is the guardian of the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Organized Crime
Convention) and the three Protocols -on Trafficking in Persons, Smuggling of
Migrants and Trafficking of Firearms - that supplement it.
This
is the only international convention, which deals with organized crime. It is a landmark
achievement, representing the international community's commitment to combating
transnational organized crime and acknowledging the UN's role in supporting
this commitment. The adoption of the Convention at the fifty-fifth session of
the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2000 and its entry into force in
2003 also marked a historic commitment by the international community to
counter organized crime.
The
Organized Crime Convention offers States parties a framework for preventing and
combating organized crime, and a platform for cooperating in doing so. States
parties to the Convention have committed to establishing the criminal offences
of participating in an organized crime group, money laundering, corruption and
obstruction of justice in their national legislation. By becoming parties to
the UNTOC, States also have access to a new framework for mutual legal assistance
and extradition, as well as a platform for strengthening law enforcement
cooperation. States parties have also committed to promoting training and technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of national
authorities to address organized crime.
What is transnational organized crime?
The
UNTOC does not contain a precise definition of 'transnational organized crime'.
Nor does it list the kinds of crimes that might constitute it.
This
lack of definition was intended to allow for a broader applicability of the
Organized Crime Convention to new types of crime that emerge
constantly as global, regional and local conditions change over time..
The
Convention does contain a definition of 'organized criminal group'. In Article
2(a):
Since
most 'groups' of any sort contain three or more people working in concert and
most exist for a period of time, the true defining characteristics of organized
crime groups under the Convention are their profit-driven nature and the
seriousness of the offences they commit.
The
UNTOC covers only crimes that are 'transnational', a term cast broadly. The
term covers not only offences committed in more than one State, but also those
that take place in one State but are planned or controlled in another. Also
included are crimes in one State committed by groups that operate in more than
one State, and crimes committed in one State that has substantial effects in
another State.
The
implied definition 'transnational organized crime' then encompasses virtually
all profit-motivated serious criminal activities with international
implications. This broad definition takes account of the global complexity of
the issue and allows cooperation on the widest possible range of common
concerns.