SC - UNODC Briefing on threats to international peace and security
Statement by Thomas Mayr-Harting, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations
New York, 24 February 2010
Let me start by thanking you for taking the initiative to organise this important briefing on drug trafficking and transnational organised crime as a threat to international peace and security. Austria attaches great importance to the ongoing fight against drug trafficking and organised crime. We also highly appreciate the efforts of the delegation of France and support the Presidential Statement to be adopted today.
I would like to express my delegation’s gratitude to the Secretary-General for his personal interest and commitment to this important issue. Let me also thank Undersecretary-General Costa for his valuable input and his committed leadership of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime. My country is honored to host important office in Vienna. This provides us with the opportunity to observe the remarkable work and that of its Executive Director on a daily basis. We appreciated the initiative by UNODC and France to present in Vienna a report on crime and instability in the run-up to today’s briefing.
In various recent meetings of the Council, delegations - including my own - underlined the need to develop a better understanding of the root causes and aggravating factors in situations of armed conflict or post conflict situations. We thank UNODC for contributing to our understanding, interlinking of data, combining illicit trafficking routes, conflicts and per capita income on international maps. All this data illustrates convincingly the link between drug trafficking and transnational organised crime, conflict and underdevelopment.
The globalization of transportation, communication and finance has also been to the benefit of illicit business and criminal groups, allowing them to organize themselves and operate transnationally. To put it more bluntly: The globalization of organized crime has so far moved much faster then the globalization of law enforcement. As a result crime is transforming from a threat at the personal and natural levels to a strategic menace that can affect international peace and security.
It is only by acting in concert that the international community will be able to prevail in the fight against drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime such as human trafficking, migrant smuggling or money laundering. We must help states to develop their own capacities, to rebuild and strengthen their institutions to administer justice and ensure the rule of law as well as to provide security. Here, too, UNODC can make a very important contributions, the Council should duly take into account when devising sustainable strategies for conflict areas.
Universal adherence to, and accurate implementation of, pertinent international legal instruments, such as the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the UN drug control conventions and the international conventions related to terrorism, should be our common goal. In the process of implementation, international human rights and standards of due process will have to be fully respected. Furthermore, we constantly need to improve the existing instruments, with a view to keeping pace with the changing nature of transnational crimes. Having agreed on a mechanism to monitor the implementation of UNCAC in Doha, the international community should now focus on a strong and effective review mechanism for UNTOC.
The Council has repeatedly recognized the close connection between international terrorism and transnational organized crime in its various manifestations and underlined the need to enhance coordination of efforts at the national, regional and global levels. Here again UNODC can play an important role when delivering assistance. The Terrorism Prevention Branch also plays a crucial role in the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force.
Recent studies have confirmed the relationship between corruption and organised crime, suggesting that corruption facilitates all forms of organised crime, which in turn ferments further corruption. The 7th Global Forum on Reinventing Government, held in Vienna in June 2007, underlined in the Vienna Declaration the need to increase transparency and accountability to combat corruption. More cooperation in the implementation of the United Nations Convention on Corruption will be needed, including the development of anti-corruption policies and institutions, as well as preventive anti-corruption frameworks.
In this context, we would like to draw your attention to the upcoming establishment of the International Anti-corruption Academy (IACA) in Laxenburg, Austria. This Academy, based on the UN Convention against Corruption, aims at promoting anti-corruption measures through academic research and professional academic training. The main audience of the IACA will be inter alia law enforcement officers, judicial staff, private sector representatives and representatives from non-governmental and International Organizations. The establishment of the IACA will be another important step in the fight against corruption world-wide.
We fully support the invitation to the Secretary-General, in the PRST before us, to include information on transnational threats into his reports to the Council, when analyzing conflicts, assessing or planning missions and making recommendations for future action. More regular briefings by the Executive Director of the UNODC will further contribute to our understanding, and help the Council to integrate these issues into its work in a more consistent manner.
