The Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

 

"Comprehensive strategies for global challenges: crime prevention and criminal justice systems and their development in a changing world"

Hosted by the Government of Brazil

Salvador , 12-19 April 2010

[LINK TO DOCUMENTS PAGE]

"As the United Nations strengthens its capacities to meet Member States' requests for rule of law assistance, ensuring appropriately balanced and responsive engagement is imperative. The Organization has recognized that integrated criminal justice reform requires not only policing but also judicial and corrections assistance; and more focus on security institutions must be coupled with equal emphasis on interlinked justice issues. It is increasingly apparent that our rule of law approach needs to be consistent and continuous throughout our engagement, from peacemaking to peace-building to long-term development".

Report of the Secretary-General on "Strengthening and coordinating United Nations rule of law activities", A/63/226, para. 44

 

"The United Nations crime congresses are the oldest periodic United Nations conferences devoted to a specific subject area [and]...they continue to remain one of the pillars of the leadership role of the United Nations in criminal policy at the international level".

Report of the meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Lessons Learned from United Nations Congresses on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, held in Bangkok from 15 to 18 August 2006, E/CN.15/2007/6, paras. 10, 12

Background

The United Nations congresses on crime prevention and criminal justice have their own political significance and importance in the area of international standard-setting and policy-making in crime prevention and criminal justice. This is primarily attributed to the inherent nature of the Congress as the largest and most diverse gathering of policy-makers and practitioners in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice, as well as parliamentarians, individual experts from academia, representatives from civil society and the media.

The congresses have been held every five years since 1955 in different parts of the world and have contributed to shaping international and domestic policies and promoting novel thinking and approaches to complex issues at the heart of one of the key institutions of the modern state: the criminal justice system.

The United Nations General Assembly, by its resolution 62/173 of 18 December 2007, accepted with gratitude the offer of the Government of Brazil to host the Twelfth Congress in Salvador, from 12 to 19 April 2010, with pre-congress consultations to be held on 11 April 2010.

A high-level segment will be held during the last two days of the Congress in order to allow Heads of State or Government and Government ministers to focus on the main substantive agenda items of the Congress.

In its resolution 63/193 of 18 December 2008, the Assembly decided that the main theme of the Congress shall be "Comprehensive strategies for global challenges: crime prevention and criminal justice systems and their development in a changing world".

The Twelfth Congress marks the 55 th anniversary of United Nations congresses on crime prevention and criminal justice and offers a unique opportunity to stimulate in-depth discussion and proposals for action along three principal avenues:

  • Establishing firmly the criminal justice system as a central pillar in the rule-of-law architecture;
  • Highlighting the pivotal role of the criminal justice system to development; and
  • Emphasizing the need for a holistic approach to criminal justice system reform to strengthen the capacity of criminal justice systems in dealing with crime, particularly its sophisticated forms.

Attendance of the Congress

Invitations to the Twelfth Congress will be sent to Governments through their Permanent Missions at New York and Vienna, as well as to representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, specialized agencies and other United Nations entities. Following past practice, individual experts have to indicate their interest in attending and their professional qualifications in order to receive an invitation to participate, at their own expense.

Please note that participation in the Congress is only by invitation by, or on behalf of, the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Accredited members of the media by the Department of Public Information provide press, television and radio coverage.
There is no special fee for attending the Congress. However, Governments will bear all costs of the participation of their delegations.
The languages of the Congress will be the official languages of the United Nations, i.e., Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.

Provisional agenda

In its resolution 63/193, the General Assembly approved the following provisional agenda for the Twelfth Congress, finalized by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its seventeenth session:

1.         Opening of the Congress.

2.         Organizational matters.

3.         Children, youth and crime.

4.         Provision of technical assistance to facilitate the ratification and implementation of the international instruments related to the prevention and suppression of terrorism.

5.         Making the United Nations guidelines on crime prevention work.

6.         Criminal justice responses to the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons: links to transnational organized crime.

7.         International cooperation to address money-laundering based on existing and relevant United Nations and other instruments.

8.         Recent developments in the use of science and technology by offenders and by competent authorities in fighting crime, including the case of cybercrime.

9.         Strengthening international cooperation in fighting crime-related problems: practical approaches.

10.       Crime prevention and criminal justice responses to violence against migrants, migrant workers and their families.

11.       Adoption of the report of the Congress.

In the same resolution, the General Assembly decided the following issues shall be considered in workshops within the framework of the Twelfth Congress:

(a)        International criminal justice education for the rule of law;

(b)        Survey of United Nations and other best practices in the treatment of prisoners in the criminal justice system;

(c)        Practical approaches to preventing urban crime;

(d)        Links between drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime: international coordinated response;

(e)        Strategies and best practices against overcrowding in correctional facilities.

Documentation for the Twelfth Congress

In its resolution 63/193, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to prepare a plan for the documentation for the Twelfth Congress. The following provisional documentation forecast for the Twelfth Congress was endorsed by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its eighteenth session:

Basic documents:

  • Reports of the four regional preparatory meetings for the Twelfth Congress;
  • Working papers on each of the eight substantive items of the provisional agenda for the Twelfth Congress; and
  • Working papers on each of the topics of the five workshops to be held within the framework of the Twelfth Congress

Background documents:

  • Discussion guide on the substantive items on the agenda and workshop topics of the Twelfth Congress (A/CONF.213/PM.1);
  • National papers and reports submitted by Governments;
  • Reports submitted by entities of the United Nations system, including specialized agencies, and by institutes for the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders, affiliated with the United Nations; and
  • Reports submitted by intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and contributions by individual experts on the roster of the Secretariat, dealing with specific questions in their areas of concern.

Rules of procedure for the Twelfth Congress

The Twelfth Congress shall be conducted in accordance with the rules of procedure for United Nations congresses on crime prevention and criminal justice (A/CONF.203/2).

Outcome of the Twelfth Congress

In accordance with paragraph 2 (h) of General Assembly resolution 56/119 of 19 December 2001, each United Nations congress on crime prevention and criminal justice should adopt a single declaration containing recommendations derived from the deliberations of the high-level segment, the round tables and the workshops, to be submitted to the Commission for its consideration. Accordingly, the Twelfth Congress should adopt a single declaration for consideration by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its nineteenth session, in 2010.

Regional Preparatory Meetings for the Twelfth Congress

The General Assembly, in its resolution 62/173, requested the Secretary-General to facilitate the organization of regional preparatory meetings for the Twelfth Congress.

In its resolution 63/193, the General Assembly reiterated its request to the Secretary-General to facilitate the organization of regional preparatory meetings for the Twelfth Congress; and urged participants in such meetings to examine the substantive items on the agenda and the topics of the workshops of the Twelfth Congress and to make action-oriented recommendations to serve as a basis for the declaration of the Twelfth Congress.

Four Regional Preparatory Meetings were held within 2009 in cooperation with the host Governments, the regional economic and social commissions and the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme network of institutes, as follows:

  • Latin American and Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting, held in San José, Costa Rica, from 25 to 27 May 2009;
  • Western Asian Regional Preparatory Meeting, held in Doha, Qatar, from 1 to 3 June 2009;
  • Asian and Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting, held in Bangkok, Thailand,  from 1 to 3 July 2009; and
  • African Regional Preparatory Meeting, held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 8 to 10 September 2009.

The Regional Preparatory Meetings provided the platform to discuss the regional perspectives on the issues to be discussed at the Twelfth Congress, highlighting special problems and concerns, as well as successful experiences and promising approaches to address them. The participants took into account a discussion guide (A/CONF.213/PM.1) prepared in accordance with General Assembly resolution 63/193 and in cooperation with the institutes of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme network, to better frame the discussions held within the regional groups and enable those discussions to produce concrete results.

Attendance of the Congress

Invitations to the Twelfth Congress will be sent to Governments through their Permanent Missions at New York and Vienna, as well as to representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, specialized agencies and other United Nations entities. Following past practice, individual experts have to indicate their interest in attending and their professional qualifications in order to receive an invitation to participate, at their own expense.

Accredited members of the media by the Department of Public Information provide press, television and radio coverage.

There is no special fee for attending the Congress. However, Governments will bear all costs of the participation of their delegations.

The languages of the Congress will be the official languages of the United Nations, i.e., Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.