Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
My thanks to Qatar for organizing this high-level side event on the 13 th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and indeed for hosting the Crime Congress itself next April in Doha.
I welcome Qatar's strong commitment, evident throughout the preparatory process, to ensuring that the Crime Congress will bring together Member States and a diverse range of stakeholders to discuss key issues related to crime prevention and criminal justice.
In Doha we will mark the 60th anniversary of the Crime Congress. As the largest and most diverse gathering of policy-makers and practitioners in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice, the Crime Congresses have helped to shape the agenda and standards of the UN on crime prevention and control.
The theme of the Congress is "integrating crime prevention and criminal justice into the wider UN agenda to address social and economic challenges and to promote the rule of law at the national and international levels, and public participation".
This timely focus comes as the world is engaged in a discussion on the post-2015 development agenda, which will culminate in the UN Summit next September.
The sustainable development goals proposed by the Open Working Group include a goal on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development; providing access to justice for all; and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
The working group elaborated key objectives under this goal, including reducing all forms of violence; ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children; promoting the rule of law at the national and international levels, and ensuring equal access to justice for all; reducing illicit financial and arms flows, strengthening recovery and return of stolen assets, and combatting all forms of organized crime; and reducing corruption and bribery.
These objectives are addressed by the 13 th Crime Congress agenda and workshops. The meeting in Doha thus provides a key opportunity to highlight the successes and challenges in implementing crime prevention and criminal justice policies and strategies to promote the rule of law and support sustainable development, and contribute to a post-2015 development agenda that will, on the one hand, promote security, justice and the rule of law, and on the other hand, address factors that directly undermine them, namely drugs, crime and corruption.
UNODC, as ever, is supporting Member States in these efforts, and we stand ready to contribute to wider UN efforts to achieve sustainable development goals. We can do this through our normative work in support of the international conventions on drugs, transnational organized crime and corruption, as well as the 18 universal instruments against terrorism; our leading research on topics including, inter alia, drugs, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, homicide and wildlife crime; and our operations on the ground though UNODC global, regional and country programmes.
Partnerships with the UN family as well as with civil society, community organizations and young people are essential to promoting the rule of law, preventing crime and reducing violence.
The Crime Congress offers opportunities for stakeholders to engage and provide their contributions.
Excellencies, distinguished participants,
My thanks again to the government of Qatar and to Member States for their active engagement.
I look forward to our discussion