Director General/Executive Director
by VTC, 6 October 2016
Madame Chair,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for this opportunity to report to the Third Committee on the work of UNODC.
I regret that I could not be with you in person, and I thank you for allowing me to address you by VTC.
It has been a challenging and important year for international efforts to address crime prevention, criminal justice, drug control, corruption and terrorism.
The UN General Assembly Special Session in April has helped to further advance balanced, integrated and rights-based approaches to the world drug problem.
The outcome document is a credit to Member States, reaffirming that consensus can be achieved in addressing complex, sensitive challenges like evidence-based prevention and treatment, criminal justice and law enforcement responses that adhere to principles of proportionality and the rule of law, access to controlled medicines for pain relief, and mainstreaming issues of gender and youth in drug-related policies and programmes.
The outcome document reinforces the global commitment to the three international drug control conventions, and provides a robust framework for moving forward, in support of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, and towards the 2019 target date of the Political Declaration and Action Plan.
The Commission on Narcotic Drugs is already engaged in a dynamic follow up, under the guidance of Ambassador Moitinho of Portugal, with a comprehensive approach and inclusive format involving UN entities, international and regional organizations and NGOs.
I would like to thank Member States for your trust in UNODC as the lead entity in addressing the challenges of illicit drugs. We will continue to work in close cooperation with other UN partners.
Alongside UNODC support to law enforcement action against drug trafficking, we are field testing International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders with WHO, and we have launched a global campaign on evidence-based drug prevention.
As a UNAIDS cosponsor, UNODC is helping to fast-track HIV/AIDS responses among people who use drugs and people in prisons.
Moreover, UNGASS and the 2030 Agenda have provided new impetus to alternative development as a means of not only reducing illicit cultivation of coca, opium poppy and cannabis, but also improving the socio-economic conditions of marginalized communities, through the provision of legitimate income earning opportunities.
This includes our efforts in Colombia, where UNODC remains committed to supporting the recent peace agreement through our work with the government addressing alternative development, drug trafficking, drug abuse prevention and treatment, and criminal justice reform.
Excellencies,
Since I last reported to the Committee, the relevance of UNODC's mandates to achieving the SDGs has been further reinforced at a number of high-level events.
The Sixth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption launched the second cycle of the Convention's review mechanism to address prevention and asset recovery, both recognized as key issues for attaining the SDGs.
UNODC is also hard at work supporting Member States in implementing the Doha Declaration agreed at the Thirteenth Crime Congress last year.
Thanks to the support of Qatar, there is a concrete follow-up process to the Declaration focused on strengthening judicial integrity and education for justice, that is contributing to efforts by governments to achieve the SDGs, in particular Goal 16.
In less than two weeks we will hold in Vienna the Eighth Session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
The UNTOC and its protocols remain a durable framework, and the session represents an important opportunity to further strengthen international cooperation against transnational threats.
These include major and emerging challenges such as trafficking in cultural property, piracy and maritime crime.
UNODC is also helping to strengthen responses through our country, regional and global programmes, and in close partnership with UN entities, INTERPOL and others.
We are developing capacities in intelligence-led policing, crime scene management, special investigative techniques, forensics, financial investigations and border management, as well as inter-agency, regional and inter-regional cooperation to promote information sharing and multilateral operations targeting serious crime and illicit financial flows.
UNODC is also responding to Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on terrorism and violent extremism, as well as to an increasing number of Member State requests, by further strengthening legal and capacity building work to address challenges such as the links between organized crime and terrorism, and the phenomenon of the foreign terrorist fighters.
Alongside these activities, UNODC continues to provide the international community with top-flight research and analysis in areas across our mandate.
The World Drug Report 2016 explored issues of drugs and sustainable development, and provided a better understanding of how to integrate drug policy and development interventions.
2016 also saw the release of our first global report on transnational wildlife and forest crime, which, complementing our global programme, revealed the vulnerabilities of the wildlife system to criminals.
In November we plan to release in New York UNODC's biennial Global Report on Trafficking in Persons.
This year's report follows on the landmark Summit for Refugees and Migrants last month, which recognized that refugees and migrants in large movements are at risk of criminal abuse and exploitation, and that states need to vigorously combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
It further highlights the need to address these crimes in the current refugee and migration crises, with the majority of victims detected away from their home countries, and the number of victims from conflict-affected countries increasing.
As I emphasized at the September Summit, UNODC will continue to support Member States to implement the Protocols on human trafficking and migrant smuggling, to promote justice and protect victims.
Madame Chair,
Excellencies,
UNODC's mandates encompass many challenges to security, development, human rights, justice and health.
You have shown your confidence in our work by entrusting us with increased public resources. This is a responsibility we take very seriously.
We remain determined to deliver, seeking cost efficiencies, accountability and transparency, adhering to results based management and independent evaluation, mainstreaming a gender perspective across our work, and promoting geographic representation and gender equality in our staff.
Extra-budgetary funding of the Office has tripled in the past decade, and we take it as an encouraging sign of trust and recognition of our relevance.
But, in the same period, un-earmarked contributions have fallen drastically.
General purpose income is predicted to reach 1.7 percent of total income for 2016. The current allocation of total UN regular budget to UNODC is less than one per cent.
In response, UNODC has introduced a full cost recovery model that is in line with UN Secretariat-wide policies. However, we are still struggling to ensure the sustainability of some of our country and regional offices, which are crucial for the implementation of multiple mandates entrusted to us by you, Member States.
As part of the UN Secretariat we are also working to implement challenging administrative reforms such as Umoja. In spite of all of our efforts and the hard work of our staff, stabilization of the new system is taking longer than initially expected.
We are committed to working even harder to achieve good progress in both areas and, ultimately, to harvest their benefits.
In this period of transition, we need more regular budget resources, as well as GP and soft-earmarked funds, in order to manage core activities and institutional initiatives, conduct normative work and research, and respond swiftly to Member States' calls for action.
I hope we can rely on you to help us secure more stable and longer term funding.
To conclude, let me assure the Third Committee that UNODC remains strongly committed to supporting you.
Thank you.