Expert Group Meeting on the Model Law on Smuggling of Migrants, Vienna, Austria, 14 - 16 October 2009

The United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nation Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (hereinafter the Smuggling Protocol), was adopted by the General Assembly on November 15, 2000 (GA Resolution 55/25).

The Protocol entered into force on 28 January 2004 and has to date 120 parties.

The purposes of the Protocol are:
(a) To prevent and combat the smuggling of migrants;
(b) To promote cooperation among States Parties to that end; and
(c) To protect the rights of smuggled migrants.

UNODC has published legislative guides to assist Member States in adapting their legislation and procedures to implement the Convention against Organized Crime and the supplementary protocols.

UNODC's Treaty and Legal Assistance Branch has published a collection of model laws that enable governments to translate the obligations under the various drug and crime conventions into the detailed powers and operational frameworks necessary to apply them in practice. (http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/legal-tools/Model.html) Generally, the model legislations are accompanied by commentaries, which serve as interpretation and implementation guidelines.

UNODC has recently published the Modal Law on Trafficking in Persons and a Model Law on Justice in Matters Involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime. In the same vein, the Model Law on Smuggling of Migrants will be developed to assist States in implementing in their national legislation the provisions contained in the Smuggling Protocol. The finalized document will serve as a tool to assist Member States in the implementation of the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air supplementing the United Nation Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as other relevant international instruments.

This informal meeting, to be held in Vienna, Austria, from 14 to 16 October, is the second of two to draft a Model Law against the Smuggling of Migrants that will be applicable to countries of all legal traditions. The first meeting was held in Vienna from 23-25 March 2009.

The meeting will be held in C0343, on the 3rd floor, at the Vienna International Centre.

Document	Eng
Provisional agenda and annotations

Relevant documents:

Document	Eng