About us

The SHERLOC (Sharing Electronic Resources and Laws On Crime) knowledge management portal was developed by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to facilitate the dissemination of information regarding the implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three Protocols.

 

The SHERLOC portal hosts a CASE LAW DATABASE, containing jurisprudence on corruption, counterfeiting, cybercrime, drug offences, money laundering, obstruction of justice, participation in an organized criminal group, piracy and maritime crime, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in firearms, trafficking in cultural property, wildlife, forest and fisheries crime, trafficking in persons, falsified medical products and terrorism.

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The DATABASE OF LEGISLATION is an electronic repository of laws relevant to the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto, which is searchable by:

  • country,
  • UNTOC article,
  • crime type, and
  • cross-cutting issue.

While also enabling access to full legislation documents, the Database provides extracts of laws relevant to specific UNTOC articles and crime types, allowing the user to quickly find provisions relating to the search query.

The Database of Legislation aims to demonstrate how Member States - through their domestic legislative provisions - define, prohibit and criminalize SHERLOC's various crime types. In addition, the Database includes provisions that reflect the wide-ranging features and obligations embodied by UNTOC and the Protocols thereto - including, for example, provisions that adopt legislative measures towards prevention, cooperation, and enforcement efforts.

Most of the legislation included in the Database of Legislation has been enacted specifically to counter the relevant crime type. However, when States indicate that a general criminal provision is used to prosecute one of the crimes in our database, we include it under that crime type (e.g., a general fraud provision that is used to prosecute falsified medical products will be included in SHERLOC under that crime type.)

Comments, suggestions and feedback regarding uploading approaches for the various crime types are welcomed - either by using the "Contact Us" form, or by participating to our online survey.

The BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASE is an annotated bibliography containing a synopsis of key articles related to the fifteen different crime types. The articles contained in this database, include UNODC relevant publications, studies and publications drafted by other regional and international organizations, as well as key academic articles. This database is searchable by countries, research methods, keywords and a wide-range of cross-cutting issues.
 

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The STRATEGIES DATABASE provides access to strategies and plans of actions adopted at national level pertaining to the fifteen different crime types. It was developed in 2018 and is under development.

 

The TREATIES DATABASE provides the ratification status of the Organized Crime Convention and the Protocols thereto, as well as an overview of the status of adherence of other relevant regional and international instruments.

 

The DIRECTORY OF COMPETENT NATIONAL AUTHORITIES (CNA Directory) contains the contact information of national authorities authorized to receive, respond to and process requests of assistance for matters related to the below:

  • Mutual legal assistance
  • Extradition
  • Transfer of sentenced persons
  • Illicit traffic by sea of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
  • Smuggling of migrants by sea
  • Trafficking in firearms
  • Prevention of transnational organized crime and
  • Trafficking in cultural property
  • Terrorism
 

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With a view to facilitate international cooperation among competent authorities the directory also contains essential information on:

  • Legal and procedural requirements to be observed in requests,
  • Use of the Organized Crime Convention as the legal basis for requests,
  • Links to national laws and websites,
  • Indication of requests that can be made through INTERPOL.

Access is reserved to Permanent Missions to the United Nations and to the authorities listed in the Directory.

 

The SHERLOC portal is under constant development, as new resources are added regularly. Follow us on Twitter to stay updated. If you would like to support our work through contributing case law, legislation or strategies please contact us!