While the pace of developments in technology continues to accelerate to the great pleasure of many, it does present challenges to certain categories of professional disciplines whose nature does not lend itself well to much flexibility; with the preservation of judicial integrity at the helm of their principles, many judges may have difficulty embracing rapid innovation.
Judges must comply with legal and ethical ramifications which other professions may not face when using technology. This is particularly the case when considering social media platforms, which have become ubiquitous in the last few years; inserting themselves into people's mundane activities, they allow instant communication with family, friends and total strangers, the sharing of holiday photos and funny memes, and the ability of commenting on news stories.
For decades, UNODC has been a global leader in the fight against crime and illicit drugs, assisting Member States to prevent and control these scourges. With the Doha Declaration Global Programme, funded by the State of Qatar, UNODC has added a crucial element to this struggle which unites all nations: the education of younger generations to ensure a better tomorrow.
Speaking in New York at a special event marking the importance of education in this respect, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov recalled the central nature of this topic at the 13th UN Crime Congress at which the Doha Declaration was adopted: "Member States agreed that education for all children and youth is fundamental to the prevention of crime and corruption, and to the promotion of a culture of lawfulness that supports the rule of law and human rights."
30 October 2018 - Corruption is not merely the domain of powerful gangs shown in Mafia movies, or of large-scale schemes exposed by mainstream media. Corruption happens at all levels of society, in big and in small affairs, manifesting itself in numerous ways.
A new short film 'The struggle against corruption,' conceived and produced by the Doha Declaration Global Programme, gives a digest of the work being undertaken by UNODC to counter corruption, while looking at manifestations of this crime and its implications throughout history. It gathers the expertise of professionals from UNODC, and of academics working on the comprehensive and far-reaching E4J initiative, offering fascinating insights on cases of corruption, and on how this epidemic is being fought around the world.
As part of UNODC's global efforts to use sport as an instrument to make youth more resilient to crime, drug use, and violence, three organizations working in marginalized communities in South Africa were recently awarded financial grants under the Line Up, Live Up initiative.
The organizations - which are based in the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces - will offer a series of comprehensive approaches to positively impact the lives of young people in the neighbourhoods where they work, through a combination of sport, life-skills training, community mobilization and youth empowerment activities.
Fifty secondary school children from a small town on the outskirts of Vienna sat mesmerized at UNODC headquarters this week as they watched, in the midst of an international audience of Member State delegates, a special English-language production of 'Dieci storie proprio cosi' (Ten stories just like this), the renowned play which was being performed for the first time outside of Italy. Recounting real stories of people whose relatives were victims of organized crime, actors engaged vivaciously with the audience.
This unique event, organized jointly by UNODC's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative and the Permanent Mission of Italy to the International Organizations in Vienna, was held during this week's 9th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
