Not a day passes without stories of organized crime making their way to the front pages of newspapers around the world. Despite copious legislation and strong law enforcement measures in most countries, criminal groups find ways to operate outside the rule of law across borders, causing immense physical, psychological, and financial damage to their victims.
Governments have since long joined efforts in combatting organized crime even as it continues to become more emboldened. With the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), signed in Palermo, Italy in 2000, they devised an international instrument enabling their collective fight against transnational organized crime.
UNODC's Judicial Integrity Team, together with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judge and Lawyers, will contextualize the problem of judicial corruption arising from organized crime and illustrate its effects on the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. The panel will highlight the applicable international legal frameworks as well as good practices for preventing and combating corruption linked to organized crime. It will also promote specific resources of the Global Judicial Integrity Network available to improve training on judicial integrity principles and provide updates on other relevant work being carried out by the Special Rapporteur.
Since ancient times, China has always advocated for a culture of integrity. The famous philosopher Confucius once said, "An intellectual who inspires himself in the pursuit of truth, but is ashamed of old clothes and coarse food, is not worth consulting." Attaching great importance to judicial integrity, China's Chief Justice Zhou Qiang clearly points out that "Judicial corruption should be resolutely punished with a zero-tolerance attitude." The Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and the Judges Law of the People's Republic of China have made provisions for the corrupt behaviour of judges, such as the perversion of justice for bribes and abuse of power.
After independence, Montenegro adopted its constitution in 2007. The highest legal act of an independent and sovereign state of Montenegro, for the first time, stipulated that Montenegro was a state based on the rule of law. It is this constitutional determination that has directed our country to make fundamental changes to its own state system, in order to create democratic state institutions dedicated to the protection and respect of human rights and the fight against all forms of crimes.
As the main United Nations platform on sustainable development, the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) is an annual gathering of Member States designed to follow-up and review the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As in previous years, HLPF 2020 offers a platform to debate issues impacting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including successes and challenges; however, unlike former gatherings, this year has seen a largely virtual format, in response to COVID-19.
