United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Southern Africa (UNODC)

Stories from UNODC Southern Africa

Empowering legal and judicial practitioners to ensure sustainable, coordinated and robust counter terrorism efforts in Mozambique

Effective interagency collaboration is a key component of combatting the threat of terrorism. It enables multi-disciplinary agencies to work together in identifying, disrupting, and preventing terrorist activities. At the same time, a strong cadre of legal and judicial practitioners capable of delivering effective training programs to prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials is crucial to ensuring long-term and robust action in the field of counter terrorism. Read More...

ANNUAL REPORT

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Southern Africa has released its 2022 Annual Report, showcasing the results achieved through UNODC's global and regional programs throughout the year. The report offers a brief overview of key events implemented as part of the UNODC's Regional Program “Making the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region Safer from Crime and Drugs”. Read More...

UNODC IMPROVES MOZAMBIQUE PORT SECURITY

Maputo, 19 April 2023 – The Mozambique Channel is one of the primary passageways for movement of illicit goods across the Indian Ocean West region, playing a crucial role along the Southern Route for heroin and methamphetamine trafficking. Read More...

Upper Council of the Judiciary of Mozambique Advances Ethical Excellence with Launch of Code of Ethics

Maputo, Mozambique. Establishing a justice system that prioritizes independence, effectiveness, transparency, protects human rights and strives to be accessible to all is a shared value worldwide. A robust justice system promotes economic stability and socioeconomic development. Read More...

Cyberviolence, a rising threat in the Digital Age

This is the downside of technological advancement, which is meant to be an empowering tool. Information Communication Technologies were hailed for providing opportunities for the full enjoyment of human rights, including the empowerment of women. But they also opened new channels for the perpetuation of violence against women and children. Read More...

When culture clashes with criminal law: Traditional Leadership has the potential to play a positive role in countering Gender Based Violence.

How should criminal law deal with a situation where a person charged with a criminal offence, asserts that they were simply engaging in a customary practice that is widely accepted as appropriate in traditional society? How should criminal law deal with a situation in which a person murders or assaults someone, because they believe that the victim was using witchcraft to cause grave harm to them or their family members? Read More...

Launch of a GENDER RESPONSIVE CORRECTIONAL CENTRE for Incarcerated Women in South Africa

The launch of the Gender Responsive Correctional Centre for Incarcerated Women in South Africa is the first of its kind, in South Africa and the African continent. This Centre responds to the specific needs of women in conflict with the law (WICL) by following the United Nations Bangkok Rules and the Nelson Mandela Rules. Read more...

UNODC commemorates International Women’s Day by hosting a special briefing on women and the law, rural women and access to drug-related treatment and protection from gender-based violence.

This special briefing, in observance of International Women’s Day on the 8th of March 2022, provided a briefing of a pilot project on Women in Conflict with the Law, and introduced and provided an overview of the Linking Rural Women Who Use Drugs (WWUD) to HIV Testing, Sexual Reproductive Health and Ongoing GBV support. Read More...

UNODC Zambia supports the commemoration of the World AIDS day 2022 at Kafinsa Correctional facility in Ndola, Copperbelt Province

In 2018, it was estimated that 4.6 per cent of people held in prisons are living with HIV, indicating that people in prison are 7.2 times more likely to be living with HIV than adults in the general population. In Zambia, national statistics show that there are close to 25,000 inmates housed in various correctional centres in the country. Read More...

What it Takes to Create Awareness for the Crime of Trafficking in Persons

Misunderstood and misidentified, human trafficking is usually anything but human trafficking. All too often, the lesser crimes of gender-based violence, assault, child abuse or labour violations are what perpetrators are charged with. The result is that relatively few cases of trafficking in persons – which carries heavy prison sentences - make it to court. Reversing this trend requires a high level of awareness on the tell-tale signs of what constitutes trafficking in persons. Read More...

UNODC and Central Drug Authority organize a Collaborative meeting to discuss an integrated approach for the implementation of harm reduction and Opioid Substitution Therapy in South Africa

UNODC, in partnership with the Central Drug Authority, organised a meeting to increase the support of relevant government and multi-sectoral structures for the implementation of harm reduction activities in South Africa, with a particular focus on Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST). Read More...

Officers of Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) participate in exchange visit with Italian counterparts

Rome (Italy) – Illicit trafficking and other transnational organized crimes continue to represent a significant threat to peace, stability and hinder development in Mozambique, a country part of a strategic corridor for heroin and cocaine trafficking. Read More...

Assessing Malawi’s Response to Wildlife and Forest Crime Results in Promising Ways Forward

Salima, Malawi 05 – 07 October 2022. Wildlife and forest crime can contribute to the decline of at-risk species negatively impacting biodiversity. These crimes also result in reduced economic opportunities for communities as well as security threats for the whole society, given the infiltration of organized crime and related corruption instances. Read More...

Draft Law Proposes Compensation for Victims of Trafficking in Mozambique

A revised draft law on trafficking in persons proposes the creation of a fund to compensate victims of this crime in Mozambique, in line with the spirit of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol which stipulates procedures to ensure that victims have access to compensation. Mozambique is just the latest country seeking to adopt this specification into national legislation. Read More...

UNODC kicks off training on port security for the first time in the Port of Lobito, Angola

Lobito, 18 November 2022 – Due to its strategic position on the Atlantic coast, about 30 km to the north of the city of Benguela, the Port of Lobito is the Angola’s second busiest port, handling approximately 2 million tons of cargos per year, and one of the most important gateways to both Atlantic shipping lines.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime working together with Namibia to improve Security in the Ports of Luderitz and Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay, Namibia 21 November 2022 – In line with the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Security (UNODC) Strategic Vision for Africa 2030, UNODC conducted 4-weeks of training on Port Security with officials from Namibia under the EU Programme on Port Security and Safety of Navigation. Read More...

Formation de renforcement des capacités pour les agents des douanes et de la sécurité postale afin de lutter efficacement contre les NSP et le trafic d’opioïdes en RDC.

8-9 novembre 2022 Kinshasa, RDC Le Programme mondial d’interdiction rapide des substances dangereuses (GRIDS) de l’Organe international de contrôle des stupéfiants (OICS) a organisé une formation avec des agents de la RDC pour lutter contre le trafic de nouvelles substances psychotropes (NSP), d’opioïdes synthétiques et d’autres substances dangereuses dans la région. Read More...

UNODC MOZAMBIQUE CO-ORGANIZES THE ANNUAL JUDICIAL CONFERENCE FOR SOUTHERN AFRICAN CHIEF JUSTICES

Maputo, Mozambique. On 23-29 October 2022, the Southern African Chief Justices' Forum (SACJ Forum) conducted its Annual General Meeting, which this year focused on ‘Judicial Accountability and the Role of the Judiciary in the Fight against Terrorism’. Read More...

Regional Case Digest for Southern Africa assists judicial officers to prosecute suspected traffickers

Pretoria (South Africa), 4 November 2022 – It was a victory for law enforcement against a crime that had originated in cyberspace. The accused, ML, had been using Facebook over a period of four years to lure and groom young girls by promising modelling jobs and money. Read more...

Countering forest loss in Africa through anti-corruption mechanisms

Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), 2 November 2022 – Forests are a vital component of the earth’s ecosystem, providing humans, animals and plants with clean drinking water, preventing natural disasters, and helping to slow climate change. Roughly one-third of humanity directly depends on forests and forest products, yet in the past 30 years forest destruction has been devastating*. Read More...

UNODC and COMESA strengthen Malawi Judiciary on Asset Forfeiture

Blantyre Malawi August 2022 - The UNODC, through the Global Program Against Money Laundering in collaboration with the Common Market of South and Eastern Africa (COMESA), organised and hosted a train the trainer workshop on asset forfeiture for the Malawi Judiciary from 18-19 August 2022.

Mozambique Supreme Court makes inroads in the fight against wildlife crimes

Mozambique, Maputo. In recent years, crimes related to wildlife and the environment have rapidly expanded in the whole Southern African region. Organized syndicates, mainly working with local counterparts, have established highly organized routes to traffic wildlife products to other regions in the world, generating significant profits. Read More...

Traditional Leadership have the potential to play a positive role in addressing factors that can either fuel or mitigate GBV

South Africa- Violence against women is a widespread and a serious violation of human rights. Although the rates at which women are exposed to violence, vary from one country to another, statistics indicate that violence against women is a universal phenomenon and women are subjected to different forms Read more..

Implementation of Comprehensive, Evidence-Based HIV Interventions Among People Who Use Drugs in ZM

UNODC and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (The Global Fund) have co-organized a series of webinars in Africa with the aim of scaling up harm reduction interventions in the region. On 11^th August 2022, the last of the series was organized in Zimbabwe by UNODC in close partnership with The Global Fund and WHO under the theme “Implementation of Comprehensive, Evidence-Based HIV Interventions Among People Who Use Drugs in Zimbabwe. Read More..

Iconic School Hosts World Day Against Trafficking Event in SA

A popular rural school in South Africa’s Limpopo province hosted this year’s main commemoration of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons jointly organized by the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, and the United National Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Read more...