Address by
Pino Arlacchi
Under-Secretary-General
Executive Director
to the Permanent Council
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe
1 November 2001
Vienna
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to address the Permanent Council. In his letter of invitation, Ambassador Bota pointed to the relevance to OSCE of the work being done by the United Nations in dealing with new challenges to security.
An important part of this effort is based here in Vienna, in the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention. In creating this Office, Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that it was taking on responsibility for dealing with uncivil society, those forces that work against the well-being of individuals and communities drug traffickers, money launderers, terrorists, traffickers in human beings and other organized criminal groups.
In the first half century of its existence, the United Nations concentrated on strengthening collective security in order to reduce the likelihood of war between states. As the twentieth century drew to a close, we found ourselves facing the need to deal with challenges to security within states.
At the same time, we were confronted by rapid growth in a new set of challenges, which targeted the security of individuals. It became clear that we needed to strengthen human security.
Trafficking in human beings is the fastest growing form of organized crime. There are reports that drug traffickers are switching to human cargo to obtain greater profit with less risk. I am not referring to the smuggling of migrants, another form of organized crime, but to the modern form of human slavery where the victim loses the freedom to control his or her own life.
According to UNICEF, two hundred thousand children in West and Central Africa become the victims of this modern slave trade every year.
The Johns Hopkins University Protection Project reports that almost two hundred thousand girls from Nepal, many under fourteen years old, are sexual slaves in India.1
The same source claims that two million children worldwide, half in Asia, are forced into prostitution every year.2
The Nigerian government acknowledged that in one seven-week period late last year, thirty-three flights evacuated nearly eleven thousand Nigerians back to Nigeria from Libya, where they had been taken by traffickers.3
Trafficking in human beings poses relatively little threat to the collective security of the state. The victims are those one hundred seventy-five thousand women and children. Preventing the destruction of that many lives is perhaps the clearest example we can find of action to guarantee human security.
OSCE and the United Nations have a common policy against trafficking in human beings. We need to be more proactive in implementing this policy. This means helping our Member States introduce or upgrade their legislation. It means assistance in the training of prosecutors and police. It means educating the public to the true nature of this form of crime.
As multilateral groups, we can be especially effective in addressing the urgent need for operational cooperation along the whole chain source countries, transit countries and destination countries.
The OSCE already has initiatives of this nature, and the UN can work closely with those initiatives in trying to move forward on a global level. I mention in this connection our Global Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings, which combines awareness raising with concrete assistance.
I take this opportunity to remind you of the signature in Palermo last December of the International Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The number of initial signatories broke all records. Ratification is now a matter of urgency. We need this new instrument to serve as the base for intensified work against all forms of organized crime.
If we reflect on most forms of organized crime, we note that the purpose is usually to make money. This money can be sought as personal wealth. But it can also be used to finance efforts to achieve power or to intimidate.
The problem of terrorism is very much on our minds. Terrorism is not the same as organized crime, although there are a number of similarities and links between these phenomena. Among them is the need to use money generated by criminal activities.
On September the Eleventh, we were confronted for the first time with truly "catastrophic terrorism". In the weeks since, we have also been confronted for the first time with "biological terrorism".
International terrorism has been catapulted to the top of the United Nations agenda. I am myself part of a new Working Group on the United Nations and Terrorism. Mr. Alex Schmid from our Terrorism Prevention Branch serves as ODCCP focal point for the new Counter-Terrorism Committee established by the General Assembly.
A Working Group of the Sixth Committee in New York has just concluded its debate on a possible Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism and a Convention against Nuclear Terrorism. The General Assembly devoted no less than five days to international terrorism in early October and will return to the issue later this month.
We all search for responses to the quantum leap taken by international terrorism since September the Eleventh. The vulnerability of open societies to manipulation by criminal undergrounds was demonstrated in a way that forces us to rethink what should be the proper balance between freedom and security.
The fanaticism and hatred underlying these atrocities make us realize that secularization and tolerance have powerful enemies. From Asia to Africa we have seen angry demonstrators siding with the terrorist cause. Terrorism polarizes. The majority of bystanders tend to identify with the victims. But there are sizeable frustrated groups that identify with the aggressors.
Such an embracing of hatred and violence calls for a deeper search for root causes, if we are to succeed in preventing such acts in the future. This in no way means "comprendre cest pardonner". We need this understanding to define an effective course of action.
A two-pronged approach is required, aimed simultaneously at:
First, addressing the causes which give rise to terrorist atrocities, and second, using the full power of the law to fight the manifestations of terrorism.
By "full power" I do not mean "draconian law". This would narrow the moral gap that separates uncivil terrorists from civilized political communities.
We already have twelve international conventions against terrorism and may soon have two more. They must be fully implemented. Assisting in this process will be one of the main tasks of our Terrorism Prevention Branch.
In addition, we need to strengthen vulnerable societies at the front line of international terrorism. The Central Asian region is especially vulnerable to direct and indirect threats to both human security and even national security. Already in 1996 OSCE joined us in organizing a joint subregional seminar in Bishkek on "Drugs and Crime: New Challenges".
Just one year ago ODCCP and the Austrian Chair of OSCE co-sponsored in Tashkent an International Conference on Enhancing Security and Stability in Central Asia, aimed at developing an integrated approach to counter drugs, organized crime and terrorism.
I am pleased to report that this event has had a concrete impact. The Central Asian countries have now formally approved a Regional Framework prepared by ODCCP for assistance in both the drug and crime fields. Emphasis is on measures that will enhance cooperation within the region. We are now seeking the funding needed to implement the various projects.
The events of the last two months have removed any doubts on the need for attention to the threat posed to this region by terrorism. There is now widespread recognition of the link between drug trafficking and the funding of criminal activities, some of which are linked to terrorist acts.
We are already working with OSCE to go into some of these issues in more depth in December at an jointly sponsored International Conference on Enhancing Security and Stability in Central Asia and Strengthening Comprehensive Efforts to Counter Terrorism, to be hosted in Bishkek by the Government of Kyrgyzstan. This is a direct follow-up to the Tashkent Conference and takes on special significance in the light of recent events.
Attention is already being given to the post-conflict situation in Afghanistan. Needless to say, measures will be needed to help the country move to a situation of Rule by Law. Assistance will be needed to build up the institutions that will make this possible in the context of Afghanistan.
I call on you not to overlook one important factor. The millions that will be spent on the reconstruction of Afghanistan will diminish greatly in value if they do not include a guarantee that opium poppy cultivation and heroin production will no longer be allowed.
There was a very successful ban on poppy cultivation in the most recent season. Under a ban proclaimed by the Taliban, opium production fell by over ninety-four per cent, from three thousand three hundred tonnes (or seventy per cent of global production) to one hundred eighty-five tonnes (about ten per cent of global production). This brings the country back to production levels recorded during the early 1980s.
This has not been offset by increases in production elsewhere. On the other hand, there has not yet been any impact on international heroin supplies because of the existence of large stocks from record harvests the two previous years.
All of your Governments will be associated in the planning for the post-conflict period. I call on you to join us in an action to prevent the return of opium poppy. This will contribute to security in all OSCE countries. A reduction in the availability of illicit drugs will address an important threat to human security in the region and in Europe. In addition, the removal of the profits from illicit drugs will make it more difficult for terrorists and organized criminal groups to threaten both human security and national security. While we need broad-based support to ensure this very concrete objective, there are many other ways we can work together. There is considerable scope for cooperation within OSCE countries. At present, we have very little contact with each other in the Balkan region and in the Caucasus countries. Yet in both these regions, the new challenges to security are very real.
The time has come for us to look at pragmatic ways we can link our work, be it at the political level or the operational level. At the political level, we need more initiatives based on co-sponsoring arrangements. The experience in Central Asia has been very positive, and we can build on that precedent in other regions.
At the operational level, we are open to suggestions for ways in which our own technical cooperation activities can interact with the work of OSCE. Our two organizations are less similar at the operational level, but that should not prevent us from identifying innovative ways to join forces in working toward our common objectives.
I thank you for your attention and look forward to your observations.
1 The Protection Project (website), Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University (www.sais-jhu.edu)
2 Ibid.
3 Alhaji Usaini Mahuta, Deputy Comptroller-General, National Immigration Service, Nigeria, quoted 17 October 2001 by the Xinhua News Agency.