AS DELIVERED
Statement by Mr. Antonio Maria Costa
Executive Director
At the
Third Committee of the General Assembly
8 October 2004
Items 96/97 Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, International Drug Control
Introduction:
Dear Mr. Chairman,
It is a pleasure to come before this Committee again to discuss the progress we have made in the last twelve months and the opportunities ahead. Last year, I focused on the ways drugs and crime impact our world, and on the many challenges we face.
Today, I will stress the importance of working together: people, countries and institutions alike, because crime, drugs, corruption and terrorism have dire consequences on individuals; above all, these activities undermine development, security and justice. They threaten many societies survival, and they compromise the mission of the United Nations. They are a menace to us all, whether we speak for ourselves, as private individuals, or we speak on behalf of the people, who have empowered us to represent them.
We all know that organized crime, illegal trafficking, corruption and terrorism have become global. Overtime, the national borders we once depended upon to protect our civil societies have been compromised. Technology, international trade, and the unprecedented mobility enjoyed by citizens and business around the world translate into increasingly porous borders. The benefit of globalization, in many respects, has been significant, but the open borders that accompany globalization are being exploited by criminal organizations, offering them new opportunities to extend their reach into every aspect of our lives.
Our work at UNODC is meant to ensure that globalization is a positive-sum game, and not only a zero-sum game - something to be lost, something to be gained. Todays globalization of crime rivals the globalization of trade, finance and communication, both in the methods and its successes. Criminal bosses and drugs lords oversee complex production and distribution networks; they manage subsidiaries shifting resources around the world as simply as the legitimate counterparts do. And when organized crime is unable to move its resources through legitimate financial systems, it moves its criminal proceeds through suitcases and containers, exploiting weaknesses in the trade control system. What this dirty money, even bloody money buys, what it finances, is not only assets and capital goods. These criminal proceeds finance terror; it sustains the luxurious lifestyle of Mafiosi, while common people have no money for food, health or education. Dirty money is re-invested in underground enterprises, legitimate in their appearance, but operating outside the law. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between legitimate and criminal behaviour; today, there is a grey zone where crime attempts to conceal itself, and all too often legitimate business colludes with uncivil actors to cover-up these transactions.
At the UNODC we believe that international peace can not be guaranteed, that development can not be sustained, and justice can not prevail, if the trade and the economy of individual nations are contaminated by illicit activities, if the wealth of nations is siphoned off via fraud and corruption, if bribery is allowed to undermine the law, if terrorists are permitted to hijack national policies. Personally, I am especially grieved when I see young people around the world suffering because they are orphans of parents who died of HIV, or because they live in shanty towns, in poverty, or because mass unemployment caused by under-performing societies has compromised their futures. These young and vulnerable citizens are in jeopardy of loosing their identities, their futures and their lives, and they are trapped by international crime organizations.
The Secretary General said as much in his report regarding the Millennium Declaration: Across the globe crime is having a significant impact on peace and development, on prospects for economic growth and on human rights, democracy and good governance.
At the UNODC, we take this warning as encouragement to do more and to do better. The facts behind the Secretary Generals statement are well documented. Lets look at some of them. Corruption, for example, costs society close to a trillion dollars per year. Fraud and corruption represent an insidious, destructive form of crime, destroying national economies, public wealth, undermining development, and breaking the bonds of trust between citizens and their representatives. This attack on national revenues is above all an attack on the poorest communities, making it impossible for the needy and voiceless members of society to obtain even basic needs: water, sanitation, food, health, education. This would be bad enough, but the damage caused by corruption has assumed even more virulent forms. The fact is that officials who accept bribes may allow terrorists to operate or let traffickers export goods and people, or turn a blind eye when building codes are violated. The potential for tragedy and various forms of damage is huge.
Lets take a look at international trafficking. Combating trafficking and particularly drug trafficking is part of our core mission in Vienna. Drug spreads misery throughout the world, transforming farmers, in so many cases, into hostages to traffickers, and turning thousands of drug users into addicts. Drug trafficking preys on millions of people at both ends of the drug chain, farmers on the supply side and addicts on the demand side, turning the misery of millions into the lavish lifestyles of criminal intermediaries.
The fact that slavery is alive and well in the 21st century is tragic news. This year alone one million people, women and children in particular, will be brutally exploited by criminal gangs, who make a living from sweatshops, prostitution, child pornography, from farmers or domestics working for slave-wages, and from migrants in search of a better life who are routinely duped by traffickers. These traffickers who promise migrants decent jobs end up stealing their money, or even worse, leaving them to die at sea, in the desert, or in shipping containers. Unlike terrorism, human trafficking is a silent crime, with no media coverage unless disaster strikes, yet the damage to human beings is no less real than the damage inflicted by drug trafficking or arms smuggling, or even terrorism.
Finally, let me say a few words about terrorism, a global threat. Today, terrorism knows no bounds; it targets no particular nationality, respects no religion and recognizes no exceptions. Terrorists divide the people of the world, a population whose survival depends on our ability to disagree peacefully, to negotiate, to achieve consensus and to prosper. The nature of terrorism has also changed. Once a threat to individual nations, today, terrorism is an international phenomenon. While terrorists once targeted representatives of the state, today they are striking out at ordinary citizens and civilians. Terrorisms ideological base can no longer be simply described as belonging to the left or the right its driven by motives and forces that are far more complex. The question for us is whether we fully understand these forces and motives if we fully understand what all this means.
The Rule of Law
Drugs, crime, corruption, and terrorism each represent an individual threat. When these activities intersect, or when one criminal behaviour is used to support another, the threat becomes much greater. To make the necessary collective leap from analysis to action is a very urgent task. We have solid foundations, on which there is international agreement. Each one offers us the force and legitimacy of international law. For example:
These conventions and instruments are 1) a blueprint for action, 2) guidelines designed to actualize solutions, and 3) contractual obligations to work together. These conventions and instruments also provide States with the conceptual and logistic support they need to focus on prevention, always a preferred and welcomed alternative to confronting a problem after the fact.
All this is a good start, but we need more. Many of our States have already allocated significant resources to law enforcement agencies in an effort to bolster anti-organised crime security. At the same time, Nations have an obligation to help those countries which need to reconstruct their civil societies in ways that make them less vulnerable to criminal exploitation or terrorist operations. Greater economic growth, wider health care, improvements in education, and a culture which respects and values individuals for their differences, as well as for their strengths these are the foundations criminal activities cannot penetrate these are defences the terrorists cannot breach.
What does this represent in terms of our work at the UNODC?
UNODC at work
Mr. Chairman,
My staff and I are more committed than ever to playing our part in fighting organized crime in all of its manifestations. Over the last two years, we have restructured our operations and streamlined our processes. We have launched a reform which I outlined in 2002, changes which emphasise a new integrated approach on drugs and crime, and an examination of the critical role that prevention plays in combating drugs and crime. Last year we reorganized the Office, and presented a consolidated budget for the biennium ahead. We initiated reforms in the areas of human resources, finance and IT. Recently, our office launched an integrity initiative to reinforce the ability of the staff to act in full integrity and transparency.
At this time, the General Assembly session also has for its consideration our contribution to the UN Strategic Framework for 2006/2007: the plan provides an integrated vision of our future direction, with clear lines of accountability for core aspects of our mission.
All of this, of course, represents our commitment to ongoing success in these areas, and reflects, in particular, the positive achievements realized by our office over the past 12 months.
(a) On the Research and Analysis side, we have issued important surveys on coca, opium and cannabis, as well as the World Drug Report, which indicate there have been notable improvements in drug trends worldwide.
Next March, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs will revisit these trends and these matters in light of the goals established by the UN General Assembly in 1998.
(b) Looking at the arsenal of legal instruments at our disposal I would like to emphasize that our legal experts are helping countries interested in accelerating the ratification process of the Conventions against organized crime, corruption, and terrorism. Were also providing direction and support in regard to the effective implementation of these Conventions.
(c) The UNODC portfolio of global programmes and country projects includes legislative and capacity building assistance on drugs, crime, and terrorism in countries of West and Central Asia, East Asia, the Andes, Eastern Europe and Africa. New programmes have been launched - thanks to the donor community and they range from a soon to be launched regional intelligence coordination centre for Central Asia to a container programme in major seaports in Africa, Asia and Latin America, often used as hubs for illicit trafficking aimed at disrupting the flow of illicit commodities.
(d) We have made good progress with the Paris Pact initiative, which focuses on improved border control, against heroin trafficking in Central and Western Asia, and in Russia and the Balkans.
(e) The Global Programme against Terrorism, now in its second year of implementation, has done remarkable work. The survey we just provided to you indicates that the links between terrorism and other forms of crime are strong and deep. UNODC is focusing on the nexus between terrorism and other forms of crime, and to that end, we have provided training to more than 500 lawmakers and criminal justice officials from over 80 countries on the provisions of the Security Council Resolution 1373.
Its important, I think, at this point, to speak frankly at this point about what UNODC can or cannot do. The UNODC is operating with a $100 million budget and 500 dedicated staff members. While we are working aggressively to reposition our work with respect to the global agenda for peace, security and development, we cannot hope to drain an ocean of uncivil behaviour with a little spoon. Consequently, we have decided to increase efforts to leverage our resources, inviting other institutions and major donor countries to contribute more resources, not to us, not to UNODC, but to the issues we deal with.
Let me give you just a few examples:
In closing, Mr. Chairman, I would like to stress that our attempts to reposition the UNODC in ways that can shape the global agenda, and the involvement and commitment of so many partners and supporters in the fight against drugs and crime, speak to a vital future for UNODC. Our objective is to strengthen these partnerships and to build more with States and organizations willing to fight uncivil behaviours we want to become a catalyst for the kind of change we need in a world where peace, security and justice are no longer the exception, but the rule.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.