21 October 2012
- The sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime closed on Friday. Over a five-day period, the Conference brought together more than 800 delegates, 107 States parties and 6 signatories. Progress was made on a number of resolutions addressing the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms; the smuggling of migrants over land, sea and air; and the provision of technical assistance under the Convention.
On the margins of the Conference, States parties and civil society participated in over 20 side events discussing such issues as trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, firearms and the protection of cultural property, among many others.
States parties were, however, unable to reach consensus on one resolution on a peer review mechanism for the implementation of the Organized Crime Convention. Under the review mechanism, countries that had ratified the Convention would have been reviewed over a five-year cycle to see how they were meeting their Convention obligations. Although there was broad agreement on a number of issues, and discussions were active and ongoing until the end, the differences over the funding of the review mechanism proved to be unbridgeable.