Director General/Executive Director
26 May 2016
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My warm thanks to Slovakia for supporting this important side event and for their enduring advocacy of Security Sector Reform, introduced during their presidency of the UNSC in 2007.
I also welcome Nigeria's participation in this event. Nigeria has played an essential role and was president of the UNSC when the first resolution on SSR was adopted in April 2014.
In early May this year, I was on mission in Nigeria and I was impressed by the country's efforts on criminal justice reform, as well as against corruption.
Austria has also been active in building SSR at the technical level, and the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces has served as a welcome repository for policy as well as practical experience on SSR.
I would also like to thank DPKO for co-chairing the SSR Inter-Agency Task Force and your dedication and commitment on this matter.
Taking place during the CCPCJ, the launch of the guidance note represents a tremendous opportunity to not only link SSR to the 2030 Agenda, but also to enhance cross-border collaboration and cooperation to combat transnational organized crime.
These issues go to the heart of the development challenge, particularly under Goal 16, which calls for peaceful and safe societies. Economic crimes, weak governance and inequity are a persistent threat to the achievement of this and many other goals.
The work of countries on security sector governance and reform can be guided by this aspirational agenda, and can also take on board the lessons learned on addressing organised crime and other threats to security.
This work is also driven by an acknowledgement that a security sector that fails to operate within a framework of the rule of law and human rights can hamper sustainable development and peacebuilding.
UNODC provides Member States with expertise and advice to build the capacity of their criminal justice systems, including the police, to operate more effectively within the framework of the rule of law, while also promoting human rights and protecting vulnerable groups.
Our contribution is directed at three interconnected levels:
The country level, UNODC in support of our national partners, particularly through a coordinated inter-agency approach;
The regional level, through our Regional Programmes; and
The global level, where UNODC assists member states to adopt and fully implement the Conventions on drugs, corruption, and transnational organized crime, including its protocols on human trafficking, smuggling of migrants, and arms, as well as the international instruments on terrorism.
Our experience also shows that police, prosecutor authorities, courts, and prisons function more effectively when they interact and integrate their efforts within the work carried out by other sectors, including civil society.
Against this background, I welcome the Integrated Technical Guidance Note on Transnational Organized Crime.
The Note can help practitioners mainstream measures to combat TOC into SSR processes and hence assist their efforts to strengthen the rule of law.
Just as significantly, the Note is the result of a collaborative effort from a wide range of actors from within the UN system and independent experts on SSR and TOC.
The Note in particular, and SSR in general, can help build an essential bridge between fundamental peace keeping activities carried out by DPKO and UNODC's work on drugs, crime, corruption and terrorism.
In doing so, it will be able to address long term institution building and includes preventive measures in order to strengthen security governance, rule of law and human rights.
A TOC-informed perspective of SSR is also crucial in fragile and post-conflict territories where the UN is actively engaged in building stability, peace and the rule of law.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Modern threats are so complex and so sophisticated that they cannot be met by lone efforts within isolated silos.
If we are to achieve success in the field of sustainable development, we must also work on building criminal justice institutions, as well tackling drugs, crime corruption and terrorism.
With its emphasis on national ownership, but also regional and international partnerships, SSR offers an invaluable means of supporting this work.
I, therefore, look forward to working with DPKO and our many other partners within the Inter-Agency Task Force on SSR and the Group of Friends of SSR to carry on the very necessary work of enhancing security sector reform in the future.
Thank you.