Director General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Distinguished participants,
It is a great pleasure to welcome you here today.
I had the opportunity to meet with this Committee in Brussels in 2013.
Now the Austrian presidency is a fitting occasion to discuss the joint achievements of the EU and UNODC in addressing urgent challenges posed by drugs, organized crime, terrorism and corruption, and to support work towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Austria's priorities in the areas of security, prosperity and competitiveness through digitalization, and regional stability are well aligned with our long-standing and solid partnership across the areas under UNODC's mandates.
I very much welcome this opportunity for taking our dialogue with you forward, to share lessons learned and explore new initiatives for further cooperation.
We are grateful for the EU's continuous support to UNODC, both here at headquarters and to our network of field offices in regions around the world.
We are also strengthening linkages with the EU through our dedicated liaison office in Brussels.
Together we are working to confront challenges of criminal justice, human trafficking and migrant smuggling, foreign terrorist fighters, drugs and wildlife crime.
We are helping to strengthen border management, fight maritime crime and piracy, and stop the illicit trafficking of firearms.
UNODC provides this support as guardian of the UN conventions against transnational organized crime and corruption.
Our Office also promotes balanced implementation of the drug control conventions, the global counter-terrorism instruments and UN standards and norms on crime prevention and criminal justice, with a view always to mainstreaming gender and human rights in all our work.
Through these efforts we are helping countries to achieve the SDGs, notably Goal 16 on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies.
The tailored and targeted support provided by UNODC country, regional and global programmes seeks to address urgent problems you have identified, including the need to counter criminal networks in North Africa and contribute to conflict prevention and stabilization in the MENA region.
Our Office supports the call of the EU Council to further intensify efforts to stop migrant smugglers operating out of Libya and to break their business model, including through our integrated Mediterranean strategy to combat smuggling of migrants.
Since we launched the Strategy in 2015, UNODC has trained more than one thousand, two hundred law enforcement officers, criminal justice practitioners, officials and NGO representatives from across the Mediterranean region.
We are also cooperating with UNHCR and EUNAVFOR Med Operation Sophia and participating in the Khartoum and Rabat processes to address challenges along the eastern and western migratory routes in Africa.
Furthermore, UNODC is committed to playing an active role in support of the EU-AU-UN Trilateral Task Force on Migration, to enable a comprehensive response in Libya.
I also welcome the Council's recent adoption of the revised EU Maritime Security Strategy, and reiterate our support to your efforts to strengthen maritime security, including through our dedicated Global Maritime Crime Programme.
UNODC stands ready to further advance our joint efforts through support for effective law enforcement responses to disrupt criminal networks and protect people.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a busy time ahead with the seventy-third session of the General Assembly beginning next week.
The GA will also be holding the third High-level Meeting on Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases with numerous related side events.
UNODC will use this chance to work with Member States and partners such as WHO to scale up responses to health challenges, including prevention and treatment of substance use disorders and access to controlled medicines.
Then in October we will be holding the ninth session of the Conference of Parties to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in Vienna.
This is an important opportunity to strengthen implementation of the Convention and its protocols against migrant smuggling, human trafficking and illicit firearms trafficking.
I understand that my colleagues from the Divisions of Operations and Treaty Affairs will be briefing you in more detail on some of the work we do in the areas under our mandates.
Allow me to conclude by thanking you once again for this visit. I also offer my thanks and best wishes to the Austrian presidency.
Thank you.