INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN MOSCOW TO ADDRESS GLOBAL PROBLEM OF TRAFFICKING IN STOLEN VEHICLES

Press Release
SOC/CP/195

INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN MOSCOW TO ADDRESS GLOBAL PROBLEM OF TRAFFICKING IN STOLEN VEHICLES

VIENNA, 26 February (UN Information Service) -- In the face of the theft of tens of millions of cars, trucks and motorcycles across the world each year to meet a growing demand for "second-hand" vehicles, the United Nations- affiliated European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI) is organizing a three-day meeting in Moscow -- from 28 February to 2 March -- to consider a list of proposals for shoring up the loopholes that are allowing this illicit enterprise to boom.

The black market sale of automobiles and other vehicles -- a ring of Florida cocaine traffickers not long ago tried to buy a Russian nuclear submarine -- is fast becoming big business for organized criminals and a major challenge for the international community. Among the daunting obstacles posed to law enforcement agencies are a lack of centralized data, inadequate records on stolen vehicles and vehicle registrations in general, cumbersome international recovery procedures and too-lenient legislation covering the activities of professional car thieves, "chop shops" and couriers.

The meeting, which is organized in collaboration with the Russian Federation Ministry of the Interior with the participation of the Vienna-based United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division, follows a preliminary meeting held last November in Warsaw. Representatives of insurance companies and car manufacturers are expected to take part in the Moscow gathering, along with representatives of 40 countries in Europe and North America.

The United Nations and its affiliated European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI) has begun assembling data in order to identify what policies and practices will have to be changed in order to stem the flow of stolen vehicles, not only from western to eastern Europe, but also from Europe and North America to Latin America, West Africa, South-East Asia and the Middle East.

One key proposal before the Moscow meeting will be for countries to support as a first priority the development of an international stolen vehicle database initiated by the International Criminal Police Organization

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(Interpol). Other recommendations involve requiring national authorities to check whether an imported vehicle has been stolen in another country before allowing it to be registered, universal use of the international standard vehicle identification number (VIN) which would be carried on component parts of the vehicle and to consider mandating the installation of security devices by manufacturers.

The meeting will consider recommending to the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice -- a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council -- the elaboration for worldwide use of a comprehensive standard training manual on vehicle identification, as well as continuation of research on the scope, methodology and structure of groups engaged in vehicle theft and trafficking.

Under a Model Treaty for the Return of Stolen or Embezzled Vehicles, which was approved in Warsaw, States would clarify what constitutes theft or embezzlement of a vehicle and would harmonize the types of data maintained on such cases, as well as the procedure for recuperating stolen vehicles. The parties to the treaty would take into account the difficulties faced by innocent owners seeking the return of motor vehicles which might end up on the other side of the world.

The conference will take place at the Cosmos Hotel, Moscow, Prospect Mira 150, Tel.: 7-095 234 1376: Fax: 215 8880.

For further information, contact UNIC Moscow, tel: 7-095 241 2894, fax: 7-095 230 2136 or UNIS Vienna, tel: 43-1 21345-4666, fax: 43-1 21345-5899.

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