PINO ARLACCHI OF ITALY APPOINTED DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNITED NATIONS VIENNA OFFICE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME
Press Release
SG/A/640
SOC/NAR/762
PINO ARLACCHI OF ITALY APPOINTED DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNITED NATIONS VIENNA OFFICE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME
19970620 The Secretary-General today announced the appointment of Senator Pino Arlacchi of Italy as Under-Secretary-General, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, and Executive Director of the United Nations Drug Control Programme, effective September.Today's appointment is an integral part of the Secretary-General's effort to strengthen the United Nations capacity, through its entities in Vienna, to coherently and systematically address threats to the stability and development of society arising from transnational crime in all its manifestations -- from drug trafficking and money laundering to international terrorism.
The Secretary-General will elaborate further on his intentions in this regard in the comprehensive report on United Nations reform he will submit to the General Assembly on 16 July. The Assembly has identified the area of "Drug control, crime prevention and combating international terrorism in all its forms and manifestations" as a priority under its 1998-2001 medium-term plan for the Organization.
Mr. Arlacchi brings to the Secretary-General's reform effort and to his new position strong academic, legislative and executive credentials, as well as a life-long commitment to the struggle against transnational organized crime. That experience spans the national and international arenas, as well as the fields of research and policy making.
The Senator is a leading authority and scholar of international renown in the fields of organized crime, narcotics and drug trafficking. He is the author of many books and publications on transnational organized crime, which have been translated into many languages. His research and policy prescriptions have been extensively drawn upon in Italy, the European Union States, Africa and Latin America, through the adoption of new legislation as well as executive action to combat organized crime.
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As Senior Adviser to Italy's Ministry of the Interior, Mr. Arlacchi was responsible for the executive project that led to the creation of the "Direzione Investigativa Anti-Mafia" -- the Italian police corps wholly dedicated to the investigation of transnational organized crime. That action has been instrumental in the many recent successes of Italian law enforcement in the fight against such crime.
In 1994, Mr. Arlacchi was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies as a representative of the constituency of Florence, and in 1996 he was elected to the Italian Senate. He has also served as Deputy Chair of Italy's Parliamentary Commission on Organized Crime.
Within the United Nations system, Mr. Arlacchi has long served as adviser to United Nations units dealing with drug abuse and narcotics control. He has also contributed to studies and regional and international conferences conducted by the United Nations and other international organization in the field of narcotics control and crime prevention. Those contributions have included pioneering work on the forfeiture of profits and proceeds of drug crimes.
On behalf of the International Society of Social Defence, Mr. Arlacchi participated in the preparatory work for the Seventh United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Milan in September 1985. He was also a leading member of Italy's delegation to that Congress and to subsequent international conferences, including the 1994 World Ministerial Conference on Transnational Organized Crime, held at Naples.
Senator Arlacchi is a full Professor of Sociology at the School of Political Science of the University of Sassari. He was awarded a Ford Foundation fellowship and was a visiting Professor at Colombia University. He is currently the honorary President of the Givoanni Falcone Foundation, named after the great Italian prosecutor -- and a close friend -- who was assassinated by the Mafia in 1992.
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