BANGKOK MEETING SAYS MORE AID NEEDED IN ASIA AND PACIFIC TO CONTROL CRIME
Press Release
SOC/CP/207
BANGKOK MEETING SAYS MORE AID NEEDED IN ASIA AND PACIFIC TO CONTROL CRIME
19981105 VIENNA, 4 November (UN Information Service) -- Experts and top government officials from about 23 Asian and Pacific countries concluded at the end of a Bangkok meeting on 4 November that more funding and technical aid was needed to help nations better control and prevent crime at the national and transnational levels.Some 59 delegates at the three-day meeting, hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, drew up a set of regional recommendations to be considered at the tenth United Nations Congress for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, to be held in Vienna in April, 2000. Delegates included leading government crime officials, as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations and the relevant United Nations agencies.
The meeting stressed that concerted action by a wide variety of partners from all areas of society was needed to promote the rule of law worldwide. It called on governments to assist many countries in the region that need technical or financial aid to improve criminal justice systems.
Delegates also urged all nations to speed up efforts to adopt a United Nations treaty against transnational organized crime. It was particularly crucial to find appropriate ways to fight financial and economic crimes, computer-related crimes as well as strategies to combat escalating rates of substance abuse, they agreed.
The meeting also stressed the importance of keeping pace with crime prevention techniques. These include upholding cultural and religious values, strengthening the role of the family, fostering tolerance to combat racial hatred and working to alleviate poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.
Continued attention should be focused on child and youth victimization and delinquency, the meeting recommended. Ways for victims to seek redress at both national and international levels should be set up, particularly for transnational crimes. Gender-sensitive data needed to be collected and analysed to promote women in the legal professions.
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Mohammad Fadaeifard, Chairman of the meeting, noted that the global turnover and profits for illicit drug trafficking ranged between $400 billion to $500 billion per year, with other incalculable amounts gained from illicit trading in works of art, flora and fauna, motor vehicles, firearms and human beings. National budgets are inadequate compared to such huge amounts of illegally gained sums, he said.
The Bangkok meeting was the first in a series of four regional meetings that aim to collect input for the tenth Congress. Three other meetings will be held before the end of February -- in Beirut for the Western Asian region, in Kampala for Africa and in San Jose for Latin America.
The delegates in Bangkok also prepared for four workshops to be conducted at the tenth Congress, on combating corruption, computer crime, community crime prevention and women in the criminal justice system. The workshops should serve as a springboard for expanding the technical assistance capabilities of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme.
To date, the United Nations has held nine international crime Congresses, which have served to boost international cooperation in crime control and have recommended vital guidelines and standards on crime prevention and criminal justice.
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