SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES JOINS NETWORK OF UN CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROGRAMME

SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES JOINS NETWORK

OF UN CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROGRAMME

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 14 May (UN Information Service) -- The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, and Peter Gastrow, Director, Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Cape Town, South Africa, signed today a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at strengthening cooperation and the information exchange between the two organizations.

The Institute is an expert institution in the field of crime prevention, criminal justice and related security fields.  Headquartered in Pretoria, South Africa, with two additional offices in Cape Town and one in Malawi, it provides much-needed research and analysis to the governments of the region, regional organizations and the non-governmental organization community, which helps them guide their policies and practical programmes on issues related to the development of democracy and the rule of law in southern Africa.

The UNODC regional office for southern Africa is already implementing a number of activities in the areas of corruption, organized crime, money laundering, victimization surveys, crime prevention and terrorism, in collaboration with the ISS.

With the ISS joining the network of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, resource utilization will maximize the impact of technical assistance in response to the needs of the southern African region.  Among the activities are data collection on terrorism, organized crime and criminal justice in general.

Southern Africa faces numerous challenges in preventing and controlling crime -- including drug trafficking and organized crime.  The UNODC regional office in Pretoria is responsible for 11 countries:  Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  It manages projects worth $9.7 million in the areas of prevention and reduction of drug abuse, counter-narcotics enforcement, anti-corruption measures, criminal justice reform and trafficking in human beings.

For further information, contact UN Information Service Vienna, tel.: (+43-1) 26060 4666, fax: (+43-1) 26060 5899, e-mail: unis@unvienna.org.

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