CONFERENCE OF PARTIES TO UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZED CRIME CONVENTION CONCLUDES INAUGURAL SESSION

Conference of Parties to United Nations Organized

Crime Convention Concludes Inaugural Session

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 9 July 2004 (UN Information Service) -- The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime has adopted a programme of work for 2005 and approved a questionnaire to collect information, based on which it will decide the future direction of its work.

Fifty-seven States parties, 42 signatories and four observers actively participated in the first session of the Conference of the Parties.  The next session will take place in 2005.

The Conference agreed to move forward through a knowledge-based approach, while States parties ensure the implementation of the Convention.  Three themes were approved for the discussion of the second session of the Conference in 2005:  the basic adaptation of national legislation in accordance with the Organized Crime Convention and its Protocols; criminalization legislation and difficulties encountered in implementation of the instruments; and international cooperation and technical assistance to overcome difficulties identified in implementing the Convention and its Protocols.  Additional themes have been adopted for the Protocols against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants, taking into account their specific aims.

In order to provide a basis for discussion on these themes, as well as to develop the future direction of its work at the second session of the Conference in 2005, the Conference approved a standard questionnaire prepared by the Secretariat.  Over the next year, the Secretariat will collect information from States parties and signatories using the questionnaire and submit an analytical report based on the responses to the questionnaire to the second session.

The Conference also decided to request the Secretariat to provide in-depth information on technical assistance possibilities, and to study relevant precedents for technical cooperation activities, (including the financial aspect) for further consideration at the second session.

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention) entered into force on 29 September 2003, after receiving its fortieth ratification.  As the first global instrument in this area, the United Nations

Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention) and its three supplementing Protocols have received considerable attention and support from the international community.  The Organized Crime Convention came into force in only two-and-a-half years, followed by the entry into force of the Protocols against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants.  As of today, there are 81 States parties to the Organized Crime Convention; 63 to the Trafficking in Persons Protocol; 56 to the Smuggling of Migrants Protocol; and 21 States parties to the Firearms Protocol.

For further information please contact:  United Nations Information Service Vienna (UNIS), P.O. Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria; tel.:  +43 1 26060 4666; fax:  +43 1 26060 5899; e-mail:  UNIS@unvienna.org; home page:  www.unis.unvienna.org.

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