Crime

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the inaugural Conference of the International Anti-Corruption Academy, in Vienna, 2 September:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on transnational organized crime, in New York today, 17 June:

Agreeing unanimously on the centrality of human rights to an effective, fair and humane criminal justice system, the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice concluded in Salvador, Brazil, today with the adoption of a political declaration calling for greater scrutiny of the rules governing the treatment of prisoners, stronger national child-protection laws and more State action to prevent violence against women and migrant workers, among other issues.

The Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice had put the world’s criminal justice system on trial, but the case could be dismissed for lack of evidence, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the Organization’s Vienna Office, said today, as the event’s high-level segment continued in Salvador, Brazil.

Delegates at a special, three-day segment of the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice urged members this afternoon to take concrete action in the next five years, building upon “spectacular breakthroughs” on controversial issues relating to the prosecution, sentencing and custody of offenders, and on a possible new treaty on emerging forms of transnational offences such as cybercrime.

SALVADOR, Brazil, 16 April -- An overhaul of criminal justice systems in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe was needed to reduce inhumane overcrowding in prisons ‑‑ a major cause of recidivism which did nothing to improve public safety, speakers said today as the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice continued in Salvador, Brazil.

Decrying the “appalling” circumstances believed to affect roughly 10 million detainees worldwide, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture today described massive differences in the treatment of prisoners, and called, alongside other experts, for stiffer measures to improve prison conditions and ensure full respect for basic human rights standards, as the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice continued in Salvador, Brazil.

The United Nations should develop a template to better educate everyone from schoolchildren to judges worldwide about criminal justice concepts, standards and the rule of law in order to create a safer, more just world, delegates said as the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice continued in Salvador, Brazil, today.