Security Council Calls for Strengthened International, Regional Coop... http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sc9867.doc.htm 24 February 2010 Security Council SC/9867 Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York Security Council 6277th Meeting (AM) SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR STRENGTHENED INTERNATIONAL, REGIONAL COOPERATION TO COUNTER TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME, IN PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT Head of United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime Antonio Maria Costa Briefs; Secretary-General: States Must Mount Comprehensive Response to Criminal Scourge With the top United Nations anti-drug official urging concerted global action to “break the vicious circle between insecurity and underdevelopment” being increasingly fuelled by criminal networks, drug smugglers and human traffickers, the Security Council today called on the world body’s Member States to increase international and regional cooperation to tackle transnational organized crime. Following an in-depth briefing by Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on threats to global peace and security posed by drug trafficking and other organized criminal activity, the Security Council adopted a presidential statement (S/2009/PRST/4), noting that such transnational threats were a “growing concern” and might threaten the security of countries on its agenda, including nations trying to recover from conflict. In the statement, read by Gérard Araud of France, which holds the Council’s Presidency for February, the 15-nation body also noted with concern the increasing link, in some cases, between drug trafficking and the financing of terrorism, including through the use of proceeds derived from illicit cultivation, production of and trafficking in narcotic drugs and their precursors, as well as illegal arms trafficking. The Council said it would consider all such transnational threats, as appropriate. The Council noted that in a globalized society, organized crime groups and networks, now better armed with high tech communications equipment, were becoming more diversified and connected in their illicit operations, which might aggravate threats to international security. In such a context, the Council was particularly concerned by the emergence of cybercrime, as well as the “increase in kidnapping and hostage-taking, in some areas of the world with a specific political context, with the aim of raising funds or gaining political concessions”. Reaffirming and commending the work of UNODC in collaboration with other relevant United Nations entities, the Council encouraged Member States to broaden cooperation at all levels with that agency and the International Narcotic Control Board to counter the illicit production of, demand for and trafficking in drugs, and to identify emerging drug trafficking trends. The Council invited Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who opened today’s meeting, to consider transnational threats as a factor in conflict prevention strategies, conflict analysis, 1 of 17 25/02/2010 10:52 AM Security Council Calls for Strengthened International, Regional Coop... http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sc9867.doc.htm integrated missions’ assessment and planning and to consider including in his reports, as appropriate, analysis on the role played by those threats in situations on the Council’s agenda. In his statement, Secretary-General Ban warned the Council that, so far, cooperation between Governments was lagging behind cooperation between organized crime networks. Member States must mount a comprehensive and coordinated response against that scourge, just as they had in they had united to fight pandemics, poverty, climate change and terrorism. He noted that, while Governments had worked together on a number of important initiatives, including the General Assembly's efforts against drugs, the Kimberley Process against blood diamonds, and the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking: “[T]here is so much more to be done against emerging threats like cyber-crime, money-laundering, environmental crime, and the dumping of hazardous waste.” As a starting point, he recalled that the Crime Prevention Congress to be held in April in Salvador, Brazil, would offer an opportunity to explore how the international community could strengthen the legal and operational means to fight them. This year also marked the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and he urged Governments to sharpen that “powerful instrument” at the Conference of Parties in October. One of the most important improvements would be the establishment of a monitoring mechanism, he added. “Transnational networks create vectors of violence that blaze trails of death and destruction through some of the world's most vulnerable regions. Crime prevention is conflict prevention: together they build safer and healthier societies,” he said, adding that criminal justice should figure more prominently in United Nations peacebuilding and peacekeeping. “Together, let us prevent drug trafficking and organized crime from threatening international peace and security and all our hard-won work, across our agenda,” he declared. For his part, Mr. Costa also urged the international community to shore up their legal defences against organized crime networks, warning that international mafias particularly exploited the instability caused by conflict. They thrived in areas lost to insurgency and took advantage of a Government’s inability to provide security. That created a vicious circle, he said, declaring that vulnerability attracted crime, crime in turn deepened vulnerability. In a chain reaction, humanitarian crises followed, development was stalled and peacekeepers were deployed. A bigger problem was that even though technology had practically abolished time and space, and stakeholders should know what was happening around the planet at any moment, they didn’t. “There are so many forgotten places, out of Government control, too scary for investors and tourists […] precisely the places where smugglers, insurgents and terrorists operate,” he said, adding that unperturbed and undetected, they ran fleets of ships and planes, trucks and containers that carried tons of drugs and weapons. With “so many blank spots on the radar screen, with deadly consequences”, he called for a change in attitude. Indeed, it was time to regard information sharing as a way of strengthening sovereignty, and not surrendering it. If police stopped at borders while criminals crossed them freely, sovereignty was already breached. A more cooperative attitude would help establish networks to monitor illicit flows, share intelligence and carry out joint operations. His Office supported that in Central and West Asia, the Gulf, West Africa, and along the main drug routes into Europe and across Mesoamerica. More was needed, for example, across the Sahara-Sahel region, as proposed to the Council in December. He said that, because of the cross-cutting nature of organized crime, a system-wide response was needed. He was pleased that the Council supported the growing cooperation of various relevant departments and the Peacebuilding Commission, as that would ensure that the 2 of 17 25/02/2010 10:52 AM Security Council Calls for Strengthened International, Regional Coop... http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sc9867.doc.htm United Nations conflict prevention, crisis management and peacekeeping included a criminal justice component. The Council might also want to consider including a criminal justice component into relevant peacekeeping missions. “We need deeds more than words,” he said, noting that just last week, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ministers had told him that cocaine trafficking in the region had declined in the past 18 months. However, there were warning signs that traffickers were returning to the scene, because tough words had not been matched by equally robust actions. “Let’s learn the lesson.” When Council members addressed the meeting, most agreed that, in the current era of globalization, organized criminal networks had become more diversified and connected. They also highlighted successful efforts underway to curb poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and to rout drug traffickers in West Africa. While they stressed the need for broad global cooperation to tackle the threats posed by such groups, including trafficking in drugs, weapons and people, as well as money laundering, terrorist financing and cybercrime, they expressed particular concern for the havoc organized criminal activity could wreak in countries with weak justice systems and haphazard law enforcement or border controls. Along those lines, the representative of the United Kingdom said the fact that countries and regions where the rule of law was weak were particularly vulnerable to such threats underlined the importance of coordinated international engagement, often with a strong peacebuilding focus, to help build capacity in places most at risk. Time and again, as the Council examined cases of recurring conflict, it saw that weak judicial systems and lack of effective policing capacity were a big part of the problem. He said that all those were sensitive issues that would not be easy for any Government. But, if transnational criminals were agile and inventive, so must be the response of the international community. Similarly, Nigeria’s representative said that tackling challenges posed by drug trafficking required