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Bangkok (Thailand), 2 April 2010 - Today, the 122nd Assembly of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) ended with the adoption of the
IPU Resolution on Cooperation and Shared Responsibility in the Global Fight against Organized Crime, in particular Drug Trafficking, Illegal Arms Trafficking, Human Trafficking and Cross-Border Terrorism.
UNODC strongly welcomes the adoption of this resolution. In his address to the First Standing Committee on Peace and International Security, Mr. Gary Lewis, UNODC Regional Representative for East Asia and the Pacific,
recalled the power of parliamentarians in fighting crime, drugs, corruption and terrorism:
"You are the agents of change… That is why UNODC applauds you for having taken this initiative to further strengthen global efforts to fight organized crime. You, the Parliamentarians of the world play a key role in this. It is you who initiate changes in legislation or enact new legislation. It is you who decide upon the priorities to be tackled. It is you who vote on the resources to be allocated in this struggle."
Further to Mr. Lewis's
intervention, the Drafting Committee of the First Standing Committee decided to highlight in the Resolution that
"
migrant smuggling
is often facilitated by organized crime networks, generating huge profits for the smugglers, while exposing irregular migrants to serious personal risks and making them vulnerable to trafficking" and insist on a clear call to IPU Member Parliaments to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three supplementary Protocols against human trafficking, migrant smuggling and arms trafficking.
But implementation is the
"need of the hour... and we must know the threat, act operationally and cooperate regionally" as Mr. Lewis put it.
"We must know the threat better. For this, we need to improve the quality of the information we have… Second, we need to sharpen our technical capacity to act operationally. By this I mean that we need to develop better techniques. Techniques which can match up to the knowledge and prowess which our adversaries possess… Thirdly, we need to cooperate better across a region and across regions."
Recognizing UNODC's unique expertise in providing technical assistance to Member States, the IPU resolution ends by inviting parliamentarians to make use of the technical services and expertise which are provide by UNODC.
Upcoming:
UNODC Model Law against the Smuggling of Migrants. More UNODC publications can be found at the
Tools and Publications website.
Website of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
Website of the host parliament of the 122nd IPU Assembly
