30 October 2018 - Corruption is not merely the domain of powerful gangs shown in Mafia movies, or of large-scale schemes exposed by mainstream media. Corruption happens at all levels of society, in big and in small affairs, manifesting itself in numerous ways.
A new short film 'The struggle against corruption,' conceived and produced by the Doha Declaration Global Programme, gives a digest of the work being undertaken by UNODC to counter corruption, while looking at manifestations of this crime and its implications throughout history. It gathers the expertise of professionals from UNODC, and of academics working on the comprehensive and far-reaching E4J initiative, offering fascinating insights on cases of corruption, and on how this epidemic is being fought around the world.
Fifty secondary school children from a small town on the outskirts of Vienna sat mesmerized at UNODC headquarters this week as they watched, in the midst of an international audience of Member State delegates, a special English-language production of 'Dieci storie proprio cosi' (Ten stories just like this), the renowned play which was being performed for the first time outside of Italy. Recounting real stories of people whose relatives were victims of organized crime, actors engaged vivaciously with the audience.
This unique event, organized jointly by UNODC's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative and the Permanent Mission of Italy to the International Organizations in Vienna, was held during this week's 9th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
Under the slogan 'Enjoy and take care of yourself on the Internet,' the Ministry of Education of El Salvador has launched a national campaign using UNODC educational materials. Developed by the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative, the materials included The Online Zoo book and modules designed to assist teachers in early media education as they explain to children the challenges of being online.
Audiovisual and printed materials for schools have been developed as part of the campaign, which itself is based on six thematic areas: cybersecurity, Internet privacy, sexting, grooming, sextortion, and cyberbullying. The campaign aims to inform and prevent the main cybercrimes that affect children, and to emphasize the importance of preserving privacy and safety on the Internet.
At the invitation of UNODC's Education for Justice (E4J) initiative, in partnership with the organization Worldview Education, more than sixty leading Indian educators met this month in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Mumbai for a series of discussions on Model United Nations (MUN), and on E4J's Resource Guide which incorporates crime prevention, criminal justice and other rule of law aspects into MUN conferences.
Stressing the importance of students and teachers in strengthening the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Suruchi Pant, Deputy Representative of UNODC's Regional Office for South Asia, noted: "I believe that change for a better tomorrow is only possible if it is championed by young leaders."
In the latest edition of the magazine 'Justice Trends', UNODC's Dimitri Vlassis - Chief of the organization's Corruption and Economic Crime Branch - provides his insights into the workings of the 13th UN Crime Congress held in Qatar in 2015, and the resultant Doha Declaration which emerged from this important gathering.
In this wide-ranging interview, Mr. Vlassis discusses UNODC's Global Programme - the first time that such an implementation initiative has emerged from a Crime Congress to provide support to countries to put into practice the Doha Declaration's commitments.
