Islamic Republic of Iran

 

National Meeting on "Developmental Crime Prevention"

H.E. Judge Mehdi Amiri Esfahani, Vice Director, Social and Crime Prevention Directorate, Judiciary (2 nd speaker from right)
Dr. Homayoon Habibi, Head, Research Center, Judiciary (1 st speaker from right)
Dr. Mahmood Mahdavi, Professor, Faculty of Criminal Law and Criminology, University of Tehran (2 nd speaker from left)
Dr. Abolghassam Khodadi, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Shahed (1 st speaker from left)

Tehran. 13 March 2016 - The National Meeting on "Developmental Crime Prevention" was held on 10th March 2016 in Tehran. The meeting was planned in cooperation with the "Research Center on Criminal Law and Criminology of the Judiciary".

There were over 70 participants to the meeting. They included senior members from Governmental bodies, such as the Social and Crime Prevention Directorate of Judiciary, Ministry of Education, State Welfare Organization, as well as Professors and students from the Universities of Tehran, Tarbiyyat Moddaress and Shahid.

Analytical debates were conducted with regards to the newly enacted national law on crime prevention, i.e., (i) Developmental crime prevention: from the theoretical framework to the identification of causes of danger; (ii) Reviewing and criticizing the rules of procedures with regard to children at risk, with a focus on the rules of procedure concerning street children and providing ad-hoc social services; (iii) Cross-cutting national plans with regards to students at risk; (iv) Plans and activities, with a view to developmental crime prevention within the national educational structure, (v) The role of International Organizations with regards to developmental crime prevention and (vi) Management of developmental crime prevention, within the national law on crime prevention.

During the meeting, the parties agreed on the significant role that crime prevention plays with respect to sustainable development. How providing educational and training services to vulnerable groups, targeting especially women; girls and juveniles could extensively reduce the potential chances of acts of crimes. Furthermore and in connection with economic and financial matters, the meeting reviewed a model state's crime prevention statistical reports, which provided hard proof evidences on effectiveness and efficiency of such policies and measures versus law enforcement operations.

 

Mr. Leik Boonwaat, UNODC Representative in Iran (4 rd speaker from right) addressed the hall.

Leik Boonwaat, UNODC Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran briefed the participants on UNODC mandates and related international legal conventions. He highlighted the importance of providing target based services to citizens, mainly vulnerable groups such as women, girls and juveniles. He underlined the high impact on reduction of occurrences of acts of crimes. He noted UNODC's focus areas addressing prosecution, police, witnesses and victims protection programmes, access to legal defense, access to legal aid, alternatives to imprisonment, restorative justice and justice for children and gender. He also described the four key cross cutting issues being women, children, victims and human rights. This includes accountability in the criminal justice system in regards to the use of the death penalty.    

The meeting was organized in accordance and in support of the objectives of UNODC newly launched Country Partnership Programme (CPP) 2015-2019 for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Specifically sub-programme two of the CPP which relates to Crime, Corruption and Criminal Justice, that aims to assist the country in promoting the effectiveness of its crime prevention and criminal justice policies and apparatus.