Elena Abbati is the new director of UNODC in Brasil

 

Brasilia, 7 January, 2020 - UNODC's Liaison and Partnership Office in Brazil announced thisTuesday (7) that its new director, the Italian Elena Abbati, will take up her position on 8 January.

With over 20 years of international professional experience in West, Central and East Africa, Middle East, West and Eastern Europe, Asia, as well as three years' work experience in Latin America, Abbati has been working at UNODC since June 2014.

From 2016 to 2020, she has served as senior law enforcement advisor at the UNODC Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Senegal, heading the Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking Section covering 22 countries, consistenly assisting national priorities and promoting international cooperation. She has led development and  implementation management of a broad range of programmes covering counter-narcotics, fighting organised crime and counter-terrorism, maritime crime, trafficking in persons an money laundering challenging and complex environments.

From 2014 to 2016, she has managed one of UNODC's premier global programme AIRCOP that aims to strengthen the capabilities of international airports in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe to detect and intercept drugs, other illicit goods and high-risk passengers. In this role, she promoted international police cooperation, resulting in the agreement between INTERCOPS Programme of the Brazilian Federal Police and the AIRCOP Project implemented by UNODC in partnership with INTERPOL and OMA.

Prior to joining UNODC´s team, Abbati was active in international diplomacy and peacebuilding with the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) in Dakar for the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission for the Border Demarcation and Peace. She previously served the European Commission Foreign Policy Instrument Service in Brussels, as well as the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs..

Abbati holds a MA degree in Political Science from the Free International University for Social Studies Guido Carl, in Rome, Italy.

"UNODC's mandate has great synergy with Brazil. UNODC has helped to make the world safer against drugs, organized crime, corruption and terrorism," she said.

"Since 1991, we have been operating in Brazil and have implemented several successful programmes in partnership with the Brazilian Government," she said.

Abbati stressed that from 2020 UNODC intends to move forward in its main areas of operation. "There are many partnership opportunities with the Brazilian Government within the framework of national priorities in crime prevention, in the global drug problem as well as in supply and demand and in the fight against corruption" she added.

"In addition, the Office is committed to supporting Brazil in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda recognizes that the rule of law and an effective,  efficient criminal justice system in addition to drug response under the health perspective are facilitators of sustainable development" she concluded.

According to Abbati, Brazil has already made much progress in these areas and has everything to become an example of good practices for the region and the world.

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To know more:  http://www.agenda2030.com.br/

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