To achieve its mission of producing and disseminating high quality statistics, UNODC collects data on drugs, crime and criminal justice from its Member States through different instruments:
These data collections have all been mandated by Member States through different international instruments. The data are disseminated through UNODC Data Portal.
These data collections usually rely on networks of national focal points appointed by Member States who are responsible for compiling and submitting these questionnaires to UNODC. Their work is the cornerstone of international statistics on drugs, crime and criminal justice. For each questionnaire, Member States are encouraged to appoint a specific institution and person(s) for compiling and submitting it.
The ARQ is a mandated data collection which gathers aggregate data and information on a wide range of subjects related to drugs, from demand (e.g., prevalence of drug use, figures on treatment, mortality) to supply (e.g, data on seizures, cultivation) and regulatory issues. The data collected with ARQ are used for the annual World Drug Report.
In its resolution 60/1, the Commission invited UNODC, in close cooperation with Member States, to reflect on possibilities to strengthen and streamline its existing data-collection and analysis tools, including improving the quality and effectiveness of the annual report questionnaire.
After an inclusive process that involved several consultations with Member States and international organizations, as well as two Expert Group Meetings, the revised and streamlined ARQ was endorsed by the Commission on Narcotics Drugs during its 63rd session (E/CN.7/2020/12) on 5 March 2020.
In May 2021, the new ARQ was launched, together with a new platform that facilitates data collection, the Data eXchange Platform (DXP).
The IDS is a data collection mandated by the three International Drug Control Conventions which gathers data on individual drug seizure cases taking place within the national territory of Member States. It is reported to UNODC throughout the year, preferably quarterly. For this questionnaire, an Individual Drug Seizure is defined as a singular interception or apprehension of drugs and/or New Psychoactive Substances, by a Law Enforcement Agency, taking into account the specific place and point in time of the event. An individual drug seizure can cover one or more drugs seized at a specific place and point in time.
IDS data submitted by Member States form a critical component for producing drug seizure statistics used for informing the global community on the drug trafficking problem through the global annual publication - the World Drug Report.
For any queries related to this data collection please contact our team at unodc-ids@un.org.
UN-CTS is an annual questionnaire requested by ECOSOC Resolution 1984/48 of May 1984 to manage the collection and dissemination of data on crime and the criminal justice system in line with the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS).
In addition to being used to monitor progress towards eight SDG targets, the data are harnessed by UNODC for several analytical products - such as the Global Study on Homicide - or for short research briefs included in the Data Matters series.
UN-IAFQ, which was mandated by the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its supplementing Protocols, is distributed annually to all Member States to gather firearms related data in a uniform and standardized manner. In addition to providing data for SDG indicator 16.4.2 on the proportion of seized, found or surrendered arms whose illicit origin or context has been traced or established by a competent authority in line with international instruments, the data are used for the Global Study on Firearms Trafficking.
GLOTiP is aimed at collecting information and data for the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. The Report is mandated by General Assembly resolution 64/293, entitled “United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons”. More specifically it seeks information on acts that constitute the crime of “trafficking in persons”.
