México City (Mexico) – 5 April 2022 - Within the framework of the project "Stakeholder Engagement for the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), its Review Mechanism and Related Activities" known as SE4U, the UNODC Civil Society Unit (CSU) with the support of the LPOMEX office is working with the Government of Mexico on a Pilot Initiative to engage non-governmental stakeholders in Mexico in UNTOC review process. In preparation for this, the UNODC CSU and LPOMEX office held two separate meetings in Mexico on 24 and 25 March respectively with non-governmental stakeholders and with the officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enable representatives of the Government and non-governmental stakeholders to identify common ground for working together on UNTOC implementation in the country.
The first day with stakeholders from NGOs, academics and the private sector focused on priorities pertaining to trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, illicit firearms, as well as environmental crimes and transnational organized crime in all its dimensions. The second day focused on the discussion with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The key priorities identified by stakeholders as they relate to UNTOC in general, the three Protocols and environmental crimes include:
Engagement to create awareness on Human Rights protection in the context of the Convention.
Diagnose capacities from local level governments to attend and measure Illicit firearms flows.
Prioritize victim protection and criminalize the traffickers (not the victim), by generating protection mechanisms to all victims and informants without the need for formal complaints.
Take into consideration the Circuit Migration phenomenon to integrate youth on the agenda.
Agreements with the private sector to develop prevention strategies and projects, including evaluation of tax on natural resources commerce and vigilance on supply chains.
Non-governmental stakeholders also proposed ideas for a mechanism for coordination with the Government, including the formalization of Governmental and non-governmental collaboration on a medium and long-term basis to create strategies and action plans, as well as ensuring that the review process is open and transparent to non-governmental stakeholders.
During the meeting with the authorities, the focal point for Mexico’s UNTOC review confirmed his government's commitment to host the “Pilot Initiative” on 27 April 2022 focusing on organized crime prevention topics. He stressed that it will be “the start of a long-term process of engagement with relevant non-governmental stakeholders”, and that “there is a commitment to engage with relevant stakeholders”.
The Pilot Initiative is a voluntary and Government-led initiative to enable representatives of the Government, civil society, academia and the private sector to work together on country-specific transnational organized crime priorities to ensure an effective UNTOC review process as per resolution 9/1 of the Conference of the Parties to UNTOC.
Mexico is the first country to accept to host a Pilot Initiative.
The SE4U project is made possible by the generous financial support of the Government of the United States.