Making Standards Work: Fifty Years of Standard Setting

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Agenda item 7

Making standards work: Fifty years of standard setting

in crime prevention and criminal justice

United Nations Standards and Norms

in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Statement[*] submitted by the International Council of Women, Soroptimist International, (non-governmental organizations in general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council); International Commission of Catholic Prison Pastoral Care, International Police Association, International Society of Social Defence, Italian Centre of Solidarity, National Council of German Women’s Organizations, Pax Romana (International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs) (International Movement of Catholic Students), (non-governmental organizations in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council).[**]

The undersigned non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, members of the Vienna Alliance of Non-governmental Organizations on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Recalling General Assembly resolution 46/152 of 18 December 1991 (Annex) in which it acknowledged that a United Nations programme devoted to crime prevention and criminal justice can only be effective with the direct involvement of Member States, and expressed conviction that the principal purpose of such a programme should be to provide practical assistance to States in combating both national and transnational crime;

Recalling further that in the same resolution the General Assembly urged all entities of the United Nations system, including the regional commissions, the United Nations congresses on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders, the United Nations institutes for the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders, the specialized agencies and the relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, to assist the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme in fulfilling its tasks;

Recalling finallythe United Nations Millenium Declaration contained in General Assembly resolution 55/2 of 8 September 2000 in which the Assembly resolved to strengthen respect for the rule of law in international as in national affairs and to make the United Nations more effective in maintaining peace and security by giving it the resources and tools it needed for conflict prevention, peaceful resolution of disputes, peace keeping, post conflict peace building and reconstruction;

Conscious therefore of the shared responsibility of Governments and other parts of international and national criminal justice community in contributing to the above common United Nations programme objectives in crime prevention and criminal justice throughout the world;

Emphasizing that the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice in the course of fifty years have been a growing resource for various technical cooperation ideas, projects and documents pursuing sustainable development objectives, including rehabilitation of offenders, compensation for victims of crime and abuse of power, restorative justice and poverty alleviation through alternative development;

Acknowledging with appreciation the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action A/CONF.157/23, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993, which gives special emphasis to the human rights aspects of the rule of law and the administration of justice in section C, paragraph 67;

Aware of the Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/16 of 23 July 1996, in which the Council requested the Secretary General to continue to promote the use and application of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice and resolution 1998/21 of 28 July 1998, in section I, in which the Council requested the Secretary General to continue the information gathering on specific groups of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice and report on their use and application to the Commission;

Mindful of the Vienna Declaration of Crime and Justice: Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century and the relevant provisions, annexed to General Assembly resolution 55/59 of 4 December 2000, and of the plans of action for the implementation of the Vienna Declaration on Crime and Justice referring specifically to the use and application of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice in particular chapter XIV, annexed to General Assembly resolution 56/261 of 31 January 2002;

Mindful alsoof the Economic and Social Council resolution 2002/15 of 24 July 2002 on United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice, in which it reaffirmed the importance of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice, including in the framework of peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction;

Mindful further of the Economic and Social Council resolution 2003/30 of 22 July 2003, in which it decided to group United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice into four categories for the purpose of targeted collection of information, in order to better identify the specific needs of Member States and to provide an analytical framework with a view to improve technical cooperation;

Mindful finally oftheEconomic and Social Council resolution 2004/28 of 21 July 2004, in which, inter alia, the Secretary General is requested to assist Member States at their request, in the use and application of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice through the development and implementation of technical assistance projects aimed at criminal justice reform;

Highlighting the fact that the United Nations standards and norms, addressing effectively both crime prevention and criminal justice issues, have contributed to the efforts of harmonizing legislation and have been instrumental in the development of a unified response to crime related problems in the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the three Protocols thereto, and the Convention against Corruption;

Underlining the significance of effective implementation of the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice which represent internationally agreed upon principles of desirable practice, fully supported by the undersigned non-governmental organizations;

Ask Governments to:

1. Reaffirm the importance of the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice adopted by the United Nations over the last fifty years, starting with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1955;

2. Accord high priority to the effective use and application of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice which are indispensable key elements for the rule of law and functioning of the criminal justice systems;

3. Request the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to maintain a balance between the current main priority issues of combating transnational organized crime and corruption and the other priority issues such as the promotion of the use and application of the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice;

4. Request also the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to publish the revised and updated Compendium of United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice in all six United Nations languages and disseminate it widely;

5. Contribute the necessary funds and assist otherwise, as appropriate, to translate the revised and updated Compendium into the respective local languages of their countries in order to provide practitioners in the field with the necessary instruments;

6. Incorporate United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice into educational programmes and university curricula, as well as in training programmes for law enforcement officials including prison staff, prosecutors, the judiciary, personnel taking part in peace keeping operations and other relevant professional groups;

7. Share amongst themselves with the non-governmental community and within the entire United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network relevant information on the use and application of standards and norms in criminal justice education and training with a view to demonstrating their related practical benefits for the personnel and other staff involved in education and training;

8. Enhance focused project-based and other cooperation in crime prevention and criminal justice among relevant United Nations bodies including the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network;

9. Intensify effective cooperation with relevant non-governmental organizations, utilize their knowledge and wide experience in crime prevention and criminal justice reform, promote mutual information sharing in this field and collaborate with them in technical assistance projects;

10. Strengthen the human and financial resources available to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in order to enable it to respond adequately to the needs of Member States for technical assistance in particular in countries with economies in transition, developing countries, and in countries in post conflict situations in reforming their criminal justice systems by pursuing and promoting the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice.

[*] Distribution is limited to the quantities and languages in which the paper is made available to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

[**] The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

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