Landmark UN treaty against organized crime set to become international law

The first United Nations treaty to fight organized crime across national borders, obligating countries to cooperate with one another to deal with such crimes as money laundering and corruption, is set to become international law next week.

The Convention against Transnational Organized Crime enters into force on Monday, and had been designed as the international community's response to the progressing globalization of organized crime.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), organized criminal groups have used advances in transportation and communication technologies to develop new opportunities for theft, diversion, smuggling and other crimes, including enormous profits generated by the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings.

Forty-eight countries have so far ratified the Convention, which obliges them to incorporate the treaty provisions into their domestic laws. By ratifying the accord, the States also commit to adopting a series of crime-control measures, including the criminalization of participation in an organized criminal group, money laundering, corruption, and obstruction of justice; extradition; mutual legal assistance; administrative and regulatory controls; law-enforcement; victim protection and crime-prevention measures.

Speaking at a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, UNDOC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa stressed that the instrument was quite an important accomplishment, recalling that the Millennium Declaration emphasized the importance of the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime as a major ingredient for the sustainability of development.

The Convention had "teeth" and established specific offences which would be made criminal, he said, and also established mechanisms for international cooperation in interdiction and sharing of intelligence.

Joining Mr. Costa at the briefing was UN Legal Counsel Hans Corell, who noted that the UN treaty event organized for the sidelines of the General Assembly's annual debate focussed on instruments against transnational organized crime and terrorism. Since Tuesday, 52 countries had participated in the event, undertaking 141 treaty actions, he said.