unodc

Forensic police investigation in developing countries is a key part of tackling organized crime.
UN Photo/Martine Perret

Greater cooperation urged worldwide as criminals seek to profit from COVID-19

12 October 2020
Law and Crime Prevention

With criminal networks looking to profit from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical for governments to work together in line with a landmark UN treaty to combat human trafficking, gun smuggling and other cross-border crimes, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday. 

Farmer Nurul Haque stands near his 13-year-old daughter in Bangladesh, saying he may have to pull her from school and marry her off to an older man because he has few financial options left.
UNICEF/UN0159775/Nybo

Report reveals linkages between human trafficking and forced marriage

7 October 2020
Law and Crime Prevention

Across the world, girls as young as 12 are being forced or tricked into marrying men who exploit them for sex and domestic work, in what the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has called an “under-reported, global form of human trafficking”. 

The UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand, Gita Sabharwal (centre background) joins a patrol on the Mekong River.
© UNODC

Fighting drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle: a UN Resident Coordinator blog

20 September 2020
Law and Crime Prevention

Drug trafficking has long been a problem in the Golden Triangle, the region where Thailand’s Chiang Rai province meets Myanmar and Laos. In this blog, Gita Sabharwal, UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand, and Jeremy Douglas, who represents the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, explain how the United Nations and the Thai government are working together to tackle the issue.

Rescued orphan elephants at David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.
UNEP/Natalia Mroz

Wildlife crime putting environment and health at risk: UN report

10 July 2020
Law and Crime Prevention

The COVID-19 pandemic shows how wildlife crime is a threat not only to the environment but to human health, according to a new UN report issued on Friday.

Poppy field.
UNODC

COVID-19’s far reaching impact on global drug abuse

25 June 2020
Law and Crime Prevention

More than 35 million people around the world now suffer from drug addiction, according to the latest annual report on the scourge, from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released on Thursday, which also analyzes the far-reaching impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global drug markets.

Two girls apply make-up at Kandapara, a brothel in the city of Tangail, Bangladesh. A man offered them to find them jobs, but instead sold them to Kandapara. (2009)
© UNICEF/UNI91025/Noorani

COVID-19 crisis putting human trafficking victims at risk of further exploitation, experts warn

6 May 2020
Law and Crime Prevention

Lockdowns, travel restrictions, resource cutbacks and other measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus are putting victims of human trafficking at risk of further exploitation, while organized crime networks could further profit from the pandemic, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).