Сrime prevention issues

Mr. Chairman,

Let me extend my congratulations to you and to other members of the Bureau on your election and express my confidence that under your leadership the current session will carry out its work in a businesslike and constructive atmosphere. Russian delegation is ready to fully contribute to that.

Mr. Chairman,

The Russian Federation consistently and strongly advocates the need to consolidate efforts of the international community aimed at searching for responses to new challenges and threats together. International cooperation in the anti-criminal sphere with the central coordinating role of the United Nations should be clearly focused on the strict implementation of the international law.

The expanding globalization adds new dimensions to such problems as terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and other manifestations of transnational organized crime that increasingly threaten social, economic, humanitarian and cultural development of states and whole regions, as well as their political stability and security.

Serious challenges arise in the situation when terrorism begins to find its place in regional and other armed conflicts and terrorists with combat experience come back to places where they live. We find it unacceptable when private military and security companies are used to recruit, train and send terrorist and mercenaries to conflict zones. An international response is urgently needed to counter this trend. We call on states that have not done it yet to accede to the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism of 2005. It provides for criminalization of relevant acts and is open to accession, inter alia, for the Council of Europe non-member States.

The spread of violent extremism and radicalization of social relations leading to terrorist acts require increased attention and effective timely response. This trend becomes particularly dangerous when materialized under the slogans of extreme nationalism and neo-Nazism. Such activities inevitably accompanied by violations of human rights and crimes must be nipped in the bud. This issue sounds even more relevant these days, when the World is celebrating the Victory over the forces of the Nazism and hate to the humanity in the Second World War.

An international conference on Countering Radicalization Conducive to Terrorism held on March 3‑4, 2014, in Moscow was attended by the representatives of governmental institutions, civil society (religious confessions, mass media, universities, and NGOs), and international organizations, such as the UN, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. These issues were extensively discussed at the XIII International Meeting of Heads of Special Services, Security Agencies and Law-Enforcement Organizations, held on April 8‑9, 2014, in Sochi. We intend to further promote the counter-radicalization issues at various international forums paying enhanced attention to preemptive and preventive measures, suppression of financing of extremist and terrorist organizations, and debunking of their ideology. To these ends, it is important to involve civil society institutions, including mass media, religious organizations, local communities, and public-private partnerships.

Mr. Chairman,

The widening range of trans-border criminal challenges requires increased international law-enforcement cooperation and, to these ends, bolstering mutual confidence on its basis, as well as enhancing of efficiency. Citizens have the right to expect their States to make energetic collective efforts to eliminate transnational criminal networks, and suppress traditional and emerging types and forms of crime.

         It is the concerted actions of the Russian special services and law-enforcement bodies undertaken in cooperation with their partners from a number of states that ensured security during the Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, thus, largely contributing to their success. We are ready to increase such cooperation. The use of sports diplomacy tools could also become the most important way to prevent terrorism and other crimes, as well as recruitment of the youth. Russia is interested in participating in relevant international projects.

         Mr. Chairman,

         Enhancing the efficiency of interaction among the law-enforcement bodies is of great practical interest for all the states without exception. Such common problems as the refusals to consider and execute requests for extradition and provision of legal assistance in criminal matters complicate the work on this track and hamper the implementation of the inevitable responsibility principle.

         We urge members of the Commission to focus on the search for efficient ways to alleviate the current drawbacks, primarily by strengthening of the legal frameworks of international anticrime cooperation. The elaboration and adoption within the UN of a binding international instrument on legal assistance in criminal matters that would cover the whole range of ordinary crimes could become one of the first steps.

         Cooperation in criminal matters will be addressed in greater detail by members of the Russian delegation during the thematic discussion.

         We support the efforts aimed at ensuring greater efficiency of the implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, including the establishment of the Convention's review mechanism to be financed mainly from the UN regular budget.

         Among new problems related to crime prevention and criminal justice a special role belongs to combating illicit trafficking in protected species of wild fauna and flora. The scale of that criminal activity is increasing. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the volume of ivory smuggled from the African Horn region alone reached 154 tons a year, having brought more than 30 million USD of illegal proceeds to criminal groups. Then the “dirty money” is being partly spent to support terrorist structures. In Eastern Africa poachers kill annually up to 15,000 of elephants. Tigers are endangered, since up to 5 per cent of their world population is being killed annually.

         The top leaders of the Russian Federation pay special attention to the protection of animals. The International Forum on Preservation of Tigers (the so called “Tiger Summit”) held in St. Petersburg on November 21‑22, 2010, became to a large extent a benchmark to make the broad international community pay more attention to the topic of protecting wild animals from criminal interventions.

         A series of major thematic conferences have been recently held on these issues. They proved both their high urgency and the fact that states do not have common approaches yet to practical suppression of this manifestation of transnational criminal activity. Efforts which are being undertaken by the international community in that field should be harmonized.

         In this context, naturally, we do not speak about the work from scratch. Vast experience of practical cooperation has been accumulated in addition to existing international legal instruments to rely on. We highly appreciate efforts undertaken by the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime which unite the UNODC, Interpol, the World Customs Organization, the World Bank and the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Combating illicit trafficking in wildlife became a special theme of the 22^nd session of the Commission held in 2013. Based on the Commission’s recommendation the United Nations Economic and Social Council adopted the relevant resolution on July 25, 2013.

It is obvious, however, that this serious international challenge requires a consolidated comprehensive response based on the universally recognized approaches. We support the intention  of the UNODC to conduct a study on this topic. The lack of a holistic international legal framework covering all the aspects related to the protection of wildlife from criminal threats is becoming ever more evident. One of the options is to elaborate, under the UN auspices, a specialized international legal instrument, for instance, similar to the Fourth Protocol to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. We encourage members of the Commission to consider this idea.

Mr. Chairman,

The number of crimes committed in the field of telecommunications and computer information continues to rise, as does their share in the overall structure of criminal activities. The Russian side consistently calls for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 65/230 of December 21, 2010, requesting to conduct a comprehensive study of the problem of cybercrime. Such a study has been conducted under the UNODC auspices. At its previous session the Commission took note of the conclusion made in the study in favour of adequate international legal framework to suppress cybercrime. The Russian Federation calls to close the gaps in this area by drafting and adopting the convention against cybercrime under the UN auspices. By doing so, we would manage to create a solid legal foundation for enhancing practical interaction to combat this global challenge which is rapidly expanding.

We have repeatedly brought to attention the problem of illicit trafficking in raw precious metals which causes significant economic damage not only to countries where they are produced and processed but also to states of their transit and marketing. Resolution 2013/38 entitled “Combating transnational organized crime and its possible links to illicit trafficking in precious metals” which was adopted by the ECOSOC on July 25, 2013, with an active participation of the Russian delegation and based on the recommendation of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice became an important step towards developing interaction in that field. We appreciate the role played by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) in the context of efforts which are undertaken to implement the said resolution.

Mr. Chairman,

The United Nations should also remain focused on expanding effective measures to suppress illicit financial flows, first of all from illicit drug trafficking and piracy, as well as corruption. Measures undertaken through the FATF and those related to the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and its review mechanism should contribute to that process in many respects. We note that this review mechanism plays a consolidating role determined by its inter-governmental, unbiased, non-politicized and non-intrusive nature.

We are engaged in active preparations for the next, 6^th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption which Russia will host in 2015. In our view, its work should be focused on resolving practical tasks such as increasing efficiency of law-enforcement cooperation, developing anti-corruption public-private partnerships, and recovery of assets derived from corruption. As a host country, Russia will do its utmost to ensure success of the Conference.

Thank you.