Meet focuses on ways to combat organised crime

The fifth day of the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice discussed several subjects related to crime prevention such as international co-operation, at the regional level, to combat transnational organised crime.The discussions also focused on strengthening crime prevention and criminal justice responses to evolving forms of crime such as cyber crime and trafficking in cultural property, including lessons learned and international co-operation. The panellists at the workshop on preventing and combating evolving crime were Jinyong Chung of World Bank, Dr Ehab Elsonbaty from Egypt, and Professor Jianping of the Permanent Mission to the UN in Vienna.The second workshop was on the subject ‘Public contribution to crime prevention and raising awareness of criminal justice: experiences and lessons learned’. The panellists of the workshop on the ‘Role of the media, social networks and new communication technologies’ were Murray Lee from the University of Sydney of Australia, Robert Muggah from Igarape Institut of Brazil and Adrian Franco, General Director of Government, Public Security and Justice Statistics, INEGI from Mexico.Matthew Torigian, deputy minister for Community Safety, Canada; Nick Crofts, director of Centre for Law Enforcement and Public Health at Melbourne University, Australia; Fatima Itawi from the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces, Switzerland/Palestine were the panellists of the session on the topic ‘Public participation at the local level: initiatives to promote crime prevention and raise awareness of criminal justice’, and another session  on the ‘Public participation at the local level: initiatives to promote crime prevention and raise awareness of criminal justice’ was also held. The side events of the Crime Congress yesterday included sessions on ‘Public-Private Partnership to Combat Transnational Organised Crime, by Digital Crimes Unit of the Microsoft Corporation and a session on ‘Overcoming Barriers to Asset Recovery through the Adoption of Regional Agreements to Return and Share Recovered Assets, UNODC Regional Office for Central America and the Caribbean in Panama.Other events were sessions on ‘Promoting justice across borders: the transfer of execution of sentences as an alternative to extradition’ by  UNODC Liaison and Partnership Office in Brazil and another session on ‘Organised crime and conflict: what implications for policy? by Centre for Policy Research of the United Nations University.