5th Informal Meeting / NGO Briefing for participants on the 30th CCPCJ

Location: WebEx
12 May 2021, 14:00 - 15:30 (GMT+1)

Participants: Anna Alvazzi del Frate (Chair), Ingeborg Geyer (Treasurer), Rachel Aicher, Marina Mikhail, Alice Pasqualato, Aline Wani, Aliya Bo, Christine Peer-Valenta, Claudia Exenberger, David Peters, Eleonora Hauer-Rona, Elisabeth Francis, Etienne Lesage, Evelyn Dürmayer, George Slum Child Foundation, Gerhard Reissner, Giulia D’Amico, Marina Gredler, Irvin Waller, Irmgard Mäntler, Jamie Bridge, Nuno Jorge, Ramil Iskandarli, Renate Amesbauer, Shannon von Scheele, Trisha Dehrone, Yasushi Higashizawa, Linda MacDonald, Linda Witong, Manon Bisson, Merna Shalash, Jolanta Redo, Jay Albanese, Rory Field, Mirjam Beike, Herta Kaschitz-Wüstenhagen, Evelyn Dürmayer, Marlene Parenzan, Ian Tennant, Phil Reichel, Winifred Amesbauer, Hasan Tarique CH, Emile LeBrun, Tariq Khosa, Sarah Pirker, Tobias Krachler (Secretary)

UNODC CSU: Mirella Dummar-Frahi, Anders Frantzen, Mariana Cirmaciu, Billy Batware

UNODC Secretariat: Doris Resch

The informal meeting via Webex was facilitated by the Secretary. The Chair welcomed the participants and introduced the agenda of the meeting:

- Welcoming remarks: Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Chair of the Alliance and Mirella Dummar Frahi, Chief of the UNODC Civil Society Unit

- Briefing on the 30the session of CCPCJ: Secretariat to the Governing Bodies

- Question & answers

- AOB

Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Chair of the Alliance, opened the meeting and mentioned the recent activities related to CCPCJ. The Alliance is always pleased to coordinate NGO statements, this time together with CSU. Although time has been short, the outcome was good. Anna reminded interested NGOs that statements should respect the traditional format even if they are not given in person. She informed the participants that the Alliance is organizing with UNODC CSU a side event on Civil society engagement in implementing the Kyoto Declaration (May 18th from 14:10 to 15:00). On May 20th there will be an informal meeting with the Chair of the Commission, H.E. Ambassador Cortese of Italy. The Alliance is working with UNODC to overcome the challenges to make this meeting fully interactive for every participant, be it through the speaker link or in the room as in-person participants.

Mirella Dummar-Frahi, Head of UNODC CSU:

Welcomed the NGO representatives to the 30th session of CCPCJ stressing the exceptional hybrid format of the session and the online briefing taking place few days earlier on 12 May.  She informed that 62 NGO representatives have so far registered for the Commission reminding that that day was also the deadline for registering and encouraged those who did not do yet to do so. The programme and the list of side events could be found on the UNODC website including the access to the webcast for the plenaries. As regards to NGO statements, almost all slots could be filled. In line with resolution 1996/31, written statements should be sent in as soon as possible and can contain between 2000 and 1500 words depending on the status of the NGO.  

Doris Resch, UNODC Secretariat of Governing Bodies (SGB):

This year we celebrate the 30th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which in itself is special. In addition, this session of the Commission will adopt the Kyoto Declaration. The CCPCJ will start on Monday at 9am Vienna time. It will start with a ceremonial segment to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Commission. There will be a number of UN Dignitaries and Ministers speaking, among them the Justice Ministers of Austria, Italy, and Japan. Anna Alvazzi del Frate will represent the Civil Society in the celebrations. This year’s session will focus on effective measures to prevent and counter the smuggling of migrants. Another highlight will be a session on the 14th Crime Congress and the preparations for the 15th Crime Congress. The Commission is expected to adopt a resolution on the follow-up process, which has the Kyoto Declaration as an annex. There will also be a PNI workshop at the beginning of the Commission, which will focus on 20 years of the migrant smuggling protocol. The draft resolutions can be found on the UNODC website. In the course of the week, there will be around 90 side events, all the flyers and links have been made available on the website. In accordance with Covid-19 prevention measures, the plenary and the Committee of a whole will be held consecutively in the same room. During the Committee of a whole there will be 8 seats available for NGOs with ECOSOC status, which will be given on a first come, first serve basis. There will be floating badges again, in-person participants will receive 2 badges. Interprefy will be used again to provide interpretation to the meeting. In-person participants will require a negative Covid test, but they will not be checked by the security. It is on a trust basis, by swiping the badge you declare to comply with the measures. In-person participants will not receive a speaker link for the Commission but can follow the plenary through the webcast but not the Committee of the whole. This will only be available for participants registered as online participants. There is unfortunately no place for smaller, bilateral, informal meetings due to the Covid restrictions, also the NGO lounge will be closed. In terms of numbers the CND and the CCPCJ will have the same number of online speakers, unfortunately the harsher restrictions during the CND made in-person participations of NGOs impossible.

Jamie Bridge, Chair VNGOC:

We were really pleased with the online CND this year. It sounds like the CCPCJ will run very similar. Generally speaking, the CND worked really well and I am looking forward to the CCPCJ. Arrangements for the Committee of the Whole seem to be different from the CND arrangements on first glance, but I think this may just be the language used. The main sessions of the CND overlapped with the side events, which will be avoided at the CCPCJ. All organizers of side events should think about recording their events to share them afterwards with the CND Secretariat. The VNGOC had to preselect speakers for the platform beforehand. With the experiences from the CND, “live” interventions are the most impactful, but having a pre-recorded NGO statement as a “plan B” is the safest option.

Annex:

Alice Pasqualato: Good afternoon everyone, thank you for hosting this meeting. When will NGOs be told if they've been granted a speaking slot? I'm writing on behalf of Born Free Foundation and we haven't received any news on this regard. Many thanks, Alice

Jay Albanese: Will there be a complete listing posted of side events at the Commission>?

Rachel Aicher: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CCPCJ/session/30_Session_2021/ccpcj_side_event_programme.html

Ian Tennant: At what point to the people who registered in person find out if they are in the first 8? P.s. Hi Doris, thanks for briefing us!

Rachel Aicher: In terms of NGO statements, if we applied to deliver a statement (over live video, not recorded) but did not receive confirmation, do we assume that we are NOT giving a verbal statement, but there is still time today to submit a written statement?

Michael Platzer: How valid must the Covid test be?

Etienne Lesage: How many of you will be at the International center in person? Best.

James Bridge: Yes, I totally agree with Doris - the CND intersessional programme has been great to ensure the follow-ups and to keep the discussions "alive" (and for civil society to be a part of it too).

Rachel Aicher: Flagging two side events the ILF is co-organizing, in case colleagues are interested: (1) Strengthening the International Legal Aid Network (Thursday May 20) - high-level with South Africa, Argentine, the US, and other partners; (2) Tackling Criminalization of the Poor and Most Marginalized (Friday May 21) with PRI, Fair Trials, and the Open Society Foundations. https://www.unodc.org/res/commissions/CCPCJ/session/30_Session_2021/side_event_program_thu_20-05_html/Flyer_ILAN_Argentina.pdf and https://www.unodc.org/res/commissions/CCPCJ/session/30_Session_2021/side_event_program_fri_21-05_html/Flyer_Tacking_criminalisation_of_poor_FINAL-2.pdf

Ian Tennant: All GI related events here - https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/gitoc-30th-ccpcj/

Billy Batware: List of events with links: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CCPCJ/session/30_Session_2021/ccpcj_side_event_programme.html and here is the link to the Declaration: https://undocs.org/A/CONF.234/L.6

Renate Amesbauer: "New Village Development- to counter involuntary migration...", 17. My, 14:10- 15:00 Webinarlink: https://zoom.us/j/99505468560

Billy Batware: If the above link is not working please access it from here: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/crimecongress/about.html

James Bridge: I would also advise for anyone planning to speak, but who may have concerns about connectivity or IT capacity, it may be wise to also make a recording just in case the internet fails on the day?

Billy Batware: The NGOs willing to submit written statements of up to 1,500 words shall send them in Word format from the NGO's official email address, indicating the relevant agenda item, to UNODC Secretariat to the Governing Bodies, email: unodc-sgb@un.org, with copy to secretary@crimealliance.org and unodc-ngounit@un.org by Wednesday 12 May, 11:55pm CET. Side event of the Civil Society Unit co-sponsored by the Alliance: https://www.unodc.org/res/commissions/CCPCJ/session/30_Session_2021/CSU_CCPCJ_side_event_flyer2.pdf If you are an NGO working on countering organized crime and corruption we invite you to join UNODC's WhatsOn platform: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2zWeD09UYE-9zF6kFubccMc26diU5fpLgXDs_hrWhPNUM1FUVVM3SjVNUDlMNUdGTUYzWjAyQ0dRSSQlQCN0PWcu Registration link for the side event: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2zWeD09UYE-9zF6kFubccDp8RFR_UjpOg_6erxgI-7JURjVGQVgwUzA3OFBXTUdXQVNUN0pNS1gySy4u