8th Informal Meeting of the Alliance

Location: WebEx Meeting
31 Aug 2020, 15:30 - 17:00 (GMT+1)

8th Informal Meeting of the Alliance

August 31st, 2020 15:30 – 16:50 (via Webex)

Participants: Anna Alvazzi del Frate (Chair), Ingeborg Geyer (Treasurer), Francesco Serra (Intern), Ian Tennant, Cecilia O’Dwyer, David Peters, Gary Hill, Gerson Nozea, Jolanta Redo, Jay Albanese, Marlene Parenzan, Michael O’Connell, Michael Platzer, Phil Reichel, Terutoshi Yamashita, Francesco Serra (Intern), Yasushi Higashizawa, Tariq Khosa, Michael Jandl, David Peters, Els van Winckel, Sarah Pirker, Claire Dujardin, Peter Haider, Linda McDonald, Hasan Tarique Chowdhury, Jo Dedeyne-Amann (UNODC Chief of the Secretariat to the Governing Bodies), Mirella Dummar-Frahi (UNODC-CST), Anders Frantzen (UNODC-CST).

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

  • - Updates from the Alliance
  • - Updates from UNODC about the 14th UN Crime Congress
  • - Tour de table with discussion
  • - AOB

Updates from the Alliance

Chair:

The Chair will make a statement on behalf of the Alliance at the NGO Briefing to be held on September 1st, and to the UNCAC Intersessional Meeting on September 2nd and 3rd.

The preparations for the General Assembly are ongoing and nominations for Board positions are open until September 2nd.  The Chair also mentioned that the Alliance is co-sponsoring several initiatives of member organizations, including the International Summit on Domestic/Family Violence During the COVID-19 Era (18-20 November) and the series of Webinars of the Coalition of Faith-Based Organizations (next to be held on 15 September, on Ethics and Justice).

Treasurer:

The Treasurer gave an update on the Alliance’s financial status and on the process of fee payment from the members.

Phil Reichel and Ian Tennant, Vice-Chairs of the Alliance (WGs on Congress Statement and Emerging Issues):

They provided the members with an update on their respective working groups and future developments, noting that August had been a slow period which did not generate much activity.

Updates from UNODC about the 14th UN Crime Congress

Jo Dedeyne-Amann, Chief of the Secretariat to the Governing Bodies:

On August 12th, the General Assembly decided on new dates for the Crime Congress. It will take place from the 7th to the 12th of March, thus shorter than originally planned. The decision-making process on the Congress’ format is still ongoing, social distancing rules have to be taken into consideration. First the arrangement of the plenary and the committees will be decided, and then the arrangements for the ancillary meetings. The Secretariat is aware of the concerns of civil society and will make sure that any compromise that will be necessary for the Kyoto Congress will not be considered as a precedent for future Congresses. More information is expected to be available by the end of September. A CCPCJ Intersessional is planned on 30 September, which should clear up a number of the unknown issues.

Gary Hill:

There are still uncertainties on the exact format of the ancillary meetings. The number of in-person participants and remote participants has still to be figured out, as it depends on many factors. The singularity of the Congress makes it difficult to compare with other meetings, hence the uncertainties.

Tour de table

The Chair invited new members to introduce themselves. Many participants shared information on their ongoing work, forthcoming events / conferences and experiences also via chat (copy of the chat is attached for information). Many participants shared links to relevant information and publications in the Webex chat, which is attached as an Annex to these minutes.

Updates from UNODC-CST

CST provided clarifications on the upcoming UNCAC events (NGO briefing on review mechanism and intersessional on UNGASS in the period 1-4 September). There is still no official  information on modalities for participation in the COP - UNTOC (12-16 October),  details will be provided soon. The Civil Society Team reminded members of the Alliance about the second training on UNTOC and its review mechanism, dedicated to non-government stakeholders from African and Europe (15-17 September). The deadline for the registration was on August 31st.