9th Informal Meeting

Location:
14 Sep 2021, 15:00 - 16:30 (GMT+2)

9th Informal Meeting of the Alliance    
September 14th, 2021 15:00 – 16:30 (via Webex)

Participants: Anna Alvazzi del Frate (Chair), Phil Reicherl, Linda MacDonald, Michael Jandl, Cecilia ODwyer, Nuno Maria Roque Jorge, Sarah Pirker, Ian Tennant, Gredler Martina, Agnese, James Gondles, Emile LeBrun, Ohada Thiès, Jeanne Sarson, Gerson Nozea, Evelyn Dürmayer, Marlene Parenzan, Maria Liberia, Okwuokenye Love, Mirjam Beike, Zarko Jankovic, Ingeborg Geyer, Tobias Krachler

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

 

The meeting was chaired by Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Chair of the Alliance.

Talking about upcoming events and how civil society can get involved.

 

Anna Alvazzi del Frate (Chair of the Alliance)

Back to the events season: it started last week on 7th of September with a briefing on the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). It was a great opportunity for NGOs to have a briefing on this topic and it was very interesting.
Emile LeBrun (Small Arms Survey) and Ian Tennant (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime) give their impressions of this past event: A briefing session on the issue of organised crime and corruption led to a constructive dialogue.
It is important to emphasise this to ensure that the various review mechanisms are efficient for all concerned. The briefing was informative to draw parallels with UNCAC and UNTOC and try to simplify and communicate what civil society's entry points are to best contribute on these processes. This opportunity was important because civil society has the possibility to ask questions and get information in a very clear and direct way, which is more useful for civil society participants.

Introduced the new investigation process: we will continue to do to look for best practices, and what NGOs are doing to fight transnational organised crime. We will be assisted by an intern who will work with us until the end of the year. And thank you in advance for keeping an eye on this other survey because it is very important to us. The information will be collected in a report that we will prepare for the end of November. The result and the key insights will be presented at the 24-Hours event organised by Global Initiative (GI) on the 2nd of December.

Reminder the Making a Difference series of events based on interactive discussion. The first presenting organisation is Criminology without Borders on 23 September. This is very important for NGO members because the project aims to share experiences of how NGOs can make a difference, what they do specifically to add value to the fight against crime.
All organisations can register on the website to propose their intervention.

 

Sarah Pirker (CND)

Moving on to the next meeting: the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) will meet in October with an interesting thematic discussion. This year's theme for the intersessional CND would be very much focused on the link between organised crime and drug trafficking and corruption as an interconnected phenomenon; it will include an understanding of information and communication technologies to calculate their activities.
Reminded the call for speakers, which would be open until 28 September for all organisations interested in any of these topics.
Reminded the briefing on 20 October: the Vienna umbrella organisations (UNCAC, The Alliance, CND) have organised a briefing for diplomats, which is open to all organisations that would like to participate. It is a lunchtime event; the time could change depending on space availability.

 

UNODC CSU

Reminder the 3rd intersessional CCPCJ: new series of meeting from the 10th to the 12th of November. It will include three thematic discussions:

  • Thematic session 1: Addressing the causes, including the root causes of crime; enhancing evidence-based crime prevention and promoting tailor-made crime prevention strategies
  • Thematic session 2: Addressing the economic dimension of crime
  • Thematic session 3: Mainstreaming a gender perspective into crime prevention; addressing the needs and protect the rights of children and youth in crime prevention; and empowering youth for crime prevention

Information will be sent soon or can be found on the UNODC CSU website. There is a possibility to request speaking spaces to give organisations the opportunity to give their input on these topics.
This opportunity would be very interesting for Alliance members especially because of the connection with the follow-up of the Kyoto congress.
UNODC is going to inform the organisations that want to participate on 30 September at 10 am, where the secretary will attend to give all the logistical information.

UNODC CSU wants to share the possibility of applying for a meeting organised by NY Unite for a discussion on cybercrime, which should also interest some of the Alliance members. They are now planning to open the call to non-governmental stakeholders who would like to participate. Now it is still a silent process and UNODC CSU will share all information to appeal as soon as the NY unit communicates its availability. Start thinking about who among the members might be interested in following this process and getting extra accreditation.

Reminder of the opportunity to register for the second self-paced training, a civil society initiative aimed at implementing UNTOC and review mechanisms. The deadline is 15 October.

It promotes the Watson programme: a UNODC initiative that aims to create a community to share stories and communicate with each other on the UNTOC theme, establish contacts and share experiences. At the moment it is just a static database, but we are working on making it more interactive for next year. Already 300 NGOs have become members, and more experts have joined the programme.

 

Ingeborg Geyer (ZI)

Membership fees: we are very grateful to Ian Tennent that the Global Initiative is funding membership fees for members who cannot afford the dues. We plan to set up an online application form to apply for this help and to organise this as a long-term project. We hope to do this in a very transparent way: if you are an NGO with some problems paying dues you can go to the Alliance website, next to the membership form, and answer a survey. A committee consisting of Tariq Khosa, Linda Witong and Jolanta Łopusiewicz-Redo will assess whether organisations are eligible for the fee waiver programme, and if so, we can support you through Global Initiative.

 

Tobias Krachler (Secretary of the Alliance)

Invite everyone to our 10th informal meeting on 14 October at 3pm. You can always check our website to see all the updates and news, not only from the alliance but also from our members.

Annex

Sarah Pirker VNGOC:    CND intersessional - speaker applications: https://bit.ly/CND-intersessional-2021

Billy:    CCPCJ thematic intersessionals in November: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CCPCJ/session/30_Session_2021/thematic-sessions-kyoto.html

Related to Mirella's information on the Ad Hoc Committee to elaborate on an international convention on cybercrime: GA resolution 75/282: https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/75/282

UNODC workshop on the UNTOC self-assessment questionnaire in October: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/ngos/untoc-self-assessment-workshop.html

Online self-paced course on UNTOC and its Review Mechanism also in October: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/ngos/call-for-participants-se4u-self-paced-course.html

iantennant:       https://oc24.globalinitiative.net/

Linda MacDonald:    Here is the link to Jeanne and my book Women Unsilenced: https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000164461020

Anna Alvazzi del Frate:    https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/ngos/call-for-participants-se4u-self-paced-course.html