10th Informal Meeting of the Alliance

10^th Informal Meeting of the Alliance for Vienna-based Representatives of International NGOs         
November 5th, 2020 15:30 – 16:25 (via Webex)

Participants: Anna Alvazzi del Frate (Chair), Ingeborg Geyer (Treasurer), Michael O’Connell, 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 CST: Mirella Dummar-Frahi, Anders Frantzen

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

• Updates from the Alliance
• Tour de table with discussion
• AOB

Updates from the Alliance

-The members briefly spoke about the recent terrorist attack in Vienna and their experiences and feelings surrounding it. member

Chair:

The Chair welcomed the participants and shared updates on forthcoming events:

The 24h Conference on organized crime on November 10^th and 11^th, among the organizers is Jay Albanese, Vice-Chair of the Alliance. The summit on Family/Domestic Violence in the COVID-19 ERA will take place fom 18^th to 20^th November. It is organized by Yael Danieli, a former Chair of the Alliance and Honorary Member. The Alliance has joined forces with two other organizations, APCOF and Fixed, to organize a series of webinars called “Change the World”. It will focus on issues in urban settings. The VNGOC will have an informal membership meeting at the end of November.

Treasurer:

The treasurer will send out the invoices for 2021 in early December, so that members still can put it in their budgets. There will be gentle reminders in January and February, so all members can be members in good standing for the General Assembly in May.

Secretary:

The Alliance has implemented a new feature on the website. It is now possible to register participants through the crimealliance.org website, which then sends the meeting link automatically to the participants via email. There will be a meeting of the Vienna umbrella organizations to talk about the issues experienced during UNTOC. To help prevent to issues at future events, like the Crime Congress.

UNODC CST:

Due to the renewed lockdown, the UNGASS on 16^th of November will be fully online. The NGOs must have received the communications and will have to provide the name for the online speaker. The hybrid format will probably start again with the reconvened sessions of the CND and CCPCJ. The Secretariat of the CCPCJ and the informal consultations are going on. The work on the draft declaration for the Congress is also taking place, they had several rounds of negotiations in October. It is a 10-page document with about 73 paragraphs, which makes some references to the work with multiple stakeholders. Current issues of crime in the context of COVID-19 also mentioned, among many other issues. From 10^th to 12^th of November, the third session of Se4U trainings will take place. After starting with the Americas, followed by Europe and Africa, the focus will be on Asia and Asian participants this time. There will also be an offline version of the trainings. This should make it easier for participants to follow the training and also to make it more accessible for a wider ranger of people.

Tour de table

Many participants shared information on their ongoing work. Topics included updates on the impact of the recent terrorist attack; various events and summits planned in the upcoming weeks; as well as updates on new publications and research initiatives.

The meeting concluded with information on next meetings:

The 11^th Informal Meeting on December 7th at 15:30 CET

Annex:

Sarah Pirker to all:       As you can't hear me - I just wanted to add that the VNGOC will also hold an informal membership meeting at the end of Novmeber and if any of you are interested in join feel free to contact me: spirker@vngoc.org

Our website is www.vngoc.org

Anna Alvazzi del Frate to all: 

12 November

3 – 5pm Johannesburg

6:30 – 8:30pm Delhi

2 – 4pm Vienna

Speakers

• Emma de Villiers to lead the conversation
• Elizabeth Johnston (EFUS)
• Janice Ikeda (Vibrant Hawaii)
• Daniel Mack (Pathfinders)

Please join us for a conversation about partnerships, collaboration and integration to enable urban safety: why this approach matters, what makes it difficult, what processes to follow to build sustainable and productive partnerships, and what we can achieve when we do them right. Our speakers have diverse experiences of working with civil society, across multiple nations, with local and regional governments, and as consultants and will share experiences and insights to enable us all to think more courageously and effectively about partnership as central to achieving systemic and sustainable urban safety.

Mirjam Beike to all:   

Webinars Human trafficking, Series                      

first webinar (20 October): http://bit.ly/HT-20-OCT-20

second webinar (27 October): http://bit.ly/HT-27-OCT-20

Michael O'Connell to all:        

Good morning. Re shooting / terror atttack. I am a member of the International Network Supporting Victims of Terrorism and Mass Violence (INVICTM). Via Victim Support Europe whose CE is also a member of INVICTM, we have offered expertise, learned experiences and information sheets etc. to the 'White Ring' victim assistance in Vienna. Yours Michael