Friends of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme

Friendship is sustained through common activities, events, and experiences. Within friendship, what a person does and achieves may matter more than identity acquired through birth or social status. Friendship is therefore selective and particular, while remaining grounded in shared values.

The term “Friends of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme”—with an uppercase “F”—emerged during the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held in Havana, Cuba, in 1990. At that Congress, participants prepared and approved a  draft resolution  entitled “Review of the functioning and programme of work of the United Nations in crime prevention and criminal justice.” The following year, the United Nations General Assembly considered and further developed the recommendations concerning the review in resolution 46/152 and its annex “Creation of an Effective United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme.”

The term denotes a community of like-minded entities. It includes governments, civil society organizations,  as well as professionals, experts, and other individuals interested in the Programme’s operation in Member States; in its objectives, priorities, challenges, domestic and international outreach.

Although “Friends of the Programme” encompasses friendship in the familiar North American and European sense, it also serves as a formal designation for a broader community of individuals and entities united by their commitment to the Programme’s values. These relationships may be less personal, but they still rest on connections that reinforce the power of United Nations ideas to address crime globally and promote humane and effective crime-prevention and criminal-justice policies and strategies worldwide.

The video recordings illustrate how such Friends of the Programme contributed, and how their successors may continue, based on past accomplishments and emerging calls and trends.

23 Sep, 2026