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STRATEGY FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AGAINST GLOBAL CRIME , UNTOC & UNCAC WANTING
Prevention
What is the preventative potential of UNTOC and UNCAC, and how can the
synergies between them be maximized to support a wider, development-based
approach to preventing organized crime and corruption?
UNTOC aims to promote international cooperation with a view
to both combating and preventing transnational organized crime.
Article 31 contains the key material dealing with prevention, obligating states
parties to undertake a range of measures. These include developing projects and
establishing best practices and policies aimed at the prevention of transnational
organized crime; reducing opportunities for transnational organized crime to
occur in lawful markets; promoting cooperation between law enforcement and
the private sector — and several others.
However, the preventative ambit under UNTOC is rather limited both in terms
of the level of elaboration as well as in terms of the guidelines and instruments for
monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment.
This is not to say that UNTOC is an unmitigated failure on the prevention
front. For example, it has a well-developed preventative dimension when it comes
to money laundering, as it promotes regulations for banks and other financial
institutions to control transfers of illicit cash. Similarly, international cooperation
through mutual legal assistance or extradition has a preventative function by
helping to eradicate safe havens for criminals.
Prevention is a central tenet of UNCAC, evident in its three main stated aims
— to ‘promote and strengthen measures to prevent and combat corruption more
efficiently and effectively; to ‘facilitate international cooperation and technical
assistance in the prevention of and fight against corruption’; and to ‘promote
integrity, accountability and proper management of public affairs’.
In contrast to UNTOC, however, this convention devotes an entire chapter
(Chapter 2) to prevention measures, as opposed to just a single article. These
cover a wide array of areas, such as creating and maintaining preventative anti¬
corruption bodies; strengthening systems for ensuring integrity of civil servants;
and applying codes of conduct for public officials.
In terms of prevention measures, UNCAC offers a much richer and more
detailed resource than UNTOC. However, while it provides for the monitoring of
the state of affairs when it comes to a number of specific preventive measures it
provides no clarity on the impact assessment of those preventive efforts.
Both UNTOC and UNCAC call upon the civil society to play an important
role in the prevention of organized crime and corruption, respectively, and both,
see very limited role for the civil society in the review process.
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