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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 anticorruption 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. + 181 *
