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Italy aligns itself with the statement made by the European Union, and wishes to make a few remarks in a national capacity.
Madam Chair,
The international community recognizes that effective crime prevention and criminal justice are fundamental to peace and development and to the concrete implementation to the rights of the person and of the community that Agenda 2030 has made one of its central goals.
Many of the events that occurred in the past year demonstrate the importance of countering forms of organized crime, not only but especially when they take on transnational dimensions. In this perspective, we cannot but be pleased by the peace agreement reached in Colombia to put an end to a conflict that for decades has given rise to acts of violence and been supported also through illegal forms of financing.
In the political declarations and programmatic documents of the international community, all the policies in support of human rights – in particular the rights of the most vulnerable persons and groups – go hand-in-hand with the need to counter criminal phenomena that heighten tensions and accentuate divisions to the detriment of the least fortunate, draining public resources and violating fundamental rights and freedoms.
This holds true when we speak about the protection of migrants and refugees (the New York Declaration), the empowerment of women, the right to health and to medicine, the development of minors and the safeguarding of their right to dignified life free from every form of coercion. There are myriad examples, so I will limit myself to mentioning two: the grave consequences inherent to the connections between criminal trafficking and the activities of terrorist groups; and the importance of countering illegal financial flows and fighting the corruption in order to bring about more just societies and more transparent institutions.
Madam Chair,
The primary objective of the crime prevention and criminal justice resolution that Italy is facilitating once again this year is to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against transnational organized crime and to renew the commitment of Member States.
As was demonstrated in the project that Jordan and Italy coordinated on the protection of cultural heritage, much remains to be done to transform the resolutions adopted by the international community into concrete, coordinated and effective actions. Similar shortcomings also emerge when we address trafficking in persons, drugs, and arms, or the propaganda and recruitment of terrorist groups, as well as the prevention and repression of the sexual exploitation of minors, etc.
Madam Chair,
The contribution of all the national representatives can lead to an improved more updated resolution that does a better job of pinpointing responses to illegal phenomena. It will be important to take stock of the work done by the organizations based in Vienna and Geneva, by the Conference of States Parties to the Palermo Convention and to the anti-Corruption Convention, as well as the outcomes of the Special Session of the General Assembly and the experience of the Specialized Agencies and the Associations that work to counter illegality and to defend the rights of victims.
It is in this spirit that Italy will make its own contribution to the negotiations of the important resolutions introduced under items 106 and 107.
