UNODC

In the battle against illegal drugs and international crime, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is a global leader. UNODC employs roughly 500 people worldwide. It has 21 field offices and a liaison office in New York, with its headquarters in Vienna. For 90% of its funding, the UNODC relies on voluntary contributions, primarily from countries. The United Nations General Assembly mandated UNODC to produce “full and fair information regarding the global drug issue” in 1998. Since then, the international community has acknowledged the necessity of precise, reliable, and objective information in the realm of worldwide drug control. Since 1 February 2020, Ghada Fathi Waly has served as Director-General/Executive Director of the UNODC in Vienna.

Foundation

The UNODC was founded in 1997 as part of a UN reform that merged the existing UN Drug Control Programme with the Centre for International Crime Prevention. The Office’s mandate is enshrined in UN conventions such as the three UN Conventions on Drugs, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three Protocols on Human Trafficking, Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air, and Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, the UN Convention against Corruption, the universal instruments against terrorism, and UN standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice. UNODC uses these instruments to assist the Member States in dealing with illegal substances, crime, and terrorism.

Purpose

UNODC strives to help the Member States strengthen their ability to uphold the rule of law and defend and ensure legal rights that people and organisations have under domestic and international law, including via criminal justice reforms. The Office strives to incorporate a human rights-based approach into its work, which includes the conscious and systematic inclusion of human rights in all stages of the programming cycle, including strategy development, programme development, resource mobilisation, implementation and monitoring, and evaluation. This includes programmes based on values of equality and non-discrimination, participation and inclusion, accountability, and the rule of law.

UNODC’s worldwide operations help ensure that everyone has access to justice, prevent violence, keep the world safer from drugs and crime, promote health and welfare, and expand the information base needed to make informed decisions about advancing human rights successfully. UNODC contributes to the enhancement of human rights enjoyment and confronts complex human rights circumstances through risk reduction by drawing on its experience in crime prevention and criminal justice and drug prevention, treatment, and care.

UNODC raises awareness about the risks of drug users worldwide and boost international efforts to combat illegal drug manufacturing, trafficking, and drug-related crime. The UNODC has initiated several activities to achieve these goals, including alternatives to illicit drug crop production, illicit crop monitoring, and the deployment of anti-money laundering projects.

The UNODC has over 115 field offices in over 80 countries. UNODC field workers create and implement drug control and crime prevention programmes customised to countrys’ particular requirements by working directly with government organization and non-governmental organizations.

Strategic Objectives

By making the world safer from drugs, crime, and terrorism, the UNODC is devoted to attaining security and justice. UNODC Southern Africa’s work is organised around six significant objectives to help nations achieve this goal:

• increasing Southern American nations’ legislative and judicial ability to ratify and execute international treaties and instruments on drug control, organised crime, corruption, terrorism, and money laundering.
• Assisting Southern American countries with drug trafficking and precursor chemical management.
• Increasing the ability of government institutions and civil society groups in the Southern American area to prevent drug use and the spread of associated illnesses, such as HIV, among adolescents and other vulnerable populations, especially in prison settings.
• Increasing the ability of government institutions and civil society groups in Southern America to combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
• In collaboration with civil society and governments, it raises awareness about domestic abuse and lowers its prevalence in Southern America.
• Enhancing assistance to victims, particularly women and children, improves coordination, boosts capacity, and strengthens relationships between governments and civil society.

Conclusion

To reinforce the rule of law, promote stable and sustainable criminal justice systems, and combat the rising challenges of transnational organised crime and corruption, UNODC is significant. It also seeks to increase crime prevention and aid criminal justice reform. Accordingly, the UNODC’s Terrorism Prevention Branch received an enhanced activity programme from the General Assembly in 2002.