Qatar has called for strengthening international co-operation in order to face the serious challenges posed by organised crime and its links to terrorism.
Qatar has also emphasised the responsibility entrusted to the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice.
This came in a speech delivered by the vice-chairman of the committee tasked with following up the implementation of Doha Declaration ambassador Ahmed Hassan al-Hammadi, within item 8: “Follow-up to the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and preparations for the 14th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,” during the 25th Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice which held in Vienna.
The ambassador reviewed the draft resolution submitted by Qatar, Japan, Brazil and Mexico under the title “Follow-up to the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and preparations for the 14th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, saying that the draft resolution refers to the 13th Congress on Crime Prevention and calls on governments to take into account its final statement, the Doha Declaration, when they develop policies and legislation, and to implement the principles contained in the declaration.
Ahmed Hassan al-Hammadi explained that the draft resolution submitted by Qatar, Japan, Brazil and Mexico, reaffirms the responsibility vested in the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, and stresses the importance of crime prevention and criminal justice’s conferences as main intergovernmental forums that influenced national policies and practices and promoted
international co-operation.
Al-Hammadi clarified that the draft resolution had included a paragraph welcoming the initiative of the government of Qatar on working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to ensure appropriate follow-up to the implementation of the Doha Declaration and the agreement between Qatar and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, signed in Vienna on November 27, 2015, adding that that this agreement included the implementation of a package of projects and programmes recommended by the Doha Declaration in the fields of terrorism prevention and immunisation of young people against crime, education, strengthening judicial systems and improving prisons’ conditions.
These projects shall be implemented from this year until the 14th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Japan in 2020, he said.
Al-Hammadi said that Qatar has set a unique precedent in the history of the United Nations conferences by contributing to financing projects and programmes in fulfilment of the recommendations of the final declaration of the congress which it hosted, adding that for the first time in the history of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, a single state has provided such funding.
Ambassador al-Hammadi called on member-states to co-sponsor the draft resolution as an expression of their support for conferences and as an appreciation of the role of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, as well as an encouragement for other countries to follow Qatar in launching initiatives and projects to implement the recommendations of the Doha Declaration, and to strengthen international co-operation in the present circumstances when the global community needs to be united in the face of the serious challenges posed by organised crime and its links with terrorism.