Repository on Organized Transnational Crime
Origin:
The need for a central repository on organized transnational crime was first addressed at the World Ministerial Conference on organized transnational crime, held in Naples, 21-23 November 1994. As a result of the recommendations of that conference, the Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 1996/27 requested the Secretary-General to obtain information from governments on organized transnational crime. The following tables represent the results of that request.
For the purposes of this repository, while not constituting a legal or comprehensive definition of the phenomenon, organized transnational crime uses group organization to commit crime, has hierarchical links or personal relationships that permit leaders to control the group, uses violence, intimidation and corruption to earn profit or control territories or markets, launders illicit proceeds to further criminal activity and to infiltrate the legitimate economy, and has the potential to expand into new activities and beyond national borders and cooperates with other organized transnational criminal groups.
Information collection:
In response to Economic and Social Council resolutions 1996/27 of 24 July 1996, 1997/22 of 21 July 1997, 1998/14 of 28 July 1998, the Secretary General requested Governments, via the Note Verbale process, to provide information on their national legislation regarding organized transnational crime and other information on the extent and nature of this phenomenon.
Information presentation:
The date that appears at the top of each section is the date of the response provided by each Government. The information presented in this repository is, therefore, the result of official responses provided by governments to the various Notes Verbales. The information has not been altered in any substantive manner other than for translation and summary purposes and remains, in large part, in the form in which it was received. Some of the responses were extensive and detailed; others consisted of sets of law documents; others were less informative.
The repository, in its present form, is focused primarily on legal aspects of organized crime. However, other descriptive information has been inserted at the end of each section.
Comments:
This repository is part of a broad set of databases maintained by the Secretariat. They include the database on extradition, money laundering, standards and norms, and the statistics of the periodic United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and Criminal Justice Operations. This Repository is designed to provide Governments and relevant persons with a means of assessing efficiency, coherence and adaptability of national legal systems to the fight against organized transnational crime. It is also hoped that the repository will assist technical cooperation activities committed to fighting organized transnational crime.
The repository has been designed in a flexible manner. It is the intent of the Secretariat to extend the repository to include legislative innovations, new strategies, data and information as they become available.
Acknowledgments
The Centre for International Crime Prevention would like to thank Julien Le Marrec and
Ilya Shapiro for their assistance in reviewing and synthesizing the responses of
Governments contained in this Central Repository. Each worked as interns in the Centre.
View Data in pdf format
Download MS Access database with references on national legislation