Conference against organized transnational crime opens in Palermo

The Italian city of Palermo is playing host Dec.12 through 15 to a high-level political conference against organized transnational crime.

The conference, attended by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and delegates from some 145 countries, is expected to give a major boost to international anti-crime efforts.

The gathering will offer diplomats from around the world a chance to sign the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its two Protocols. One aims to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and the other pledges efforts against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air.

The UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the two protocols were adopted by the UN general assembly last November after two years of negotiations.

The three legal instruments, designed to combat organized crime, human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants, aim to promote cooperation to prevent and combat transnational organized crime more effectively. In 41 articles, it provides a blueprint for countries working to shut down international criminal organizations, eliminate "safe havens," protect witnesses and block money laundering. The treaty will go into effect when 40 countries have ratified it.

The issues dealt with in the two protocols have taken on greater urgency in recent years, according to the UN Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention, which reports that inter-linked gangs are moving some 4 million people every year as human cargo, with annual earnings from trafficking climbing to between $5 billion and $7 billion. The Protocols are intended to beef up and internationalize efforts to stem these practices.