General Assembly
Official Records
Fifty-fourth Session
Supplement No. 1 (A/54/1)

Chapter IV

"Uncivil society"

247. Globalization has brought many benefits but it has also been associated with the unrelenting growth of cross-border illegal activities, which have created a netherworld economy, running into the hundreds of billions of dollars, which threatens the institutions of the State and civil society in many countries. Production, trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs and the spread of transnational organized crime are the main challenges faced by the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, which consists of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, in confronting "uncivil society".

248. At the twentieth special session of the General Assembly, Member States made an historic commitment to eliminate, or significantly reduce, the illicit cultivation of the opium poppy, coca bush and cannabis by 2008. The critical importance of demand reduction in the campaign to curtail drug consumption within 10 years was also highlighted.

249. On the supply side, the United Nations International Drug Control Programme is playing a catalytic role in developing an overall strategy for eliminating illicit crops and drug trafficking. This strategy is predicated on the assumption that the drug problem needs to be addressed holistically, which in turn requires close cooperation between the Programme and its national and international partners, as well as the international financial institutions. Reducing incentives to cultivate illegal crops requires improving the overall quality of life in rural communities; this in turn means that greater attention must be paid to providing farmers with legal economic alternatives, including basic health, education and social services. On the demand side, the Programme has launched a new initiative to assist Governments in establishing an epidemiological database that will inform officials about the extent and type of drug abuse occurring within their borders. This will help them to develop more effective prevention, treatment and rehabilitation policies.

250. The Centre for International Crime Prevention has continued to promote efforts to address the growing challenges of transnational crime. In March 1999, it launched three global programmes against transnational organized crime, trafficking in human beings and corruption. The Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime has made considerable headway in drafting the convention and its three protocols on trafficking in human beings, migrants and firearms.

251. The rapid expansion of the global financial system and the Internet has increased the challenges posed by money-laundering. In response, the global programme against money-laundering of the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention is currently designing a global initiative, the United Nations Offshore Forum, to be launched early in 2000, to prevent the misuse of the offshore financial sector for the laundering of criminal proceeds. The wider objectives of this initiative are to improve transparency in international transactions and to stimulate greater international cooperation in dealing with transnational criminal activity involving offshore financial centres. The global programme against money-laundering will also continue to help Governments to meet the commitment they made at the twentieth special session of the General Assembly to adopt national money-laundering legislation and programmes by 2003.