Crime prevention is suffering due to the world economic crisis, which has restricted the ability of some countries to deal with deviance, a UN expert said yesterday. Crime prevention has slipped down among the priorities due to the crisis, said Dimitri Vlassis, chief of the Corruption and Economic Crime Section at the UN’s Geneva Office on Drugs and Crime. Vlassis is here for the Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Western Asia Region for the 12th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which is concluding today. The meeting, hosted by Qatar Public Prosecution, was attended by delegates from 10 countries in the region. The delegates discussed the substantive agenda items and the workshop topics to be covered by the 12th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which will be held in Brazil from April 12 to 19, 2010. The General Assembly resolution 63/193 issued on December 2008 urged regional preparatory meetings to examine the substantive items on the agenda and topics for workshops of the Congress. It also urged preparation of action-oriented recommendations to serve as a basis for the draft recommendations and conclusions for consideration by the 12th Congress. Vlassis said the Doha meeting was one of four regional meetings taking place simultaneously across the world to prepare for the 12th Congress. The delegates agreed to review and convey the perspective, concerns and fears of various regions to the Congress as every region has its own specific challenges based on its culture, tradition, legal systems and other factors. Some topics on the substantive agenda of the meeting include difficulties faced by women inmates; violence against migrants, ways of implementing international instruments, human trafficking; money laundering, preventing and suppression of terrorism; and international cooperation in combating crime. Cross-border cooperation is the only way to tackle terrorism, which is a global phenomenon not restricted to any country or region, he said. The global crisis has had an adverse impact on the work of the UN agency as it has limited the ability of some countries to prevent crime. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=June2009&file=Local_News200906031249.xml

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