While many have their eyes on 2015 Millennium Development Goal milestone and add to discussions of “what’s next,” others continue to work steadily on issues that are essential to ensuring environments enable development, such as the rule of law, the battle against corruption and the challenges of institutionalized and enculturated crimes such as femicide.
As the summer comes to an end and the next General Assembly draws close, NGOs focusing on crime prevention and criminal justice are collaborating across borders to keep momentum on recent progress that has Member States meeting in Bangkok 11- 13 November 2014 as part of the Femicide Working Group.
On 18 December 2013, the General Assembly adopted resolution 68/191, entitled “Taking action against gender-related killing of women and girls”, which originated at the 2013 session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Next steps includes an expert group meeting to discuss ways and means to more effectively prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish gender-related killing of women and girls, with a view to making practical recommendations, and drawing on current best practices in consultation with relevant United Nations entities and human rights mechanisms.
Other NGOs whose focus align with the work of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are already collaborating and planning for the April 2015 Crime Congress. Much of this collaboration is through the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and resource sites such as the NGO’s site: http://un-congress.org/
