Frequently Asked Questions

In short, what is UNICRI?

The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute - UNICRI – was created in 1968 to assist intergovernmental, governmental and non-governmental organizations in formulating and implementing improved policies in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice.

In a rapidly changing world, UNICRI’s major goals today are advancing security, serving justice and building peace.

UNICRI sees itself as ‘the first response broker’. It has become known for its dynamic, fresh and innovative approach in applied research.

Knowledge management, creativity in finding solutions and the power of partnerships are the major UNICRI instruments of work. UNICRI operates in selected niches as a ‘laboratory of ideas’ and its activities help the integration of national and international efforts to search for good practices and adapt them to different national situations.

The UNICRI Applied Research Programme is organized in four main work areas:

Emerging Crimes and Anti-Human Trafficking; Security Governance and Counter Terrorism Laboratory; Justice Reform and Post-Graduate Training.

What is UNICRI mandate?

The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, UNICRI, was established in 1968 to:

assist in formulating and implementing improved policies in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice;
advance understanding of crime-related problems;
foster just and efficient criminal justice systems;
support respect for international instruments and standards;
facilitate judicial assistance and international law enforcement cooperation;
promote exchange and dissemination of information.

What are UNICRI’s priorities?

UNICRI programmes arise from priorities identified by the UN Annual Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Commission.

UNICRI structures its activities to meet the identified needs of Member States.

Due to its light and fast structure and its work to support policy-making bodies, UNICRI has gained trust within the UN System, among Member States and among International/Regional Organisations.

The UNICRI Applied Research Programme is organized in four main working areas:

Countering human trafficking and emerging crimes
Security Governance and Counter Terrorism
Justice Reform
Post-graduate education

What are the most important tools against organised crime?

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime is the main international instrument to counter organized crime. It was adopted by the General Assembly Resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000. At the 2000 Palermo High-level Political Conference, Member States signed the Convention which eventually came into force on 29 September 2003.

As of February 2008, 147 Countries are signatories and 138 are Parties of the Treaty.

Three Protocols supplement the Convention: the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (117 Signatories, 116 Parties); the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air; and the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition (52 signatories, 67 parties).

In ratifying the Convention, States recognise the threat organised crime has on their countries and commit themselves to creating domestic criminal offences, taking measures for combating organised crime and participating in international cooperation in order to address the problem.

What is the most important tool in combating corruption?

The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNAC) is the first legally binding, international anti-corruption instrument. It includes measures on prevention, criminalisation and international cooperation. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on October 31, Resolution 58/4. It came into force on 14 December 2005. At present, the Convention has 140 signatories and 107 parties.

Which are the most important international legal instruments against terrorism?

Between 1963 and 2005, the international community adopted 13 universal legal instruments relating to the prevention and suppression of terrorism, the last of which was the April 2005 International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (adopted by General Assembly resolution 59/290).

Generally speaking, these instruments define a particular type of terrorist violence as an offence; require state parties to penalise the activity in the domestic law; identify certain bases upon which the Parties responsible are required to establish jurisdiction over the defined offences; create an obligation on the State in which a suspect is found to establish jurisdiction over the convention offence and to refer the offence for prosecution if the Party does not extradite pursuant to other provisions of the convention.

UN Security Council Resolutions passed both before and after recent terrorist attacks, have called upon Member States to ratify these international instruments and to fully implement them through passage of the domestic legislation.

What are the main courts responsible for judging international criminal law?

International criminal law is an autonomous branch of law that deals with international crimes through courts and tribunals established to adjudicate cases in which persons have been accused of serious international crimes.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent, permanent court prosecuting individuals for the most serious crimes of international concern, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The Court’s founding treaty is the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which was accepted in 1998 and entered into force in July 2002 after gaining sixty signatories. The Statute is binding only for states that have signed or ratified it.

The ICC’s subject matter jurisdiction is extremely narrow, applying only to cases that: meet the legal definition of genocide; involve war crimes committed during an internal or international armed conflict; involve a widespread and systematic atrocity constituting a crime against humanity; or constitute the crime of aggression (an offence that has yet to be defined by the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties).

Based on a system of jurisdictional complementarity, the ICC is a court of last resort, which means that it will not investigate or assume jurisdiction over a situationunless the state(s) with territorial or nationality jurisdiction is unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute the alleged crimes. The ICC may exercise jurisdiction over crimes carried out within the territory of a State Party or that are committed by a State Party’s national. Alternatively, a non-party state may voluntarily declare its acceptance of the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Investigations and prosecutions by the ICC are initiated in one of three ways: a State Party refers a situation to the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor; the UN Security Council, acting pursuant to Chapter VII, refers the situation to the Office of the Prosecutor; or the Prosecutor initiates an investigation based on criteria elaborated in Article 15 of the Rome Statute.

As of February 2008, 105 states are members of the Court and 41 countries have signed the treaty. The ICC is currently trying individuals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has indicted and issued arrest warrants for individuals from Uganda and Sudan, and has an active investigation into the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Ad hoc tribunals have also been established.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) – established by Security Council resolution 827 on 25 May 1993 - exercises jurisdiction over grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, violation of the laws or customs of war, genocide and crimes against humanity, committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was created by Resolution 955 of 8 November 1994 for the prosecution of persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed on the territory of Rwanda in 1994, and for the prosecution of Rwanda nationals who has committed the same violations in the neighbouring states.

There are also internationalized tribunals where both international and national judges are represented, such as:

The Special Court for Sierra Leone - This was set up jointly by the Government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. Its mandate is to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996.

Indonesia set up an ad hoc human rights tribunal for East Timor to try those responsible for violent acts against the population of East Timor carried out after the 1999 pro independence referendum.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (ECCC) was established by the Cambodian National Assembly in 2001. In 2003 the UN agreed to assist and participate in the Extraordinary Chamber, which became a Cambodian court with international participation.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was established by an agreement between the United Nations and the Lebanese Republic pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1664 of 29 March 2006, with the mandate of investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was murdered in 2005. However, this is different to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as it will not apply international criminal law but Lebanese law.