August 23rd, the UNODC Civil Society Team, the Vienna and NY Alliance as well as other NGOs met through an international conference call to connect, communicate and review progress on NGO participation and contribution to the upcoming October 9th – 15th:
Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols
Most of the meeting was clarifying the status of NGO participation, especially in the Side Events.
To this end these are some points mentioned:
- Currently there are about 6 NGO groupings requesting a meeting room for side events that have been received by UNODC.
- There are a total of about 10 possible event spaces.
- Applications do need to be submitted to the organizing offices by September 3rd using the downloadable form.
- If there are more than 10 applications, priority will be given to Member State co-sponsored and NGO coalitions.
The current list of topics reported:
(NOTE: These are not the exact titles but indicate the focus of currently proposed sessions at this stage.)
- Small Arms Survey
- Victims of Organized Crime
- Country Based Review Mechanism involving NGOs
- Trafficking in Women
- Developing a Research Platform on Human Trafficking
- Promoting a Web-based forum for Prosecutors dealing with Trafficking In Persons
- Developments in the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and Protocol on Firearms
After the preparations were discussed, there was some further substantive input regarding NGO participation in Country Review processes and the comments should be available in summary notes from the meeting as they become available.
