13 October 2005, Vienna, AUSTRIA – Ambassador Victor G. Garcia III, Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna, Austria, reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Philippines exhorted the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNCTOC) to accord priority to technical assistance-related issues, during the opening of the COP’s ongoing Second Session in Vienna on 10 October 2005.

Ambassador Garcia said that the Head of the Philippine Delegation, Senior Undersecretary and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo G. Wycoco, called on the COP “to ensure that a vigorous technical assistance program is in place to help States overcome implementation-related difficulties.”

Senior Undersecretary Wycoco noted that many countries – including States Parties – are hindered from addressing transnational crime effectively due to their weak capability in the areas of legislative adaptation, criminalization, domestic law enforcement and actual resources.  He then called attention to the debilitating effect weak national capabilities have on the COP’s vision of robust international cooperation.

Ambassador Garcia stated that against this backdrop, Senior Undersecretary Wycoco stressed the critical role technical assistance plays in continuously strengthening the ability of States Parties to wield the various international cooperation “tools” provided under the UNCTOC and its Protocols, including mutual legal assistance, information exchange, extradition, and joint investigations, and cited technical assistance as a vital ingredient in helping move forward legislative convergence, which is seen as facilitating international cooperation against the problem of transnational organized crime.

Ambassador Garcia said that the Second Session of the COP, which will run until 21 October 2005, is being held to review the implementation of the UNCTOC and its three Supplementary Protocols, namely, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children; the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Air and Sea; and the Protocol Against the Illicit Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts, and Components and Ammunition. All four instruments are already in force.

The Session also aims to promote these instruments and improve the capacity of States to combat transnational organized crime.

Ambassador Garcia added that the Philippines, which served as the President of the Inaugural Session of the COP in June 2004, is a State Party to the UNCTOC, as well as to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Anti-Migrant Smuggling Protocols, and is one of only a handful of Asian countries that are States Parties to these instruments.

Meanwhile, United Nations - Vienna (UNOV) Director General and UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa commended the Philippines for successfully leading the COP during its first year of existence, noting that the Philippines “set the state for a structured approach to review the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols” and yielded initiatives “to build a knowledge base central to almost everything this Conference does.”

The First Session of the COP, held on 28 June-9 July 2004, successfully developed a Program of Work meant to serve as guideposts for the COP’s fulfillment of its mandate to review the implementation of the UNCTOC and its Protocols, and to assist States in their respective measures to put the provisions of these instruments into effect.  This Program of Work is now governing the work of the Second Session of the COP.

At the Opening of the Second Session, Ambassador Garcia also turned over the Presidency to his successor, Minister Peter Poptchev of Bulgaria.  END