The UNCAC Coalition’s Environmental Crime and Corruption working group seeks to facilitate discussions, the exchange of information and joint advocacy among civil society experts working on these issues.
Working Group Chair: Lisa Hartevelt, Director of External Relations of the Wildlife Justice Commission
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The Working Group hosts a dedicated email discussion list as well as several coordination calls per year.
Next Working Group Meeting:
Thursday 1 June 2023, 14.00-15.30 (CEST)
Context in which this group operates
- Environmental crime cannot be understood and therefore addressed without taking into consideration the corruption supporting and facilitating it.
- Vienna is the place where multilateral negotiations on the fight against crime and corruption take place, in particular under the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC), and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), which present important opportunities to raise awareness and provide information on environmental crimes and the corruption supporting them to policy-makers.
Objectives
The objectives of the Working Group are to:
- provide updates on policy developments on the corruption supporting environmental crimes to ensure that all participants are aware of the latest developments on the issue;
- create a space where NGOs can present their findings, reports or campaigns (on a rotating basis) for dissemination purposes;
- transmit knowledge and concerns from organisations working in specific regions to policy-makers based in Vienna to impact policy discussions;
- shed light on practical topics that are not necessarily addressed in other fora;
- coordinate advocacy efforts, such as NGO submissions at fora present in or organized from Vienna on environmental criminality;
- ensure that anti-corruption activists and the wildlife crimes experts work jointly on transversal themes rather than in their respective silos.
Relevant resources, activities and outputs:
- Access Info Europe and Working Group submission to the EU Ombudsman on Transparency and participation in EU decision making related to the environment, 15 December 2022.
- Wildlife Justice Commission Report: “To skin a cat: How organised crime capitalises and exploits captive tiger facilities“, November 2022
- Wildlife Justice Commission Report: “Rhino horn trafficking as a form of transnational organised crime 2012-2021: 2022 global threat assessment“, October 2022
- Wildlife Justice Commission Report: “Ah Nam: The Downfall of Vietnam’s Wolf of Wall Street”, September 2022
- Global Witness’s 10th Annual LED report
- Working Group submission to the 13th session of the UNCAC Implementation Review Group (IRG) on Environmental Crime and Corruption, 26 May 2022
- Working Group submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment on Tackling Corruption Linked to Environmental Crimes to Achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, 13 May 2022
- RUSI Blog Post: The UNCAC’s Role in Tackling Corruption related to Environmental Crimes, 5 January 2022
- UNODC Report: Preventing and combating corruption as it relates to crimes that have an impact on the environment – An overview, 10 December 2021
- Working Group submission to the the 9th UNCAC CoSP (CoSP 9) on Tackling Corruption related to Environmental Crimes, 1 December 2021
- Blog post: To save the forests, fight climate crime and corruption, by EarthRights International, November 2021
- UNCAC Coalition written submission to the 12th IRG on Tackling Corruption related to Environmental Crimes, 31 August 2021
- Report: Convergence of wildlife crime with other forms of organised crime, by the Wildlife Justice Commission, May 2021
- Blog post: The Link Between Corruption and Illegal Wildlife Trafficking, by Anne Aurore Bertrand, 24 March 2021
- Blog post: UNCAC Obligations Invoked in Support of Efforts Against Wildlife Trafficking in Vietnam, by Olivia Swaak-Goldman, 6 December 2016
- Targeting Natural Resource Corruption project: Publications