A preliminary copy of the Annual Meeting program is now available. 2017 will see a new UN Secretary-General taking office on the 38th Floor at UN Headquarters, following the end of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s second term. The new SG will be faced with a number of ongoing global, regional and other challenges, and will be confronted with new issues that will arise over time. The SG also will have the job of continuing to build on the momentum of recent milestone agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Commitments to Action from the World Humanitarian Summit. While the transition in the leadership of the United Nations is likely to be a central interest for many ACUNS members, the 2017 Annual Meeting notably also marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Academic Council. This year’s meeting, therefore, will offer a relatively rare opportunity for members—that is, a moment to reflect on the achievements of one Secretary-General and to consider the agenda of the new leader of the global body, while connecting those reflections to discussions of the role of ACUNS and its members in promoting innovative scholarship and greater understanding of the UN system and its place in meeting global governance. This is the first ACUNS meeting to be held in East Asia, or in Asia broadly. We will be working with colleagues of the Korean Academic Council on the United Nations System (KACUNS) in Seoul, Korea, to reach out to UN studies associations, institutions and individuals in the region. We very much welcome this as an important bridge-building initiative; thus we will look for scholarly papers that might identify and engage regional as well as global topics including but not limited to the promotion and protection of human rights; the challenges of peace and development; supporting global civil education; the dynamics of relations amongst Asian states on issues of human rights, peace and development, and how these take shape within the UN framework—including the possibility of peaceful reunification; the evolving roles of regional bodies, non-government organizations, civil society and the private sector; as well as shifts in relations between the region and external actors. The ACUNS Annual Meeting also is being held in cooperation with the Human Rights section of the International Studies Association (ISA). We are pleased to encourage HR section members to submit Workshop paper and panel proposals, and to register to attend the Meeting. Proposals on the Annual Meeting theme—“Revitalizing the United Nations for Human Rights, Peace and Development”—and on the subthemes and issues raised in this introductory note, in addition to other topics relating to the UN system and the broader mandate of the Council, will be considered

download the programme ››

Community Counteracting Radicalisation” (CoCoRa)

CoCoRa is a two-year European project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission, aiming to develop and test a new community-based prevention strategy against radicalisation towards violent and militant extremism among young people

European Crime Prevention Monitor 2016

In this sixth monitor, the European Crime Prevention Network focusses on organised crime. Organised crime is a threat to citizens, businesses, state institutions as well as the economy as a whole. It not only menaces peace and human security, it also undermines economic, social, cultural, political and civil development of societies around the world and violates human rights. Organised crime is a broad, complex and multifaceted phenomenon which can touch upon various areas of life. Organised crime covers a wide range of phenomena, including trafficking in drugs, firearms and even persons. At the same time, organised crime groups exploit human mobility to smuggle migrants and undermine financial systems through money laundering. Therefore, it is not easy to get an overview of this phenomenon. To amend this, this monitor report provides an overview of the relevant existing data available on ‘organised crime’ at the EU level and also focuses on the main trends and levels op perceptions, experiences and recorded levels of ‘organised crime’ in the EU Member States.

report ››

EMSC - First Year Activity Report

Migrant smuggling has become the fastest growing criminal sector - to tackle this Europol have brought together some of the best investigators in Europe. This report looks at the evolution of migrant smuggling and the development of the European Migrant Smuggling Centre in 2016.

report ››

Ensuring justice for hate crime victims: professional perspectives - Summary

Hate crime is the most severe expression of discrimination and a core fundamental rights abuse. The European Union (EU) has demonstrated its resolve to tackle hate crime with legislation such as the 2008 Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law. Nonetheless, the majority of hate crimes perpetrated in the EU remain unreported and therefore invisible, leaving victims without redress.

report ››

Wrongful convictions and prototypical black features: Can a face-type facilitate misidentifications?

Heather M. Kleider-Offutt, Leslie R. Knuycky, Amanda M. Clevinger, Megan M. Capodanno

Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, and Black men, more than other racial groups, are affected by this memory error. A subgroup of Black men who have stereotypically Black features (dark skin, wide lips, and nose) are associated with the criminal-Black-man stereotype more than their atypical counterparts. This perception of criminality leads to harsh sentencing and misidentification from line-ups in laboratory studies. In this study, we investigated whether face-type biases that lead to misidentifications in the laboratory extend to real-world cases.

Method

Participants rated the face stereotypicality of Black men exonerated by the Innocence Project (IP) with DNA evidence, who were incarcerated due to eyewitness misidentification (IP eyewitness) and for non-misidentification reasons (IP other).

Results

Higher stereotypicality-face ratings were given to IP eyewitness exonerates than to IP other exonerates regardless of participant race. Moreover, the face ratings were unrelated to the race of the eyewitness in the actual case (i.e., cross-race, same race), suggesting that cross-race misidentification was not associated with higher stereotypicality ratings of the IP eyewitness exonerates.

Conclusions

These findings are consistent with extant laboratory research wherein Black men with stereotypical facial features are at increased risk for eyewitness misidentification and that face-type biases extend beyond cross-race judgements. These results further highlight the risk of face-type judgements in misidentifications that potentially contribute to error in real-world cases.

article ››

Council of Europe Committee of Ministers draft Recommendation on children with imprisoned parents

The 15th meeting of the Council of Europe’s Council for Penological Co-operation (PC-CP) Working Group took place in Strasbourg, 10-12 April 2017, to consider the text of a draft recommendation related to children of imprisoned parents, Document PC-CP (2017)7, making a number of comments and amendments to the text drafted by COPE from the point of view of the best interests of the child. The Working Group thanked the two scientific experts from COPE, Kate Philbrick and Ria Wolleswinkel, for their work. COPE began working in Strasbourg with the Council of Europe in late January 2017 to draft a Committee of Ministers Recommendation on children with imprisoned parents. A Summary Meeting Report was published following this meeting, an excerpt of which can be found here. The draft Recommendation is based on all aspects of the Italian Memorandum of Understanding that are relevant to prisons, including rights to visits; child-friendly spaces and information; supporting the child-parent relationship; prison officer training; children living with their parents in prison; and monitoring. The Recommendation will be accompanied by a report including responses to a questionnaire drafted by COPE, which has been sent to prison services in the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe.

draft recommendation ››

Youth Gangs in Canada: A Review of Current Topics and Issues

Youth gangs are not a new phenomenon in Canada. Theoretical and empirical research and evaluation efforts continue with the goal of better understanding and responding to this issue. Advances have been made in defining the nature of youth gangs and their activities, the motivations for joining, and the risk and protective factors that influence involvement in a gang lifestyle. Further, in the last number of years, strides have been made in understanding gang involvement among several key populations, namely Aboriginal youth, immigrant youth and young women. This publication highlights information on specific risk factors, pathways to involvement and desistance, and guidance on prevention and intervention efforts for these groups. Finally, some key findings to date and recommendations for moving forward are provided based on empirical evidence and lessons learned from Public Safety Canada's past implementation and evaluation experiences with youth gang projects.

summary ››
report ››

Relocation and Resettlement: Commission calls on all Member States to deliver and meet obligations

European Commission - Press release Strasbourg, 16 May 2017 Today, the Commission adopted its twelfth progress report on the EU's emergency relocation and resettlement schemes, assessing actions taken since 12 April 2017. As a result of the increased efforts of Member States, the number of persons relocated so far in 2017 is almost as many as in the whole of 2016. The total number of relocations now stands at 18,418, proving that relocation works if there is the will to abide by what was agreed together in a spirit of sincere cooperation. However, whilst most Member States are active and relocate regularly, some have still not relocated at all, disregarding their legal obligation. On resettlement, Members States have continued to make significant progress, with safe and legal pathways being provided to 16,163 persons so far, beyond two thirds of the agreed resettlements under the EU scheme. Building on the recommendations from the previous month, today's report is in particular focusing on those Member States that are not delivering on their commitments. Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said: "The results so far prove that if there is will and determination of Member States, relocation can work. The success of the relocation scheme cannot depend only on just a few. Solidarity in legal, political and moral terms is not susceptible to different interpretations. I call on those Member States who have systematically failed to deliver on their obligations to start doing so at once. The overall figures on resettlement show what strengthened EU-level cooperation and coordination can do in practice, and it is high time we achieved the same for relocation

New CoE website Prisons and Community Sanctions and Measures

The Council of Europe Criminal Law Division launches a new website “Prisons and Community Sanctions and Measures”.

website ››

UNODC launches initiative on gender dimensions in fight against terrorism

The international community is increasingly recognizing the importance of integrating a gender perspective into the global fight against terrorism. While women and girls continue to be victims of crimes committed by terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIL (Da'esh), recent reports have shown the growing involvement of women in terrorist offences.

Developing a global brand of prison products moved a step closer to being realized with the bringing together of key prison administrators from across

Developing a global brand of prison products moved a step closer to being realized with the bringing together of key prison administrators from across Latin America. Part of UNODC's Doha Declaration Global Programme, the event was organized to explore new and innovative approaches within the Latin American region which are being used to mitigate the social, economic and personal challenges faced by prisoners.