Speech by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Catherine Atkinson MP (Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls).
Chair, delegates, and distinguished guests.
The United Kingdom is pleased to participate in the Thirty Fifth Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
I would first like to congratulate Monica Juma on becoming Executive Director to the Office on Drugs and Crime, and Director-General to the UN Office in Vienna. We look forward to working closely with her, because the new and emerging threats to our citizens make collaborative working more important than ever.
That is particularly true of violence against women and girls, and we are now working with eight countries through our convened International Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls. Last year, the UK Government published a landmark strategy for halving VAWG within a decade, including the growing transnational trend of online and digital violence.
We recently legislated to ban "nudification apps" and other forms of non-consensual intimate image abuse and we are hosting a side event, bringing countries together to discuss emerging challenges on digital violence. I call upon States to join us for those discussions.
Protection orders are a vital tool in many legal systems to safeguard victims of violence and abuse, offering immediate and practical safeguards. But too often, they lose their effectiveness across borders.
I am pleased that the Hague Conference on Private International Law recently agreed to the UK's proposal for a Working Group on the recognition and enforcement of protection orders across borders. This will take the first steps to explore a future multilateral instrument to enhance global protections for victims and other vulnerable people, and I welcome States' support for this endeavour.
Tackling the growing transnational threats of fraud and organised crime remains a priority for the UK Government. The UK was proudly the main donor of the UNODC-INTERPOL Global Fraud Summit held here in Vienna earlier this year, and it is critical we maintain this momentum, and that nations deliver on the commitments they have made.
The UK remains committed to supporting UNODC's global programme on tackling organised crime, including promoting the Organised Crime Strategy Toolkit, which has reached more than 1,800 practitioners and now supports 20 countries worldwide. We have also committed £1.5 million this financial year towards providing technical assistance and implementing initiatives focused on countering organised crime.
Finally, the UK strongly condemns the smuggling of migrants. In July last year, the UK introduced the world's first dedicated sanctions regime targeting those involved in people smuggling and trafficking. And we have taken decisive action against migrant smuggling networks, closing gaps in our legislation which enables us to disrupt networks earlier and prosecute them.
We call upon member States to work with us on these important issues, and the many other issues facing our citizens.
Thank you.
