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	Torture remains prevalent in too many countries, UN warns by AFP / UN News   June 2010   Torturers will face Justice. (AFP)   UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has warned torturers that they could not escape justice even if they might benefit from short term impunity.   "Torturers, and their superiors, need to hear the following message loud and clear: however powerful you are today, there is a strong chance that sooner or later you will be held to account for your inhumanity," Pillay said.   "Torture is an extremely serious crime, and in certain circumstances can amount to a war crime, a crime against humanity or genocide," she added in a statement to mark International Day for the Victims of Torture.   The High Commissioner urged governments, the United Nations and campaign groups "to ensure that this message is backed by firm action."   "No one suspected of committing torture can benefit from an amnesty. That is a basic principle of international justice and a vital one," Pillay added.   "I am concerned, however, that some states rigidly maintain amnesties that save torturers from being brought to justice, even though the regimes that employed them are long gone.   "As a result there are a number of well-established democracies that generally abide by the rule of law, and are proud to do so, which are in effect protecting torturers and denying justice," said Pillay. That often, as a result, denied their victims reparations.   The UN human rights chief noted that more people were being prosecuted for torture every year, including recent prosecutions in Chile and Argentina for cases dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.   She also highlighted the looming verdict in Cambodia"s war crimes tribunal on former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as "Duch" which is due on July 26.   "There is one aspect of all this that should cause even the most ruthless and self-confident torturers to stop and think: in time, all regimes change, including the most entrenched and despotic.   "So even those who think their immunity from justice is ironclad can -- and I hope increasingly will-- eventually find themselves in court," Pillay added.   26 June 2010   Torture remains prevalent in too many countries, UN warns.   Too many countries are still practising or tolerating “cruel, degrading and illegal” acts of torture, top United Nations officials said today as they pledged the UN"s solidarity with the millions of torture victims worldwide.   “The prohibition of torture is absolute and unambiguous,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. “Torture cannot be justified under any circumstances whatsoever, whether during a state of war or in response to terrorism, political instability or any other public emergency.”   UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay used her message for the Day to warn that no one suspected of committing torture should be allowed to benefit from an amnesty. She called on governments, UN, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights defenders, the media and the rest of the world “to ensure that this message is backed by firm action.”   An increasing number of individuals are prosecuted for torture each year, including cases related to the extrajudicial killings and disappearances in Chile and Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Cambodia during the rule of the Khmer Rouge.   Governments that have not yet done so should ratify and honour their obligations under the Convention against Torture and the provisions of its Optional Protocol, Mr. Ban urged. The Convention states that countries which are party to it recognize, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, “the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”   Mr. Ban also urged countries to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 2006 but remains two state-parties short of the 20 needed to come into force.   “The convention will reinforce the international legal framework to combat and prevent this heinous practice – which is clearly and historically linked with the practice of torture.”   Mr. Ban also urged governments to allow the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, to visit their prisons and detention facilities, and “to allow full and unhindered access to those detained there.”   In a statement issued by four UN bodies involved in preventing torture and helping its victims, Mr. Nowak expressed concern about the widespread of certain practices that amount to torture “in the context of the so-called global war on terror after 11 September 2001.”   The independent expert urged governments to “ensure that no reason based on discrimination of any kind be used as justification for torture or inhumane treatment” and added that a lack of criminalization of torture and inadequate sanctions are main factors contributing to impunity. 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	International criminal markets have become major centres of power by Antonio Maria Costa United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime   17 June 2010   A report released today by UNODC shows how organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world''s foremost economic and armed powers.   The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment, looks at major trafficking flows of drugs (cocaine and heroin), firearms, counterfeit products, stolen natural resources and people (for sex and forced labour), as well as smuggled migrants. It also covers maritime piracy and cybercrime.   "Today, the criminal market spans the planet: illicit goods are sourced from one continent, trafficked across another and marketed in a third," said UNDOC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. "Transnational crime has become a threat to peace and development, even to the sovereignty of nations," warned the head of UNODC. "Criminals use weapons and violence, but also money and bribes to buy elections, politicians and power - even the military," said Mr. Costa. The threat to governance and stability is analysed in a chapter on regions under stress.   Regarding human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants, the report shows that an estimated 140,000 people become victims of trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation in Europe alone, generating a gross annual income of US$ 3 billion for their exploiters. The two most prominent flows for smuggling migrants are from Africa to Europe and from Latin America to the United States. Between 2.5 million and 3 million migrants are smuggled from Latin America to the United States every year, generating US$ 6.6 billion for smugglers.   The number of counterfeit goods detected at the European border has gone up by a factor of 10 over the past decade, for a yearly value of more than US$ 10 billion. As much as half of medications tested in Africa and South-East Asia are counterfeited and substandard, increasing, rather than reducing the chance of illness.   The report shows how illegal exploitation of natural resources and the trafficking in wildlife from Africa and South-East Asia are disrupting fragile ecosystems and driving species to extinction. UNODC estimates that illicit wood products imported from Asia to the European Union and China were worth some US$ 2.5 billion in 2009.   Regarding cybercrime, the report reveals that more than 1.5 million people a year suffer the theft of their identity for an economic loss estimated at US$ 1billion, and that cybercrime is endangering the security of nations: power grids, air traffic and nuclear installations have been penetrated.   Work on the report was initiated following concerns expressed by United Nations countries, the Security Council, the Group of 8, and other international organizations about the threat posed by transnational organized crime, and the need to counteract it. "Despite the intrinsic difficulty of doing research on crime, UNODC was able to document the enormous power and global reach of international mafias," said Mr. Costa.   The report makes a number of suggestions on how to deal with the threats posed by the globalization of crime, including "disrupting the market forces" behind these illicit trades and global responses on the basis of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (also known as the Palermo Convention), which was adopted in 2000.   "Crime has internationalized faster than law enforcement and world governance," said Mr. Costa. "The Palermo Convention was created precisely to generate an international response to these transnational threats, but is often neglected," he said. "Governments that are serious about tackling the globalization of crime should spur the nations that are lagging behind in the implementation of the Convention," said the head of UNODC.   "When States fail to deliver public services and security, criminals fill the vacuum," said Mr. Costa. "Reaching the Millennium Development Goals would be an effective antidote to crime, that in itself is an obstacle to development," he added. He also called for greater attention to criminal justice in peacebuilding and peacekeeping operations. "Since crime creates instability, peace is the best way of containing crime," he said.   "Criminals are motivated by profit: so let us go after their money," said Mr. Costa, adding that "We must increase the risks and lower the incentives that enable the bloody hand of organized crime to manipulate the invisible hand of competition". He called for more robust implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, more effective anti-money-laundering measures, and a crackdown on bank secrecy. Visit the related web page
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