United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the principal entity of the UN Secretariat dealing with drug and crime/ criminal justice issues. It is the guardian of the three UN drug conventions and two mega anti-crime conventions. It also promotes prevention activities and norms and standard for the criminal justice agencies. UNODC carries out a number of technical assistance and training projects.
Τhe EPLO role is to follow and participate in the works of the main United Nations governing and policy making bodies and their supplementary organs. International anti-drug and anti-crime legislation (Conventions, Protocols, standards and norms) as well as technical assistance and training projects in particular for developing countries are an important part of public law and provide an opportunity for the promotion of good practices and values which are at the core of the EPLO mandate.
The Ambassador Ugljesa Ugi Zvekić, EPLO Permanent Observer to the UN,Mr Yuriy Fedotov, Director-General UN Vienna
The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice are held annually and they also have some intersessional meetings. The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto (Human Trafficking; Smuggling of Migrants; Firearms) hold regular sessions on biannual basis (the next one will take place in 2020) at UNOV, while the Conference of the State Parties of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) holds its biannual sessions hosted in different countries. Each Conference has its working groups and the review mechanism. The United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the largest world meeting of the criminal justice sector, is held each fifth year and aims at providing policy development suggestions. The next Congress will be held in Kyoto, Japan in April 2020.