NCJ Number
147968
Journal
Criminal Law Forum Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Dated: (1993) Pages: 471-502
Date Published
1993
Length
32 pages
Annotation
The impact of the reorganization by the United Nations General Assembly of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program is evaluated.
Abstract
The reorganization of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program (Program), and in particular the creation of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, was driven in substantial part by the hope that increased governmental involvement would bring greater focus and greater resources. In the author's evaluation, the effort toward greater focus has led largely in the direction of doing less, and in particular doing less in respect of the existing multitude of United Nations (UN) norms and standards in the criminal justice area. It, however, has led to a greater emphasis on technical cooperation and to a search for the optimal role that the organization might play in such endeavors. As for resources, the vastly enhanced peacemaking and peacekeeping role that the UN has undertaken of late faces the hurdle that many states are balking when it comes to paying. Considering the matter of politicization, the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control and, to a lesser extent, the Congresses on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, have been able to emphasize technical and professional concerns, thereby succeeding in being somewhat less politicized than, for example, the Commission on Human Rights.