BKK/CP/24
24 April 2005
UN Office on Drugs and Crime Releases CD-Roms on Crime Congress Documentation
BANGKOK, 24 April (UN Information Service) -- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today officially released two CD-ROMs with Documentation from the First to the Tenth United Nations Congresses on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (1955-2000) and the Compilation of United Nations Resolutions and Documents on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (1947-2005), as well as a DVD on "Making Standards Work", during the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, in Bangkok.
The CD-ROM with Documentation from the First to the Tenth United Nations Congresses on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (1955-2000), issued in English and French, contains all the documents that have been submitted to the 10 previous Congresses. It is ideal for researchers, libraries and government agencies, and provides access to thousands of pages of historical documents in an easy-to-use format. The CD-ROM was made possible in particular with the support of the American Society of Criminology and the financial contribution of the Asia Crime Prevention Foundation, the collaboration of Dr. Cindy Smith and the meticulous work of her students who scanned the hundreds of reports included in this disk, page by page.
The Compilation of United Nations Resolutions and Documents on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (1947-2005), lists all the resolutions and documents pertaining to the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, issued up to and including 2004. The user of this CD-ROM, which is unique in its content and scope, will be able to track the contents and context of the Programme, and includes the 10 United Nations Congresses on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.
Also included in this compilation is a listing of the publications of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), and the affiliated regional institutes, which are the Asia and Far East Institute for Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI); the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI); the African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI); the Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD); the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy; the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime; the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC); the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council (ISPAC); the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC); the National Institute of Justice (NIJ); the Raoul Wallenberg Institute; the Institute for Security Studies (ISS); and the Korean Institute of Criminology.
Covering close to six decades of the United Nations work in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, the compilation should prove useful to policymakers, researchers, scholars and libraries alike, allowing users to trace the legislative mandates and the progression of the history of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme. Also, it provides contact information for obtaining copies of documentation from the UNODC and from all the Institutes affiliated with the United Nations.
"Making Standards Work" is a documentary commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners by the First United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and the Treatment of Offenders (Geneva, Switzerland, 1955). The movie shows how prisoners the world over have benefited from the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules -- with human rights activists, criminal justice reformers, and non-governmental organizations using the Standard Minimum Rules to push for reform of penal laws and positive changes in penal institutions. The most important rules provide for the prevention of overcrowding, access to justice, reasonable food and hygiene, the separation of remand and convicted prisoners, and the facilitated reintegration of prisoners into society. The documentary is dedicated to the late Ahmed Othmani, Chairman of Penal Reform International, and was produced by Two Hands Free, a United States-based non-governmental organization.
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