EIA at international conference to advance action on crimes affecting the environment

EIA campaigners will be in Vienna from Monday for the week-long 35th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ).

The meeting comes at a critical time for international efforts to address crimes that affect the environment, an area where political attention is increasing but collective action still falls short of what is needed.

During the week, the EIA team will support two side events:

• 1 June – Multi-stakeholder Priorities for a Potential Protocol under UNTOC on Crimes that Affect the Environment (16:30-17:30, Room M7 and online)
• 3 June – Futureproofing Our Planet: Tackling Environmental Crime in the Triple Planetary Crisis (16:30-17:30, Room M3).

Organised crime and the environment

In recent years, crimes that affect the environment have risen up the international agenda.

This includes activities such as wildlife trafficking, forest crimes, illegal mining, waste crime and fisheries crime, all of which are increasingly recognised as organised, transnational and profit-driven.

The CCPCJ is the primary UN forum for shaping global crime policy under the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). Each year, it brings together governments, UN agencies and civil society to agree resolutions, set priorities and define how the international community responds to emerging crime threats.

For crimes that affect the environment, this role is particularly important.

While many international processes recognise environmental harm, the CCPCJ is one of the few spaces where these issues are addressed through a criminal justice lens, focusing on law enforcement, prosecution, international cooperation and the disruption of organised criminal networks.

In practice, progress at the CCPCJ can influence how seriously crimes that affect the environment are treated globally, including whether they are prioritised alongside other forms of transnational organised crime.

However, progress has been uneven. At the most recent meeting of the intergovernmental expert group on crimes that affect the environment this February, governments were unable to agree on recommendations, exposing ongoing divisions over the scale of the problem and how far the international community should go in strengthening its response.

The EIA team

EIA’s representation at CCPCJ will include colleagues from our Forests, Intelligence and Investigations and Securing Criminal Justice teams. Colleagues from our Climate and Oceans team will join our side events remotely.

Looking ahead

There is now broad recognition that crimes which affect the environment are not isolated issues, but a significant and evolving form of transnational organised crime.

The challenge is turning that recognition into coordinated, effective and sustained action.

CCPCJ35 is an important opportunity to take that work forward and to ensure that crimes affecting the environment remain firmly on the global crime agenda.