15th UN Crime Congress: Committee I – 30 September 2026

Good afternoon, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. We are gathered here today to finalize the work we have performed on Committee I during the 15th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and our work has been substantial and wide-ranging. We have conducted two interesting workshops. We can all be proud of the work and the efforts that we have jointly undertaken to accomplish these tasks. We have the workshop on building resilient societies with a focus on protecting women, children and youth, fostering engagement, education and the culture of lawfulness. During this workshop, participants emphasized the importance of preventive strategies that address the root causes of crime by strengthening protective factors at the individual, family, and community levels. Discussions highlighted the value of data, research, and evaluation in designing evidence-based interventions, while underscoring the need to move from consultations to co-creation by meaningfully involving women, children, young people, survivors and persons with lived experience in the development of crime prevention and criminal justice policies and programs. Participants also encouraged Member States to invest in community engagement and resilience building measures that promote social cohesion, trust in institutions and the culture of lawfulness in line with the Kyoto Declaration and the Abu Dhabi Declaration. We next turned our efforts to conducting a workshop on getting ahead, strengthening data collection and analysis to better protect people and planet in times of new, emerging and evolving forms of crime. In this workshop, participants emphasized that high quality, standardized, and interoperable data are essential for understanding and responding to new, emerging, and evolving forms of crime, including those that are increasingly transnational and technology enabled. They highlighted the importance of strengthening data management, implementing international statistical standards, enhancing international cooperation and data sharing, and making better use of both traditional and non-traditional data sources to support timely, evidence-based, and people-centered crime prevention and criminal justice responses. I'm proud and grateful for the substantive, concrete, fruitful work that we have accomplished. This work has been fully captured and summarized in a draft report of Committee 1. Our last efforts will now be devoted to the adoption of this report, which will then be presented for adoption by the plenary in the morning of Thursday, 1st of October. To help in this regard, I now turn the floor to our rapporteur to present the report. You have the floor.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairperson, and good afternoon, distinguished delegates and colleagues. With your permission, I would like to present the draft report, which is contained in two documents, A/CONF.241/L.4 and its addenda 1. The basic document L.4 contains the proceedings and chair summary of workshop one. Document A/CONF.241/L.4/Ad.1 contains the proceedings and chair summary of workshop three. Mr. Chairperson, I would now suggest that we proceed with the document A/CONF.241/L.4, and then go to its agenda, A/CONF.241/L.4/Add.1. Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.

Thank you. I thank the rapporteur for this introduction. And we shall now begin the adoption of the report, starting with the document A/CONF.241/L.4, dealing with workshop 1, entitled "Building resilient societies with a focus on protecting women, children and youth, fostering engagement, education and the culture of lawfulness." We first have a look at the proceedings. Are there any comments to the preceding section of the draft report? You also have access to the report by using this QR code that we saw on the screen a minute ago. And we are scrolling slowly through the text. Again, as already mentioned, the proceedings are only factual statements who spoke during the respective sessions. Again, I ask the floor, are there any comments to the preceding section of the draft report? I don't see any.

Excellency, may I ask how can we access the draft report?

Yeah, we will put the QR code once again on the screen. Okay. Yeah. And we will now also scroll through the Chairman's report. And as I mentioned before, I want to recall that the rest of the report, the Chairman's summary, is not subject to negotiation amongst member states and not open to comments or suggestion for any of the participants. It contains the elements of the discussion that I, as the chair of the committee, considered to be the most relevant and is submitted under my responsibility. But of course, we will bring the text to your notice, either through QR code or by scrolling through the text. Thank you. And I'd like now to ask if we can, or if I can take it that the committee wishes to approve A/CONF.241/L4, and I see the United States is requesting for the floor.

Thank you, Chair, and certainly commend your work having to summarize so many views which could be very difficult and challenging and of course as many in this room don't necessarily support everything that's reflected on the page but recognize that it is a chair summary and recognize that there's no room to make substantive changes but I would propose a technical um addition to clarify specifically what we are are looking at um and happy to read at dictation speed But right at the beginning of on paragraph 19. Correct. So after discussions, we would propose there to be a period and then we would add the following. These points were not negotiated by member states. And with that, Chair, I think that just gives really strong clarity on what this is. We obviously know what a chair summary is, but this would certainly help for my delegation, and I know many others, to be able to move along with these reports. Thank you.

Yeah, as I said at the beginning, actually, I'm not willing to open the text, but as your addition is kind of a technical procedural one, I would make an exception and accept this sentence and would like to ask others if this is acceptable that we make this exception. I see no further requests for the floor, so... Just a moment. And in this respect, I just wanted to draw your attention also to a footnote that should not be overlooked. I hope it's readable from the floor, which also points out that the report was not subject to negotiation among Member States, not open to comments or suggestions and so on. It's actually what you are also saying with your addition. I don't know if the footnote is enough and he can then, yeah.

Thank you, Chair. Can I see exactly where the footnote corresponds to in the, and so it's at the very top of the report. I see. If you'll indulge, I think my insertion is still helpful because it does lay out what could be read as recommendations. And so unless there are objections, I think both of them would be helpful insertions. Thanks.

I see Germany is requesting for the floor.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I mean, for us, the footnote would be enough, but maybe you could scroll down where the text edit was, and maybe we could just add, "These points were not negotiated by member states," and reflect what the chair considered the most relevant point, so pretty much mirroring what is in the footnote.

Yes. If that helps, it's a duplication, of course, but thank you for this proposal. Do I see further requests for the floor? Then I take it that we have approved document A/CONF.241/L.4, which is the report on the first workshop of Committee I. And now we move to the next part of the draft report, which is contained in document A/CONF.41/1.4/Addendum. So the addendum is the report on workshop three, and the actual document is the report on workshop one. And the addendum is entitled, "Getting Ahead, Strengthening Data Collection and Analysis to Better Protect People and Planet in Times of New Emerging and Evolving Forms of Crime." Again, we start with the proceedings. I give you some time to have a look at the proceedings. And again, I'd like to ask the floor if there are any comments on the preceding section, which is, as I said before, on the effectual account of who spoke during the meeting. I see no objection, and we now scroll also through the chairman's summary. And of course, there's also the footnote on the first page saying the report, that the report was not subject to negotiations among member states and so on. Yeah. So, we finished with scrolling through the text. And I see that the United States is requesting the floor. You have the floor.

Thank you, chair. I think we would just like to see the standard language across all the reports to ensure consistency and fairness and again, commend your efforts to compile so many views. Many of our views didn't make it in as we would have liked. So that language would really help us. Thank you. I'm happy to read aloud if it's easier.

I would again introduce the sentence that we, of course, edit to them.

Course. So paragraph 19, there would be a period after discussions, and then we would add the following. These points were not negotiated by member states, but reflect the points that the chair would like to highlight. Thank you.

Thank you. And once again, I point to the fact that we have almost this issue almost covered in the footnote and the footnote together with the sentence should then help everybody to fully understand the nature of this of this report. Do I see any further comments requests for the floor? Then may I take it that the committee wishes to approve a/conf.241/L4 Addendum 1, which is the report on the workshop 3. I see no objections. And with this, the report is approved. Distinguished delegates, now we shall take up the draft report as a whole. May I take it that the committee wishes to adopt the draft report? I see no objections, so the report therefore is adopted. Thank you very much, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. With the adoption of our report, we have concluded our work allocated to us by the Congress plenary. Before closing the session, we have concluded our work allocate no sorry before closing the session I should also like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to all delegations observers and panelists for their valuable contribution to the work of the committee I should also like to thank the vice chair Mr. Inichi Hashimoto and the rapporteur Mr. Carlos Sanchez of the committee for their efforts in ensuring the successful conclusion of the committee's work finally I would like to, on behalf of the Committee, express our gratitude to our host, the Government of the United Arab Emirates, and our colleagues from the UN Secretariat for their indispensable support throughout the session. I now declare Committee I of the 15th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice closed. Thank you.