15th UN Crime Congress: Committee II – 1 October 2026

Buenos días a todos los presentes. Good morning, everyone. I welcome you to our last session on Committee II, and we are here in this final meeting to finalize the work that we have performed in the committee during this 15th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Our work has been extensive and diverse, and we have achieved a great deal together. In particular, we have successfully delivered two interesting workshops. We can all take pride in the commitment, dedication, and collective effort that have gone into accomplishing these important tasks. And I also want to again acknowledge the knowledge of the fields and the spirit of plurality and diversity from UNODC when establishing the workshops and the panelists. And I also want to recognize the expertise of all the panelists on the respective angles of the issues we discussed here. So we held a workshop which was titled Ensuring Equal Access to Justice for All. towards safe and secure societies while respecting the rule of law. During this workshop, the participants were engaged in discussion revolving around four thematic areas and respective panels as follows. Advancing equal access to justice for all through cross-sectoral collaboration and multi-stakeholder approaches. Next, expanding access to legal aid, including legal information. followed by the role of the police, prosecution, judiciary, and the courts in facilitating access to justice, and finally, access to justice for victims, including through restorative justice. We next turned our efforts to conducting a workshop on turning the digital age into an opportunity, promoting the responsible use of technologies in crime prevention and criminal justice. In this second workshop, participants were involved in discussions under four thematic subpanels. The first one, challenges, risks, and opportunities for using technology in the criminal justice system, was followed immediately by digital trust and strategies to leverage technology for data analysis and strengthen criminal justice function. In third place, dual-use technologies and regulatory frameworks to ensure that technology in the criminal justice system upholds human rights protections. And finally, it ended with international cooperation and public-private partnerships for strengthened crime prevention and streamlined criminal justice responses to cybercrime. I am proud and I am grateful that the meaningful, tangible, and productive work we have achieved together has brought us to a good conclusion. Our collective efforts and the results we have delivered are reflected in the draft report of Committee 2. Our last effort will now be devoted to the formal adoption of this report, which will then be presented for adoption by the plenary this afternoon. To help in this regard, I now turn the floor to our rapporteur to present the report. You have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With your permission, I would like to present the draft report, which is contained in two documents, A/CONF.241/L.5 and its addendum. The basic document, A/CONF.241/L.5, contains the proceedings and Chair's summary of Workshop 2. Document A/CONF.241/L.5/Add.1 contains the proceedings and chair summary of workshop four. Mr. Chair, I would now suggest that we proceed with document A/CONF.241/L.5 and then go to its addendum, A/CONF.241/L.5/Add.1. I thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the rapporteur for her good introduction. And we shall now begin to proceed to the adoption of the report, starting with document A/CONF.241. which deals with workshop 2 and is entitled "Ensuring equal access to justice for all: towards safe and secure societies while respecting the rule of law". Are there any comments on the preceding section of the draft report, which you can see on the screen? I do not see any. As I mentioned before, I want to recall that the rest of the report is a chair's summary, containing a summary of the deliberations in some chairs conclusions and recommendations drawn from the discussions. This section of the report has been drafted in close cooperation with the moderators and has not been subject to negotiations except for factual accuracy. May I take it that the committee wishes to approve a conf.241L5? The United States, please.

Thank you, Chair. So I think what I just heard you say was you were looking for adoption of the full report and in looking at the chair's summary which admittedly we're just trying to digest right now while it's on the screen we we do want it reflected somewhere in the report that the recommendations that follow the the introductory text there that's bolded reflects that the the recommendations that follow were not negotiated by member states. We recognize that this is a chair summary, but when you read a report that goes on to encourage member states to do things, it has to be clear that these were not reflective of all member states. Our delegation provided written recommendations that were verbatim to what we outlined in a statement that we've made during workshop two. And those recommendations are not reflected in the report. They were they were taken and and summarized, but they were incorporated in ways that aren't reflective of the statement that we made and the way they were reflected in the written submission that we made. So we're disappointed that the report is not reflective of our delegation's views on on ways that access to justice should be couched in these types of discussions. So unfortunately, we didn't have an opportunity to really get into this in more detail in the workshop. So I appreciate that being placed in the report and we look forward to to talking about it more when we get to workshop four as well. Thank you.

I thank the US delegation for the statement and the point is well taken. I remember that when you raised the same issue at the, I think it was in workshop two, I gave you assurances that I would make sure that it will be perfectly clear that this would have been a document not negotiated with delegations. I also added up an element stating that it was not even open to comments or suggestions from other non-member state participants. And I personally wrote a disclaimer in that regard, which is placed at the very top of the document and taken to a footnote, which I will ask probably the secretariat to read for you so you get -- so it is clear that that has been -- that my word that I gave to you that it will be perfectly disclosed was complied with. So if you could read that footnote. Probably if you could, yeah, right, make it larger.

This report was not subject to negotiation among member states, nor open to comments or suggestions by any of the participants. It contains the elements of the discussions that the chair of the committee considers to be the most relevant and is submitted under his exclusive responsibility.

I want to point out that that footnote is exactly in the very top of the document, so if you could go up to the very start of the document and show them where the call for the footnote is located. After workshop 2, there is a footnote call. There it is. So, if you show the top of the page, you will see that it is way up.

It is under the title of the report of the committee.

The very top, very top. So, will you see the logo and everything? Go to the, like, if they, we could see the start of the page, please. So, there you see, it's the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, heading of the, of the page, and then, the identification of the document, and then the title, Report of Committee 2, Workshop 2, and then there is a footnote. So with that, I trust that we can both be satisfied, you with your request and me with having complied with my commitment to you. I give you the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Yes, we are aware of the footnote. We had seen that in other reports as well. I think that the challenge we see is that footnotes in UN documents are not always the most prevalent part of what is consumed by those who read these documents. Admittedly, paragraph 16 is further down than footnote one on the first page, but it would perhaps be more useful for, to make the text that's in that footnote more upfront in terms of where it's placed in the document. So perhaps the statement that's written in that footnote could be placed as an introductory paragraph in the report. Thank you.

To be honest, I wouldn't like that. I think that when we get into this forum, the 15th Congress, the proceedings were clear to all. The prerogatives of the chairs were clear to all. And I have already conceded, and I thought it was a fair assumption from you to make clear to everybody that this has not been a negotiated document, that this was something that reflected my own personal way of looking at what's most relevant, given the time constraints and the space constraints of the procedures and of the document. And I think that your request, the second request, goes a little bit-- it's a little bit more intrusive into my my own prerogatives. I mean, it is clear at the top of the document that I have done this in good faith, in the best interest of the international community, of all membership. And I feel a little bit pushed too much if you want me to even -- if you want that the U.S. or one delegation itself interferes in the form of the document. I take that the substance is the important part. I think I complied with my, I gave you my word, I complied with it. Now you want to get me to do it the way you want it. I think that's a little bit too much. So I request that we leave it as it is and let's see if you can be satisfied with that.

Thank you, Chair. I think we will respectfully agree to disagree on this. We respect your prerogative as the chair of the workshop. We're not attempting to usurp your prerogative in that role, but we do think it is important for member states to be able to express their desires as members of the commission, as as member states and accredited delegations to the Congress. So we're expressing our delegation's position. We're not trying to usurp your role as the chair. And if this is the way the report is reflected, then so be it. But we think it's important for the record for us to express our delegation's disappointment that the recommendations of this workshop will not be more reflective of the recommendations that we believe are important for the workshop to show when this report becomes public. Thank you, Chair.

I thank you, and I think that we kind of disagree, but also we agree a lot on the substance part. So I thank you for your flexibility, I thank you for understanding that I would prefer to leave it as it is, and I respect your position. I saw that Finland was asking for the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe we have solved the problem. I just say that I support the way forward, and I think it is important that we keep the uniform format, as has been agreed, when it comes to the report of the committee, workshops 1 and 3. Thank you very much.

Right, let's move on. Shall I take it that the committee wishes to approve A/CONF.241/L.5? I see no objection. It is so decided. The next part of the draft report is contained in document A/CONF.241/L.5/1 on workshop 4, entitled "Turning the digital age into an opportunity: promoting the responsible use of technologies in crime prevention and criminal justice." Are there any comments on proceedings section, which you will see in the screen in a moment? That's better, but-- Sorry, sorry. Okay, so we now have the procedural part of document L.5 addendum 1 on screen. Any comments on this one? So, I also want to recall that the rest of the report is a chair summary, which is not a subject to negotiation amongst member states, nor open to comments or suggestions by any of the participants. And it contains the element of the discussions that I, as chair of the committee, consider to be the most relevant, and I submit the text under my responsibility. So, may I take that the committee wishes to approve A/CONF.241/L.5/Att.1. I see no objections. It is so decided. So, dear delegates, now we shall take up the draft report as a whole. The Secretary tells me it is not necessary to put the whole report on the screen. So, may I take it that the Committee wishes to adopt the draft report? I see no objection. So, this is so decided. So, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, with the adoption of our report, we have concluded our work allocated to us by the Congress plenary. And before closing this session, I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to all delegations, observers and panelists for their valuable contributions to the work of the Committee. I would also like to thank the Vice-Chair, Angela Bigliotta, Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, and to our rapporteur, Ms. Refilwe Dimunye, Acting Deputy Director, Department of International Relations and Cooperation from South Africa, 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, UNODC, conference officers, the press officers, the sound and video engineers, the editors, the translators, and many others working behind the scenes under the leadership of Ms. Jo de Deyneman, for their indispensable support throughout the session. So I now declare Committee II of the 15th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice formally closed. Thanks, everybody, for your cooperation.