“Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”

I. Introduction

This contribution is submitted by H.E. Alessandro CORTESE (Italy), the Chair of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) at its thirtieth session, in response to a letter from the President of the Economic and Social Council of 2 December 2020, inviting the Commission to provide an input to the 2021 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, which will meet under the auspices of ECOSOC at the UN headquarters in New York from 6 to 15 July 2021, on the theme “Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”. The input aims to highlight the views and guidance of CCPCJ with regard to the response to the pandemic and some of the measures and policies that contribute from a crime prevention and criminal justice perspective to putting the world back on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030, in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.

As the principal policymaking body of the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice and the preparatory body for the United Nations Congresses on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Commission supports Member States’ efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda, touching upon several specific goals and targets. The CCPCJ works to strengthen the capacity of Member States to detect, prevent, prosecute and combat all types of crime, to provide access to justice for all and to build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. It also plays a major role in strengthening international cooperation in addressing global challenges and threats. The issues addressed in this document do not reflect the work of the Commission in a comprehensive manner, but represent examples illustrating its contribution to the 2021 theme.

The work of the Commission, as has been the case with other intergovernmental entities, has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. The twenty-ninth session of the Commission, scheduled for May 2020, was postponed and held, back to back with its reconvened session, in a scaled-down, hybrid format in December 2020. All items that were contained in the provisional agenda for the twenty-ninth session will be included in the provisional agenda for the thirtieth session to be held on 17-21 May 2021. The Fourteenth United Nations Crime Congress was also postponed due to the pandemic. Despite these setbacks, the Kyoto Congress was held successfully in a hybrid format on 7-12 March 2021, bringing together both in-person and online participants who otherwise could not have taken part in the Congress. The Kyoto Congress gathered the largest number of registered participants in the history of the UN Congresses.