Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 02/2011

Transnational Organized Crime and the Palermo Convention: A Reality Check

André Standing

December 2010

International Peace Institute

Abstract

Ten years have passed since the adoption of the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Convention) by the UN General Assembly on November 15, 2000. At the signing of the convention in Palermo, Sicily, in December 2000, many government delegations welcomed the Palermo Convention as an important step in the fight against organized crime. Some warned against viewing it as a final measure and stressed that the convention and its protocols should be considered as a starting point rather than an end in itself. The development of the convention followed an increased realization during the 1980s and 1990s that the threat of organized crime was no longer merely a domestic one but had grown into one of global proportions. The realization that an international threat requires an international response became an important driving force. Government delegations attending the Palermo conference in December 2000 could not have known that less than a year later a new international threat would suddenly emerge that would be regarded as far more immediate and dangerous than transnational organized crime. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon resulted in a shift of attention and resources toward countering terrorism, causing transnational organized crime (TOC) to drop on the priority and threat lists. However, during the past five years the significant expansion and impact of transnational organized crime in different parts of the world have contributed to a renewed focus on the international threat that it poses. National strategies to counter transnational organized crime have been dusted off and strengthened, and additional resources are being made available to help in doing so.