The 14th Congress of the United Nations on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice was held on March 7-12, 2021 in Kyoto, Japan. The participating delegates, which included heads of state and government and ministers and representatives of United Nations Member States, unanimously adopted the Kyoto Declaration on advancing crime prevention, criminal justice, and the rule of law.
The adoption of this Declaration highlights the willingness of governments to concretely and unanimously address the scourge of crime around the world by promoting international cooperation and technical assistance to prevent and all address all forms of crime, including illegal wildlife trafficking.
By acknowledging that crime, including wildlife crime, is increasingly transnational, organized, and complex, and that enhancing capacities of law enforcement and criminal justice institutions of developing countries is necessary, the Kyoto Declaration aligns perfectly with the capacity-building activities that Born Free USA has been carrying out in the West African sub-region for many years.
✓ Our fieldwork has highlighted that wildlife trafficking routes in West Africa are multiple and complex and that all countries in the sub region are affected.
✓ Our training workshops, which bring together law enforcement officers from various West and Central African countries, whether customs officers, judges, prosecutors, or rangers working in transboundary protected areas enable the reinforcement of the collaboration to combat wildlife crime at many levels.
✓ Born Free USA developed a manual on mutual legal assistance, which was provided to judges and prosecutors during our training workshops, to facilitate and strengthen international collaboration on law enforcement.
Illegal wildlife trade, like the illegal trade in weapons, drugs, and human trafficking, is a multi-billion dollar per year enterprise that encompasses the entire globe. Our capacity-building program in West Africa was developed around the idea that solving a problem this large and complex requires collaboration on an international scale. We hope that the commitments under the Kyoto Declaration will offer new opportunities for us to continue and expand our work to build the capacity of law enforcement in West Africa, strengthen the legal response to wildlife crime, raise awareness of the problem of wildlife crime, and implement plans for regional cooperation.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Aurora
