White paper on crime 2012 Part2/Chapter6/Section1
Countermeasures against international crime have become very important amidst the strengthening of international societal and economic ties, and the activation of an international flow of human resources, materials, money, information, etc. International cooperation in criminal justice, both in terms of the legal system and practices, has therefore been promoted at various international conferences that include the United Nations (hereinafter referred to as the “U.N.”) and the highest level conferences of the advanced nations (summits), which are further described below.
The U.N. Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (Congress) has been held every five years since 1995 and hosted by the U.N. with the aim of enabling proposals to be made and opinions exchanged on policies in the various fields of criminal justice. The 12th Congress was held in April 2010 in Salvador, Brazil, with the “Salvador Declaration” being adopted in which the importance of international cooperation in various fields in crime prevention/criminal justice was emphasized and member countries were requested to strengthen their measures against organized crime, terrorism, corruption, economic/ID crime (crime involving credit card fraud, crimes concerning the use of unauthorized IDs (personal identification information), including the use of forged or altered passports), and environmental crime, etc. In addition, a Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (Commission), which was established under the U.N. Economic and Social Council as a functional commission to be involved in policy decision making of the U.N. with regard to the criminal justice field, has been held every year, with Japan having been a member country of the Commission since it was first established. Japan also actively participated in the 21st session of the Commission that was held in April 2012.