MIGS Senior Fellow Dr. David Donat Cattin Leads New Policy Paper on Advancing a Fourth UNTOC Protocol on Environmental Crime

Transnational criminal organizations are often implicated in illegal activities that can have disastrous environmental impacts on wildlife, ecosystems and other natural resources, regarding which the International Community has yet to take effective action, including through the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). 

Ahead of tomorrow’s sessions at the UN in Vienna of the Intergovernmental Experts Group’s second session of meetings on “Crimes that Affect the Environment” (CAE), we are delighted to share a Policy Paper edited by MIGS Senior Fellow Dr. David Donat Cattin and authored by his NYU students of the Consulting Practicum on the International Protection for Common Heritage, significantly entitled: “Towards a Fourth Additional Protocol to UNTOC to Enhance International Cooperation in the Fight against Crimes that Affect the Environment”. 

The Paper contains analyses and several recommendations on drafting options that may be taken into account by relevant stakeholders, including negotiators addressing the limitations of the UNTOC.

This innovative NYU Consulting Practicum has been realized in cooperation with the Wildlife Justice Commission, and saw the contributions from some of the most important experts in the field of environmental crimes and international cooperation in the fight against transnational organized crime, including from INTERPOL.

To know more about the Vienna process on CAE, please read this recent article by John Scalon, who intervened in the Consulting Practicum: Is this the year we get serious about tackling environmental crime?

To know more about the Wildlife Justice Commission, please see here.