Head of OSCE Strategic Police Matters Unit addresses UN Chiefs of Police Summit in New York
NEW YORK, 3 June 2016 – The OSCE is a platform for co-operation in countering global criminal challenges through police peace operations, said the Head of the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department’s Strategic Police Matters Unit, Guy Vinet as he addressed the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit (UN COPS) today in New York.
He said that the OSCE has been responding to complex crises since 1998, when it deployed police monitors to Croatia to succeed the United Nations Police Support Group (UNPSG).
“The OSCE is neither without experience nor a mandate to respond to complex crises which include numerous peace spoilers – such as organized crime in its various facets thriving from conflict,” said Vinet. “We approach the conflict cycle from all dimensions, including criminal justice sector reform, with the OSCE’s unique features of a comprehensive approach to security, consensus-based decision-making and inclusive membership.”
Vinet said that the OSCE is widely recognized as a flexible soft-security organization, able to provide targeted responses to different crisis situations with its 57 participating States and 11 Partners for Co-operation. He added that the OSCE works closely with the United Nations, particularly its Office on Drugs and Crime, with which the OSCE Secretariat recently signed a Joint Action Plan for 2016–2017.
UN COPS, opened by United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, is a historic gathering of more than 100 police leaders out of over 400 participants from around the world. At the Summit, national chiefs of police, together with key partners and senior UN representatives charted the way forward for UN Police in order to deliver greater impact on the ground and to tackle the policing challenges of the twenty-first century. UN COPS also served as a forum to discuss how peace operations and national policing complement and mutually reinforce each other when addressing current and emerging challenges, such as transnational threats.