At its twelfth session, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime adopted resolution 12/4 entitled “Enhancing measures to prevent and combat crimes that affect the environment falling within the scope of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime”. The resolution requests that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), within its mandate and subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources, convene an open-ended intergovernmental expert group on crimes that affect the environment falling within the scope of the Convention and related offences covered by the Convention, with interpretation into all official languages of the UN, with a mandate:
(a) Firstly, to take stock of the application and collective implementation of the Organized Crime Convention in addressing such crimes;
(b) Secondly, to identify any gaps that may exist in the international legal framework and that could be addressed under the Convention to prevent and combat such crimes;
(c) Thirdly, to consider possible responses relevant to those gaps, including the possibility, feasibility and merits of any additional protocol to the Organized Crime Convention.
