Opening of the Centre of Excellence for Statistics on Crime and Criminal Justice in Asia and the Pacific

On August 20 and 21, was inaugurated the Center of Excellence for Statistics on Crime and Criminal Justice in Asia and the Pacific (CoE), a project of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Korea Statistics (KOSTAT), as a result of a process of regional cooperation with the objective of improve statistical methodologies and technical capabilities with respect to the collection of data on crime and criminal justice. The UNODC-KOSTAT Center of Excellence is located in the city of Daejeon, Republic of Korea and will provide technical cooperation to the UN Member States in the Asia-Pacific region, for the implementation of the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS ), the United Nations Survey on Criminal Trends (UN-CTS) and the challenges related to the monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The opening symposium was attended by representatives from countries in the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Cambodia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand. As well as UNESCAP, UNSIAP, UNODC and the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence. The Center of Excellence participated with the presentations “Capacity Building to Improve Crime Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean” and “Experiences & Challenges for the Centers of Excellence”, where shared the experience in the Latin American and Caribbean region, in the construction of regional associations and the improvements that have been achieved in crime statistics systems, victimization surveys and methodological research. With the inauguration of this new Center of Excellence in Asia-Pacific, the importance of having regional knowledge centers that provide technical cooperation and advice to the States in the generation of statistics on crime and criminal justice is highlighted.

Website of the Center of Excellence UNODC-KOSTAT.