Asia and Latin America share progress in implementing the ICCS during international meeting in Korea

From November 4 to 6, 2025, an international meeting of experts on the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) was held in Seoul, Korea. The meeting brought together national statistical institutions, justice and security agencies, universities, the UNODC Research and Trend Analysis Branch, and the centers of excellence in Asia (UNODC-KOSTAT) and Latin America (UNODC-INEGI), with the aim of advancing the harmonization of crime and justice data based on the ICCS.

During the opening day, Angela Me, head of the UNODC Research and Trend Analysis Branch, highlighted the role of the ICCS in the international comparability of crime statistics and presented the tools developed for its implementation, including the mobile application developed in conjunction with the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence (CoE).

The Dominican Republic shared its pilot experience in implementing the Statistical Framework for Measuring Gender-Related Deaths of Women and Girls (Femicide/Feminicide). Crismairy Marlenny Jiménez Mena, Director of Standards and Methodologies at the ONE in the Dominican Republic, explained the national coordination process and the development of its National Classification adapted to the ICCS, highlighting the challenges in disaggregating data and the need for technical training.

For her part, Adriana Oropeza Lliteras, Coordinator of the UNODC-INEGI CdE, presented the first regional experience of implementing the International Classification of Administrative Data on Trafficking in Persons (IC-TIP), based on the Costa Rica project. She described the methodological process of data evaluation and standardization that made it possible to create an interactive panel for statistical analysis for the period 2020–2024.

Mayra Carolina Lemus Way, also from the UNODC-INEGI CoE, shared the progress and lessons learned in implementing the ICCS in Latin America and the Caribbean, with examples from Chile and Caribbean countries. She highlighted the importance of inter-institutional coordination mechanisms and the use of tools developed by UNODC, such as manuals and specialized courses.

The second day was devoted to specialized statistical frameworks. The Statistical Framework for Measuring Cybercrime was addressed and the use of the ICCS as a conceptual basis for its development was discussed. Korea, the Philippines, and Ecuador presented their national experiences.

Ms. Roxana Villalba, Director of Sociodemographic Statistics at Ecuador's National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), detailed the process of developing correspondence tables between the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code and the ICCS, and presented a dashboard of data on violent deaths of women with variables disaggregated by victim, perpetrator, and event.

The final day focused on the upcoming revision of the ICCS, where the main issues to be considered were introduced, such as the incorporation of emerging crimes and the improvement of disaggregation variables. Participants discussed questions and proposals in technical roundtables that will serve as input for the potential update process.

The meeting reaffirmed the commitment of countries, national statistical institutions, justice and security agencies, universities, and centers of excellence in Asia (UNODC-KOSTAT) and Latin America (UNODC-INEGI) to improving statistics on crime and criminal justice at the international level. Technical exchanges identified progress, challenges, and opportunities for collaboration in revising the ICCS and strengthening data comparability across regions.