Duties and Responsibilities
1. Background of the assignment Further to relevant mandates from the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (COP), UNODC started, in 2010, the development of the knowledge management portal known as SHERLOC (Sharing Electronic Resources and Laws On Crime). It is a UNODC on-going initiative aimed at facilitating the dissemination of information regarding the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto. Ever since, SHERLOC has become a practitioner’s tool for police investigators, prosecutors and judges; a monitoring tool for government policy-makers; an awareness-raising tool for the public and media; as well as an information tool for researchers, legal drafters and all those responding to transnational organized crime. It currently hosts six databases: (1) the Case Law Database, (2) the Database of Legislation (3) the Bibliographic Database, (4) the Directory of Competent National Authorities, (5) the Database of Strategies and (6) the Database on Treaties. Additionally, it hosts the electronic version of the Legislative Guide, whose purpose is to assist States seeking to ratify or implement the Organized Crime Convention, as well as the Education for Universities (Edu4U) webpage, which aims to prevent crime and promote a culture of lawfulness through education activities designed for tertiary levels and hosts the UNODC Teaching Module Series on Organized Crime The Case Law Database is a comprehensive database allowing users to see how Member States are tackling organized crime cases both operationally and in their courts. It contains jurisprudence, as well as records of successful law enforcement operations with regard to crimes that affect the environment, cybercrime, drug offences, fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, participation in an organized criminal group, piracy and maritime crimes, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in firearms, trafficking in cultural property, trafficking in persons, falsified medical products, corruption and terrorism. The Database of Legislation is an electronic repository of laws relevant to the provisions of UNTOC and the Protocols thereto. It is searchable by: (1) country, (2) UNTOC article, (3) crime type, and (4) cross-cutting issue. While also enabling access to full legislation documents, the Database of Legislation provides extracts of laws relevant to specific UNTOC articles and crime types, allowing the users to quickly find provisions relating to their search query. The above-mentioned databases include summaries and, when available, full court decisions of more than 3,000 cases on transnational organized crime and counter-terrorism, as well as more than 11,000 relevant legal provisions, from all UN Member States and more than 1300 bibliographic abstracts. These can be accessed through: sherloc.unodc.org. The Bibliographic Database is an annotated bibliography providing a synopsis of key articles that are searchable by: (1) country, (2) crime type, and (3) cross cutting issue. The Directory of Competent National Authorities contains the authorities designated to receive, respond and process requests pertaining to mutual legal assistance, extradition and transfer of sentenced prisoners, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in firearms, trafficking in cultural property and terrorist cases. The Database, on Strategies, provides access to strategies and plans of actions adopted at national level pertaining to the fifteen different crime types, while a dedicated Database on Treaties provides the ratification status of the UNTOC and the Protocols thereto, as well as of other relevant international instruments. By creating these databases, SHERLOC aims at developing internationally agreed upon legal mechanisms against transnational organized crime, while improving the visibility of successful prosecutions and promoting awareness about the devastating realities of organized crime and terrorism. 2. Purpose of the assignment The purpose of this assignment is to support the Conference Support Section (CSS) of the Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking Branch (OCB) in its information-gathering efforts on the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), by uploading legislative provisions and case law onto SHERLOC knowledge management portal. 3. Specific tasks to be performed by the individual contractor Under the direct supervision of the Associate Legal Officer, and the overall guidance of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, the individual contractor will perform the following specific tasks: • Upload onto SHERLOC a minimum of 240 legislative provisions or strategies and a minimum of 6 cases onto SHERLOC, with a focus on resources relating to crimes that affect the environment; • Support in the drafting of documents relating to the Working Group of Governmental Experts on Technical Assistance and the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Group on Crimes that Affect the Environment, including speaking notes and powerpoint presentations • Support in reviewing and proofreading other documents produced by the Conference Support Section • Participate in bilateral SHERLOC consultations held during meetings of subsidiary bodies of the Conference of the Parties to the Organized Crime Convention (UNTOC COP); and • Support during presentations of SHERLOC to Member States and individual contributors.
