The 11th Conference of Parties (CoP) to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) took place from 17–21 October in Vienna. More NGOs than ever before took part in the proceedings, and the issue of civil society participation in the conference was high on the agenda. In the context of the shrinking space for the UN at the multilateral level, this CoP took an unprecedented vote in favour of NGO participation. However, the differences of opinion between states were also laid bare. This policy brief explores the evolution of the space for NGO participation in multilateral forums discussing transnational organized crime, and puts the UNTOC CoP’s debates and decision last week into context.

For more information about the GI-TOC’s participation at the UNTOC CoP, recordings of our side events can be accessed here.

The official UNTOC CoP website may be found here, onto which the official report of proceedings will be loaded.