Eco-Solve, AMA-Obs

Criminal networks are driving the Amazon’s climate emergency

...Over the past year, a record number of mass fires have occurred across the Amazon basin. Many of them, particularly those in the Brazilian Amazon – which accounts for over 60 per cent of the rainfor...

Posted on 16 Oct 2024

Author(s): Gabriel Funari, Gabriel Granjo

Global Initiative

Chasing shadows

...Few people recognize the crucial role organized crime plays in supporting terrorism, a relationship known as the crime–terror nexus. A few years ago, Financial Times investigative journalist Miles J...

Posted on 15 Oct 2024

Author(s): Mark Shaw

Cities & Illicit Economies

Urbanization, Peace, and Security

Urbanization, Peace, and Security

...The global population’s demographic and social transition into predominantly urban environments has implications for security dynamics and efforts to promote peace. Yet cities, their governments, an...

Posted on 11 Oct 2024

Author(s): Antônio Sampaio

Crime Terror Nexus, WEA-Obs

What the killing of bandit kingpin Sububu means for stability in Nigeria’s North West

...On 12 September 2024, the Nigerian military killed Kachalla Halilu Sububu, a notorious bandit leader in Zamfara state in north-western Nigeria, and several of his senior commanders in an ambush. Altho...

Posted on 11 Oct 2024

Author(s): Kingsley L. Madueke, Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, Lawan Danjuma Adamu

Sustainable Development Goals, UN Reform, UN-TOC Watch, UNTOC

Is the UNTOC working?

Is the UNTOC working?

...In 2000, the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), also known as the Palermo Convention, was adopted in a milestone moment for fostering global cooperation to combat...

Posted on 10 Oct 2024

Author(s): Mark Shaw, Ian Tennant, Ana Paula Oliveira, Darren Brookbanks

Global Initiative

Cocaine cowboys

...At the end of the 1990s, Ireland experienced an economic boom known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’, a period marked by wealth, prosperity – and a surge in cocaine consumption. This booming drug trade fue...

Posted on 10 Oct 2024

Author(s): Mark Shaw

HT-Obs

Will the Artibonite massacre be a turning point in Haiti?

...On 27 September 2024, the United Nations Security Council added two new names to the list of sanctioned Haitians: Luckson Elan, leader of the Gran Grif gang operating in the Artibonite department of H...

Posted on 09 Oct 2024

ESA-Obs

Calling the shots: The strong arm of extortion in Gauteng

Calling the shots

...Gauteng, South Africa’s economic heartland, is facing a troubling surge in organized extortion. Once sporadic, extortion has now become a pervasive and systemic threat across multiple sectors. This ...

Posted on 08 Oct 2024

Author(s): Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane

UN - Security and Rights

The missing piece of the puzzle: Women and organized crime

The missing piece of the puzzle

...Despite the existence of widely recognized international frameworks, a gendered approach to addressing transnational organized crime is generally lacking. That women are often the victims of organized...

Posted on 04 Oct 2024

Author(s): Summer Walker, Ana Paula Oliveira

Eco-Solve, AMA-Obs

Monitoring online illegal wildlife trade: Insights from Brazil and South Africa

Monitoring online illegal wildlife trade

...Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is increasingly taking place online, with social media and e-commerce platforms being used to facilitate the sale of endangered species. Data collected from May to July 20...

Posted on 03 Oct 2024

Global Initiative

The last Yakuza: A life in the Japanese underworld, with investigative journalist Jake Adelstein 

...The Yakuza, Japan's notorious organized crime syndicates, have long wielded considerable influence over local communities, politics and the criminal underworld. Though they occupy a unique place in Ja...

Posted on 02 Oct 2024

Author(s): Mark Shaw