The UN Crime Congress, held every five years, took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from 26 September to 1 October 2026. Its theme – “Accelerating crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law: protecting people and planet and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the digital age” – put the environment at the heart of the discussion.
Crimes that affect the environment featured across the programme: in high-level thematic segments, official agenda items, workshops and ancillary meetings. The Abu Dhabi Declaration, adopted at the opening of Congress, recognises the importance of tackling these crimes as part of broader criminal justice efforts.
A Call to Action on environmental crime
IUCN President Razan Al Mubarak moderated the Congress’s high-level segment on crimes that affect the environment, which saw the launch of the Abu Dhabi Call to Action on Environmental Crime. Launched by the United Arab Emirates with France, Azerbaijan, UNODC and INTERPOL, the Call to Action urges countries to prioritise environmental crime, carry out joint law-enforcement operations and step up cross-border intelligence sharing to dismantle the networks trafficking natural resources.
Opening the session, the President stressed the need to unite international efforts and strengthen partnerships between governments, law enforcement agencies and international organisations to tackle transnational environmental crime.
IUCN’s message: from commitments to a binding framework
Wildlife trafficking, illegal logging and mining, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and hazardous waste trafficking are organised, transnational crimes. They drive biodiversity loss, undermine climate action, fuel corruption and put the people protecting nature at risk.
IUCN set out four priorities for the Congress:
Strengthen the international legal framework for preventing and combating crimes that affect the environment, including through enhanced international cooperation and consideration of a dedicated framework under the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
Put prevention, science and environmental integrity at the centre of the response – tackling root causes, strengthening evidence-based decision-making and improving monitoring and enforcement.
Promote rights-based, people-centred justice that protects Indigenous Peoples, local communities, environmental defenders and whistleblowers, and ensures access to justice and effective remedies.
Strengthen international cooperation, partnerships, capacity-building and financing for prevention, enforcement, ecosystem restoration and community protection.
These priorities build on the mandate IUCN Members set at the 2025 IUCN World Conservation Congressalso held in Abu Dhabi. There, Members adopted Resolutions on crimes that affect the environment (8.048), recognising the crime of ecocide (8.060), addressing wildlife trafficking (8.057) and port State measures against IUU fishing (8.033).
Several IUCN Members and partners were active at the Crime Congress, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Wildlife Justice Commission and Stop Ecocide International, alongside UN agencies and other partners.
Next stop: Vienna
The outcomes of Abu Dhabi set the stage for the 13th Conference of the Parties to UNTOC (COP13)in Vienna from 19 to 23 October 2026. IUCN’s key messages remain as relevant as ever, and IUCN will urge Parties to turn political momentum into binding action – starting with consideration of an additional protocol to UNTOC on crimes that affect the environment. A dedicated protocol would give countries a common legal basis to prevent, investigate and prosecute transnational organised environmental crime.
IUCN will also keep building its partnership with UNODClaunched in June 2026 by IUCN Director General Dr Grethel Aguilar and UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma at the UN General Assembly. The partnership pairs IUCN’s conservation science with UNODC’s criminal justice mandate. The two organisations are now preparing a joint action plan to put it into practice, including support for stronger national laws, training for law-enforcement officers and prosecutors, and shared research on environmental crime trends.
Source: iucn.org
