Tunis (Tunisia), 4-6 Jul 2023 – The CoE, in collaboration with UNODC Research and Trend Analysis Branch (RAB), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics, and the Tunisian National Institute of Statistics, organized a regional training on the implementation of the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) in the Arab region.
The workshop was organized to introduce participants from National Statistical Offices, law enforcement and criminal justice institutions to the ICCS, its main use and strengths, and potential challenges that can be encountered during the implementation. Participants included experts of relevant national agencies from a total of 15 countries: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
The workshop was held over the course of three days, with presentations detailing ICCS use and structure followed by practical exercises. During the first day of the training, the trainers focused on the importance of crime and criminal justice statistics, UNODC methodological tools, the basic logic of the ICCS and the roadmap for ICCS implementation. The second day focused on the production of correspondence tables and the use of disaggregating variables, as well as a presentation on the newly developed “Statistical Framework for Measuring the Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls (also referred to as femicide/feminicide)”. During the third day of the workshop, UNODC placed the ICCS into a broader context by showcasing some of the tools for Member States to collect relevant data that are aligned with ICCS definitions, including the national experience of Tunisia presented by UNDP and a counterpart of the Tunisian government in employing the joint UNODC, UNDP and OHCHR SDG 16 Survey Initiative.
The meeting fulfilled its objective of bringing together different relevant institutions from countries all over the region, raising awareness for the needs of a standardized crime classification, and providing concrete examples and exercises to facilitate the understanding of the ICCS and its implementation process. Participating countries were encouraged to map all relevant national stakeholder involved in the creation of crime and criminal justice statistics and form a National Working Group to formally lead the ICCS implementation process in their respective countries.
Further information on the CoE can be found here, Twitter @CoE_UNODC and Facebook @UNODC.CoE.
