Baltic statement at Security Council open debate on transnational organized crime

Security Council Open Debate “Threats to international peace and security Transnational organized crime, growing challenges and new threats.”

Statement delivered by H.E. Mr. Rytis Paulauskas, Permanent Representative of Lithuania on behalf of the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

7 December 2023, New York

President,

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and my own country Lithuania. We also align ourselves with the Statement delivered by the European Union.

We thank Ecuadorian Presidency for organizing this Open debate on the issue of transnational organized crime. Criminal networks violate the principles of human rights, justice and legitimacy through involvement in activities such as corruption, illicit financial transactions, human trafficking and violence. Illicit financial flows deflect resources away from public services and developmental efforts, impeding the establishment of institutions based on transparency and accountability. They create a significant obstacle to domestic resource mobilization that is critical to drive development efforts.

Strengthening the capacities of law enforcement, advocating for transparency, and fostering international cooperation are critical if we are to realize the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG16. Additionally, the interplay of conflict and crime dynamics, along with the resulting threats to human security, serves as a catalyst for migration and displacement, disproportionately impacting women and children.

Due to a limited time, I would like to highlight just three areas of particular concern, where transnational organized crime activities have undermined the international and regional security both directly and by creating conditions for other serious violations. These are smuggling of migrants, cybercrime and mercenary activities.

Firstly, I would like to underscore the issue of instrumentalization of migration organized by criminal smugglers networks and facilitated by state institutions of Belarus and Russia. Since the summer of 2021, the Belarusian regime has been organizing the arrivals of people from third countries to Belarus, promising them easy access to Europe. The regime has been using threats and physical force to illegally push migrants to cross the borders of the Baltic region. This is an example of hybrid attacks to destabilize the situation in the region.

Recently such attempts by Russia are also observed on the borders of our region. Baltic States once again are calling on the international community to firmly demand that Belarus and Russia comply with their international obligations. Instrumentalizing desperate people is inhumane. Colluding with criminal networks for political purposes is deplorable. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, openly supported by Belarus is the main motivation for both states behind such behavior.

Secondly, the international community must significantly increase security and stability in cyberspace, including by strengthening its resolve against the growing threats stemming both from States and non-State actors. The states need to act in order to to prevent, discourage, and respond to malicious activities in cyberspace. In this regard we are convinced of the great value of the proposed UN Programme of Action (PoA) to advance responsible State behavior in the use of information and communications technologies in the context of international security. In addition, the International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes, that is currently being negotiated, has to evolve as a focused international legal instrument that is fully and entirely compatible with human rights.

Thirdly, the increased use of mercenaries in the areas of conflict leads to increased violence against civilians, adding to human suffering and causing humanitarian disasters. This includes Russia’s so called private, yet state supported and financed, military companies dispatched to engage in combat on across Africa, in Syria and in Ukraine, disregarding international law, particularly humanitarian law. Most prominent of those is The Wagner Group – already subject to EU sanctions for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine and under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime.

In Mali alone, the independent human rights experts have received persistent and alarming accounts of horrific executions, mass graves, acts of torture, rape and sexual violence, pillaging, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances perpetrated by Malian armed forces and their allies in the Mopti area and other places, in the context of ongoing hostilities. This January, the independent experts of the Human Rights Council, called for an immediate independent investigation into gross human rights abuses and possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Mali by Government forces and the private military contractor known as the “Wagner Group” since 2021.

President,

This meeting provides a good opportunity to take a comprehensive look at all aspects of transnational organized criminal activities that threaten global peace and security. We encourage the UN to continue working with relevant regional organizations to ensure monitoring and prevention of all aspects of transnational crime, by identifying and addressing rising threats and seeking to achieve full accountability.