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86Urban crime and violenceUN-Habitat SaferCities Programme …tackles crime andviolence as issuesof good urbangovernance… which… recognizes thatcrime and insecurityhave been stronglyaffected by theimpact ofurbanizationspecific actions that signature entails; the recognition thatnot all nations are equally well placed to implement theconvention and, thus, the creation of a mechanism to helpdeveloping nations; and the recognition of the need for astanding review mechanism. There is no suggestion that aframework of this nature will of itself resolve all the difficultproblems associated with tackling transnational crime; butthere can be little doubt that such a mechanism as a vehiclefor encouraging appropriate cooperation between nations isof considerable importance. It could also be argued thatsigning a convention of this nature is the easy part, and thatwhat really matters is what governments do over time. Theconvention also has a role to play in setting standards forgovernments to maintain and, indeed, to improve upon overtime.■ International Criminal Police OrganizationAnother international initiative is the International CriminalPolice Organization (Interpol), which has 186 membercountries. 7 A key role of Interpol is to increase and improveinternational law enforcement in order to combat all formsof organized crime, including illicit drug production andtrafficking, weapons smuggling, trafficking in human beings,money laundering, child pornography and white collar crime,as well as high-tech crime and corruption. Its functionsentail the creation and operation of secure global policecommunications services; the maintenance and developmentof operational databases and data services for policeorganizations; and the provision of operational policesupport services. As many aspects of crime have becomeinternationalized, so the need for police forces to be wellconnected internationally and to work harmoniously withother police forces in seeking to address common problemshas become more significant. Interpol plays an importantrole in supporting and facilitating these processes. As well asproviding support through its incident response teams at thescenes of disasters, terrorist attacks and large-scale eventsthat required additional security, Interpol’s operationalsupport services were particularly active in 2005 in fivepriority crime areas: public safety and terrorism; drugs andcriminal organizations; trafficking in human beings; financialand high-technology crime; and fugitives. The importance ofmuch of this work for urban areas is that cities bear thebrunt of crimes of this nature. It seems likely that, in aglobalizing world, more crime will have international dimensions,and so the need for police responses which not merelyrange from the local to the international but which also linkthese effectively will become more important.■ UN-Habitat Safer Cities ProgrammeA further example of a form of international cooperationmechanism of direct relevance to the concerns of thischapter is the UN-Habitat Safer Cities Programme 8 , whichtackles crime and violence as issues of good urban governance,in response to a United Nations Economic and SocialCouncil resolution of 1995. 9 The programme, which waslaunched in 1996, recognizes that crime and insecurity havebeen strongly affected by the impact of urbanization, and assuch, have become a major preoccupation for manycountries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean,and the Pacific. In this context, the issue of urban crimeprevention, which is the focus of the Safer CitiesProgramme, represents a key challenge for the sustainabledevelopment of cities and human settlements in general. Anumber of countries are in the process of reforming theirpolice and justice systems with a greater appreciation of theurban environment, and inspired by international standardsthat increasingly recognize the central role of municipalitiesas key actors in coalitions and in the development of community-wideplanning strategies for addressing crime andviolence prevention. The prevention of crime has receivedmore sustained attention, not only in relation to the integrationof socially excluded groups, but also for victims ofcrime.The programme’s initial focus was on Africa, at therequest of a group of African city mayors who wereconcerned about the extent of violence in their cities andwanted help with the development of prevention strategies.This provided a learning ground upon which the programmeadapted, piloted and tested various tools within an internationallyrecognized municipal framework and approach tocrime prevention. To date, Safer Cities initiatives are wellunder way in several African cities (Johannesburg, Durban,Dar es Salaam, Abidjan, Antananarivo, Dakar, Yaoundé,Douala, Nairobi), and are also being replicated at thenational level in some of the pilot countries in Africa. Theprogramme has been extended to Latin America, Asia andPort Moresby, Papua New Guinea in order to cater for anincreasing need for exchange of information, knowledge andgood practice between national, regional and local governmentsas well as civil society and non-governmentorganizations, but also at the international level.Although the programmes vary according to thecharacteristics and requirements of the particular locality,the essence of the approach is broadly common, withemphasis on attitudinal change and governance processes.Its key activities are:• strengthening the capacities of local authorities toaddress urban safety issues and reduce delinquency andinsecurity;• promoting holistic crime prevention approaches implementedin collaboration with central and localauthorities, the criminal justice system, the privatesector and civil society;• developing tools and documentation to support localinitiatives• encouraging city networks in order to exchange experiences;• preparing and implementing capacity-buildingprogrammes, and bringing in qualified and experiencedpartners from elsewhere to help;• focusing on three main action areas, in particular: developingsocial crime prevention approaches targetinggroups at risk, developing situational crime preventionapproaches targeting public spaces, and supportingreform of the criminal justice system. 10