 Signed and ratified or acceded Only signed Non-party | |
| Type | Organized crime;international criminal law |
|---|---|
| Drafted | 15 November 2000 |
| Signed | 12 December 2000 |
| Location | Palermo, Italy |
| Effective | 29 September 2003 |
| Condition | 40 ratifications |
| Signatories | 147 |
| Parties | 193 |
| Depositary | Secretary-General of the United Nations |
| Languages | Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish |
TheUnited Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC, also called thePalermo Convention) is a 2000 United Nations-sponsoredmultilateral treaty againsttransnational organized crime.
The convention was adopted by aresolution of theUnited Nations General Assembly on 15 November 2000.
The Convention came into force on 29 September 2003. According toLeoluca Orlando, Mayor of Palermo, the convention was the first international convention to fight transnational organized crime, trafficking of human beings, and terrorism.[1]
In 2014, the UNTOC strengthened its policies regardingwildlife smuggling.[2] Botswana signed the Anti-Human Trafficking Act of 2014 to comply with UNTOC on the human smuggling protocol.[3]
In 2017, as Japan prepared the organization of the2019 Rugby World Cup, and the2020 Summer Olympics andParalympics, it faced the issue of not being fully compliant with the UNTOC, thus jeopardizing its eligibility to organize those events.[4]
In February 2018, Afghanistan introduced a new penal code which made the country's laws UNTOC-compliant for the first time.[5]
UNTOC's three supplementary protocols (thePalermo Protocols) are:[6]
All four of these instruments contain elements of the current international law onhuman trafficking,arms trafficking andmoney laundering. TheUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) acts as custodian of the UNTOC and its protocols.[7]
The UNTOC is the main legal international instrument to fight organized crime, but its efficiency depends on each member's ability to implement the organization's framework.[8] As an example, the UNTOC requires a minimum sentence of four years imprisonment for transnational organised criminal offences.[9]
As of July 2025[update], it has 193 parties,[10] which includes 187United Nations member states, theCook Islands, theHoly See,Niue, theState of Palestine, and theEuropean Union. The four UN member states that arenot party to the convention are (* indicates that the state has signed but not ratified the convention):
In June 2018, the Iranian Parliament approved the bill to join the UNTOC. The bill was initially blocked by the country'sExpediency Discernment Council, until May 2025 when it was eventually approved upon further review.[11][12][13]
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