The UN Security Council (UNSC) is increasingly concerned with the detrimental role that organised crime, illicit flows, markets and criminal actors are playing in zones of conflict.  This is the clear finding of a new research tool that the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GIATOC).

GIATOC have analysed all UNSC resolutions and presidential statements from 2000 – 2017, and coded for references to any form(s) of organized crime discussed in the resolution.

GIATOC found that out of the total 1113 UNSC resolutions passed in the period, 387 resolutions (34.8%) referenced or discussed organized crime in relations to the conflict setting. Of those resolutions, 62.8% concerned a country or region in Africa, a region not typically associated with organized crime. Mentions peaked in 2015, when more than 63.5% of the total SC resolutions referred to organized crime.  They represented a confluence of conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, as well as a preoccupation with the crime-terror nexus dominated the Security Council agenda.

GIATOC created the data visualisation below to allow you to explore our data yourselves.  Search by region, country, or crime type, or the intersection between them. Click on the bars themselves for active links back to the original resolutions.

See the full methodology and data here.