Statement by Rafael Benitez, Director of Social Rights, Health and Environment

Mr President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

The Council of Europe welcomes this discussion on advancing innovative and evidence-based crime prevention strategies towards social, economic and environmental development.

The title of this agenda item captures an important reality: crime prevention cannot be considered in isolation from the conditions in which crime develops, nor from the consequences crime has for our societies.

Effective prevention must be based on evidence: understanding where risks arise, which groups and communities are particularly exposed, how criminal markets evolve, and which interventions actually work.

It must also be comprehensive.

Social development matters for crime prevention. Inequality, exclusion and vulnerability can create conditions that criminal networks exploit. Prevention therefore requires strong communities, protection of rights and access to institutions and justice. It must also pay particular attention to those who may face heightened risks including women, youth and children.

This is fundamentally a human rights approach to prevention: understanding who is at risk, why they are at risk and designing interventions on the basis of evidence rather than assumptions.

Economic development matters. Corruption, illicit financial flows and organised crime undermine legitimate economies and divert resources away from public services and development. Prevention must make our economies and institutions more resilient to criminal infiltration.

And increasingly, environmental development and protection matter. Environmental crime destroys natural resources, damages livelihoods and human health, and threatens biodiversity and ecosystems. In some cases, that damage is irreversible.

This is why prevention needs to move further upstream: from reacting to individual offences towards identifying risks early, reducing opportunities for crime and building resilience.

The Council of Europe contributes to this through a substantial body of criminal-law treaties in a highly integrated legal system.

Our conventions address cybercrime, trafficking in human beings, money laundering and confiscation of criminal assets, falsified medical products, terrorism and other forms of serious and organised crime. These treaties are open not only to the 46 member States of the Council of Europe but to countries from other regions.

These treaties are not simply instruments for prosecution. They are also instruments of prevention.

They establish common legal frameworks, close gaps exploited by criminals, promote cooperation across borders and between institutions, protect victims and witnesses, and provide mechanisms for assessing implementation and identifying where improvements are needed.

Our newest criminal-law treaty illustrates particularly well this connection between prevention and sustainable development.

The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, opened for signature in December 2025, responds to the growing scale and complexity of environmental crime.

Its approach goes deliberately beyond punishment.

It includes preventive measures, promotes awareness and cooperation with relevant stakeholders, strengthens international cooperation, and provides protection for victims, witnesses and persons reporting environmental offences.

Importantly, it recognises that environmental crime requires a multidisciplinary response. Criminal justice authorities need to work with environmental regulators, scientists, customs authorities, financial investigators, civil society and the private sector.

This is also where innovation matters. Better information-sharing, new technologies, financial investigation and stronger international networks can help us identify environmental crime earlier, understand evolving criminal methods and intervene before damage becomes irreversible.

Mr President,

The central message from the Council of Europe is therefore straightforward.

Evidence-based crime prevention requires us to connect criminal justice, human rights and social, economic and environmental policy.

Our treaties provide legal frameworks for doing so. But their impact ultimately depends on implementation, evidence, cooperation and our capacity to adapt them to evolving forms of crime.

The Council of Europe stands ready to strengthen this work with UNODC and its member States, and also with partners across regions in line with the formal pledges we made to you yesterday.

Because effective crime prevention does more than reduce crime. It protects people, strengthens institutions and economies, and safeguards the environment on which our common future depends.

Thank you.