G8 Justice and Interior Ministers To Meet in Rome, Starting Thursday 28 May
27/05/2009
Rome is to host the G8 Justice and Interior Ministers' Meeting from Thursday 28 to Saturday 30 May to address some of the more important issues on the international agenda in the spheres of justice and of immigration.
The ministers' meeting, under the aegis of Italy in its capacity as G8 President for 2009, will be attended not only by the sixteen G8 ministers themselves, but also by European Commissioner Jacques Barrot, by Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble, by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, by United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute - UNICRI Director Sandro Calvani, and by the interior and justice ministers of the Czech Republic, which currently holds the European Union duty presidency
The ministers' meeting devoted to the issues of security and immigration, under the aegis of Italy in its capacity as G8 president for 2009, is going to come into its own on the morning of Friday 29 May with the first of three planned working sessions devoted respectively to the struggle against organized crime, to issues connected with immigration and to urban security.
An introductory welcome on the evening of Thursday 28 will be followed by three working sessions over the following two days. The first session will be focusing on the struggle against organized crime at the international level; the second session will be devoted to migration policies; and the third session will be addressing the issue of urban security and the quality of life in cities, an issue to which the general public is increasingly sensitive and which is being addressed by the G8 group for the very first time.
The broad range of topics on the agenda at the session devoted to the struggle against organized crime includes international strategies to combat "mafioso assets", IT crime, and online paedo-pornography. Also on the agenda is a ceremony devoted to the memory of Judge Giovanni Falcone, a symbol of the struggle against every form of mafia..
Combating illegal immigration, the struggle against human trafficking and integration are the topics on the agenda for the second working session, while the final session will be addressing the issue of international terrorism, devoting particular attention to the relationship between the struggle against terrorism and respect for people's basic rights.
The meeting will be chaired by Justice Minister Angelino Alfano and by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni.
