Why in news?  Union Minister of Home affairs Nityanand Rai participated in UN convention  against transnational organized crime ministerial conference at Palermo in  Italy

Highlights:

• This year conference marked 20th anniversary of United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crimes (UNTOC)
• The Ministerial Conference is organised by the Government of Italy and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNDOC) Secretariat.

About UNTOC

• Type – Organized crime and international criminal law
• Launch – 2000
• Members – 191 – Republic of the Congo, Iran, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan and Tuvalu are not the members
• Features
  • United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty.
  • India joined on 2002
  • First international convention to fight transnational organized crime, trafficking of human beings, and terrorism.
  • Afghanistan introduced a new penal code which made the country’s laws UNTOC-compliant for the first time