Italy is strongly committed to the work of the United Nations Offices and related Organizations and Agencies based in Vienna. The Austrian capital, indeed, represents the main multilateral forum on global challenges connected to non-traditional threats to international peace and security. In particular, UN activities in Vienna focus on three main areas.
The first one is nuclear non-proliferation and it is covered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). At the core of the IAEA’s work are the promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy and the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In the triennium 2017 – 2020 Italy is a member of the Board of Governors, the Agency’s main policy-making organ together with the General Conference. Another important organization in the field of disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation is the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). The CTBTO will become fully operational upon the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. As of today, pending the entry into force of the Treaty, it has been acting through a Preparatory Commission that was chaired by Italy in 2018.
The second main area of work for the Vienna-based UN Organizations concerns organized crime and illicit trafficking. Hosting the headquarters of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna is a cornerstone for the UN System’s activities against a wide range of criminal phenomena such as: organized crime; terrorism; illicit trafficking of firearms, drugs and persons; money laundering; piracy and environmental crimes. Italy has traditionally played a leading role in this field. Evidence of this is the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which was signed in Palermo in 2000, marking a significant enhancement of international cooperation against transnational organized crime. Furthermore, in 2018 Italy played a leading role in the adoption of the UN Resolution establishing the Mechanism for the Review of the Implementation of the UNTOC. The Review Mechanism aims at monitoring the implementation of the Convention and its protocols, thus strengthening international investigative and judicial cooperation among the 189 States Parties.
The third thematic area is related to International Cooperation and Development. Indeed, the Vienna International Centre hosts the headquarters of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), whose mandate is to promote Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID). Italy is the largest bilateral donor of the Organization and the Italian contributions have made it possible to carry out significant technical cooperation projects to support the manufacturing sector in many Developing Countries, particularly in the Middle East and in the North and Sub-Saharan Africa. The cooperation between Italy and UNIDO has also promoted important partnerships and synergies with our private sector and civil society, contributing to the promotion of the Italian way of “doing business”, its technologies and expertise mainly in the agro-industrial sector.
The prominence of the Viennese UN Offices in addressing global challenges is reinforced by the presence of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), two bodies of primary importance, especially in consideration of the economic and technological impact that developments in these two sectors are having on our society.
