Beginning Work at the UNODC

I am pretty lucky to be working under James Shaw, the legal advisor for all of Latin America (Mexico and down) concerning crime. So far, he has had me research the UN Conventions and Protocols that pertain to organized crime, namely the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, Air, the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition and the Convention against Corruption.

Getting a grasp of these exciting legal tools (exciting because they were just developed in the last five years) will be very helpful in what will probably be my main task in these three months: spearheading a project to create a centralized, integrated database for Peruvian law enforcement. This is kind of a major task, essentially establishing a reduced version of the Department of Homeland Security for the country that could possibly be replicated in other Latin American countries. I've been doing a lot of research about database technologies, Peruvian law enforcement and other countries and organizations that may have experience with this sort of thing. My first goal is to complete a "Project Idea" (grant-proposal) to be submitted to the Vienna Office for funding. I'll let you know how it goes!