15 June 2017

News Story: TOC manual author disputes Japanese gov't rationale for 'anti-conspiracy' bill - interview

LOS ANGELES -- The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC or TOC) specifically excludes the prevention of terrorism as an objective of the convention, a criminal law expert who wrote a manual to the treaty told the Mainichi Shimbun.

Nikos Passas, a 58-year-old professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University and the author of the "Legislative Guide for the Implementation of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime," emphasized to the Mainichi in a phone interview June 12 that "there was a very specific intent to leave out of this convention ideologically, religiously, or politically motivated offenses."

Meanwhile, however, the Japanese government has repeatedly cited the necessity of passing the controversial "anti-conspiracy" bill to prevent terrorism and meet the criteria necessary to become party to the TOC.

Read the full story at The Mainichi