Policy Talk organized by CEU's Shattuck Center Features Launch Discussion of GI-TOC's 2025 Global Organized Crime Index
Vienna, January 28, 2026 – The Shattuck Center for Human Rights at Central European University hosted a policy discussion yesterday on "Organized Crime, Resilience, Democracy and the Rule of Law: GI-TOC's Global Organized Crime Index 2025." The event brought together policy experts, government representatives, and peacebuilding specialists to examine the Index's findings and implications for institutional resilience and human rights protection.
Dr. Mark Shaw, Executive Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), presented the 2025 Global Organized Crime Index, covering all 193 UN member states. The Index reveals that over 80 percent of the world's population lives in countries with high criminality and low resilience.
Data collected over six years shows that, globallly, criminality is expanding while resilience measures have shown minimal improvement. Cyber-dependent crimes, financial crimes, and foreign criminal actors represent the fastest-growing categories, driven significantly by the explosion of cyber scam centers in Southeast Asia.
State-embedded actors - profiteers of illicit economies sitting in powerful government and economic positions - emerged as the most pernicious type of criminal actors. Dr. Shaw noted they show the strongest negative correlation with resilience, citing examples including Venezuela, Myanmar, Iran, Cambodia, and North Korea where state interests fuse with criminal interests. Some states weaponize organized crime for political or economic purposes abroad, including assassinations, sabotage, cyber attacks, and sanctions evasion.
The Index data demonstrates that democracies are more resilient to organized crime than authoritarian regimes due to checks and balances, free media, transparency, and rule of law. However, Dr. Shaw acknowledged that citizens in high-criminality democracies increasingly support harsh measures and radical solutions, making crime a key populist agenda item. Ambassador Klaus Famira of the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs emphasized that institutional checks including whistleblower protections, free media, and law enforcement institutions remain crucial.
Eva Huber, Head of Peacebuilding and Mediation at the Austrian Centre for Peace, highlighted how organized crime exploits conflict-affected communities where state presence is absent. Criminal groups threaten community leaders and civil society organizations, becoming major spoilers in peace processes through violence and intimidation. The Index shows strong correlation between state fragility and illicit economies, with illegal mining driving instability in Latin America and Africa.
Helen Gonnord of the European Union External Action Service outlined EU efforts including the new Protect EU strategy launched in April 2025, the EU Strategy and Action Plan Against Drug Trafficking 2026-2030, and regional cooperation programs such as El Pacto and COPOLAD (EU-Latin America and Caribbean cooperation).
Dr. Shaw noted challenges to multilateral approaches, with the UN Palermo Convention hampered by lack of cooperation and trust. He suggested flexible multi-stakeholder coalitions outside or aligned to the UN may be necessary.
Panelists emphasized the critical need to protect civil society actors working against organized crime. Dr. Shaw noted that women often lead civil society groups, citing mothers of the disappeared in Mexico as an example. Witness and victim protection, as well as prevention programs targeting youth recruitment were identified as interventions with potential for positive impact.
This event was part of the Policy Talks series at CEU's Department of Public Policy, organized in collaboration with GI-TOC.
For more information:
Rebeca Marques Rocha | Marques-RochaR@ceu.edu