On November 15, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and two supplementary protocols: the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air. A third protocol, the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, was adopted on May 31, 2001. The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was established to improve the capacity of parties to the Convention to combat transnational organized crime and to promote and review the implementation of the Convention. At its third session, the Conference of the Parties reviewed the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols. The Conference expressed its concern about the low rate of response by many Convention parties to questionnaires on the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols. The Conference requested its secretariat to send new requests for parties to respond immediately to the questionnaires. The Conference also discussed the implementation of the Convention provisions on international cooperation. It noted that the Convention is being successfully used by a number of countries as a basis for granting requests for extradition, mutual legal assistance, and international cooperation for the purposes of confiscation. The Conference also reviewed the recommendations of the open-ended interim working group of government experts on technical assistance. The recommendations pertain to the determination of needs for technical assistance, priorities for technical assistance, information on technical assistance activities, and the mobilization of resources. Appended list of documents before the Conference and a draft provisional agenda for the Conference's fourth session