An overview of the changing work environment for the Centre focuses on organized crime's exploitation of the changing international conditions occasioned by the end of the cold war and the globalization of information and markets. Other changes in the work environment include local conflicts that have proliferated along ethnic and religious rather than ideological lines, and the need for increased international cooperation in addressing organized crime. It is against this background of change that the Centre for International Crime prevention, strengthened through the organization's reform efforts, has been playing a pivotal role in key areas of international concern. In pursuit of its mandate, the Centre has acted as a global advocate, a forum for policymaking, and a provider of technical support to member states, both individually and collectively. In a section on supporting a global forum on criminal policy, this report discusses a strategic management by the Commission of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program and secretariat activities of the Centre for the global forum and its intergovernmental processes. A section on addressing organized crime covers the elaboration of a convention against transnational organized crime, an assessment of the threat of organized crime, and the prevention of trafficking in human beings. Other sections of the report consider the promotion of standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice, the collection and dissemination of information, technical cooperation, the mobilizing of resources, coordinating the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Program network and promoting partnerships, and future challenges. 6 notes