Pino Arlacchi
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Pino Arlacchi was born on 21st February in Gioia Tauro, Italy. He is a famous Italian sociologist and is famous worldwide for his studies and essays about the Mafia.
On September 1, 1997 he was appointed Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), with the rank of Under-Secretary-General. Currently, he is a full professor of sociology at the University of Sassari.
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[edit] Biography
In the early nineties he founded the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA), a law-enforcement agency specially entrusted with fighting organized crime.[citation needed]
Later on he became president of IASOC (Internation Organization of studies on organized crime). Finally, he was appointed honorary president of the Giovanni Falcone foundation, named after noted magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was also a close friend of him.
[edit] Academic career
He has been associate professor of applied sociology at the University of Calabria and at the University of Firenze. Moreover he was visiting professor at the Columbia University of New York. Later on he got the full professor position at the University of University of Sassari, where he is currently professor of sociology at the political science faculty.
[edit] Political career
Between 1994-1996 he was a member of the lower chamber of the Italian parliament (Camera dei deputati) and between 1996-1997 he was senator. During this time period, he was appointed vice-president of the Antimafia Commission, a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament for which he had already collaborated as consultant between 1984 and 1986.
[edit] United Nations activities
As soon as he was appointed director of UNDCP he started a world-wide campaign against drugs, the so-called "War on drugs", that did not completely succeed in all the aspect, at least according to a review done in 2000.
The key point of such proposal was the elimination of all opium and cocaine plantations by end of 2008, by means of the development of alternative plantations. Such a proposal had been proposed by Prof. Arlacchi immediately after his installation at the UN office and it had been unanimously approved by the general UN assembly in June 1998.
Since that time, the production of narcotic sensibly decreased, in particular in Afghanistan.[citation needed]
In order to reach this goal, Prof. Arlacchi reached a direct agreement with the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. This agreement stipulated that UN would spend 25 million US$, to be given tho those farmers who stopped their production of opium poppy. The agreement has been firmly criticized by the European Parliament, which is a financial supporter of the UNDCP, on the grounds that this money might be indirectly financing a dictatorial regime.
Unfortunately, the new war conducted by US again the Taliban regime has interrupted the program started by Arlacchi some year before. After the beginning of the war, the production of opium restarted.
The most important result achieved by Prof. Arlacchi during his activity at the UN was the promotion of UN convention against all the forms of organized criminality, that has been held in Palermo in 2000. The document of this convention came into effect since 2003.
[edit] Bibliography
Prof. Dr. Arlacchi is the author of several books and publications on the Mafia and transnational organized crime, which have been translated into many languages. He has received a number of national and international awards and decorations, in recognition of his outstanding contribution towards a better understanding of the Mafia. Among his publications we report:
- Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Mafia, Peasants and Great Estates: Society in Traditional Calabria
