A/57/153 38. A more balanced approach is being pursued in all Centre activities, including technical cooperation activities, pursuant to the deliberations of the Commission at its tenth session and the recommendations of the Committee for Programme and Coordination at its forty-sixth session.1 In accordance with the overall objective and strategies laid out in the medium-term plan for the period 2002-2005 2 and the programme budget for the biennium 2002-2003 (see A/56/6, sect. 14), the main technical cooperation priorities include fostering international cooperation and the strengthening of national capacity: (a) To combat transnational organized crime through promoting ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the protocols thereto. Technical assistance activities include support for its States parties in collecting and disseminating information on trends and proven practices, with priority attention to legal and institutional arrangements to address organized crime and provisions for international cooperation; (b) To combat trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Special attention is given to collecting information on global trends and proven practices. Technical assistance modules are being developed for improved criminal justice responses to trafficking, including enhanced capacity of specialized police units against human trafficking and inter-agency cooperation with civil society to improve assistance to and protection of victims and witnesses; (c) To combat corruption, through the development of evidence-based and comprehensive anti-corruption policies and measures, as well as the provision of technical assistance. The United Nations manual on practical measures against corruption is being revised, and a tool kit and other materials are being devised to assist countries in developing anticorruption strategies, building capacity to investigate and prosecute corruption and enhancing the integrity of key institutions, such as the judiciary; (d) To strengthen capacity-building and national institutions in other crime and justice areas, such as juvenile justice, victim issues, prison administration, violence against women, restorative justice and crime prevention measures, pursuant to the recent plans of action for the implementation of the Vienna Declaration; 8 (e) To prevent terrorism, by ratifying or acceding to and implementing the 12 global legal instruments against terrorism and implementing elements of the plan of action against terrorism (see General Assembly resolution 56/261, annex), developed to implement and follow up the 2000 Vienna Declaration on Crime and Justice. The focus of the Centre’s efforts will be on providing technical assistance to support ratification, accession and implementation of the instruments, awareness-raising at the level of policy makers, preparation of model laws, institution-building and legislative assistance, and strengthening existing arrangements in the field of extradition and mutual legal assistance. 39. The capacity to deliver technical assistance is enhanced at the operational level whenever there is an active presence in the field. In that context, a number of selected offices of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme have been converted to represent the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 1998/24. Thus, the Centre is represented in five regional offices — South-East Asia, Southern Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, West Africa — and three national field offices — Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria. B. Global programme against corruption 40. The approach of the Centre for International Crime Prevention is to help Member States with: (a) assessing corruption with special focus on the criminal justice system, including the courts; (b) promoting integrity, efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system; and (c) facilitating a comprehensive, evidence-based and integrated approach, in collaboration with other donors and key stakeholders. 41. Priority activities identified to achieve those outcomes are: (a) technical assistance, by developing pilot projects in the five regions of the world; (b) research, by collecting and analysing global trends of corruption, especially focusing on benchmarking; (c) dissemination of best practices through the revision of the United Nations manual for anti-corruption policy, the distribution of a United Nations anticorruption tool kit and handbooks for prosecutors, investigators and judges, as well as through a web page