The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the 16th of which is “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,” namely: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Under this major goal, there are 12 targets, the 16.A of which is “Strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime.”

●Current Situation

The World

The world is getting more violent

The 18th edition of the Global Peace Index reveals that the world is at a crossroads. Without concerted effort, there is a risk of a surge in major conflicts. There are currently 56 conflicts, the most since World War II. They have become more international with 92 countries involved in conflicts outside their borders, the most since the GPI’s inception. The rising number of minor conflicts increases the likelihood of more major conflicts in the future. For example, in 2019, Ethiopia, Ukraine, and Gaza were all identified as minor conflicts.

The global economic impact of violence in 2023 was US$19.1 trillion or US$2,380 per person. This is an increase of $158 billion, driven largely by a 20% increase in GDP losses from conflict. Expenditure on peacebuilding and peacekeeping totaled US$49.6 billion, representing less than 0.6% of total military spending.

Graph: Institute for Economics & Peace

Source: Institute for Economics & Peace

China

China’s social security situation is stable, while crime control capabilities need to be improved

The 2024 Blue Book of Rule of Law “Report on China’s Rule of Law Development” points out that China’s social security is stable and runs well in 2024, but there is still a long way to go to improve the abilities to control crimes under the overall national security concept. Cybercrimes, financial crimes, intellectual property crimes, and “food, medicine and environment” crimes will show a high incidence trend and become the key areas of crime governance. With the promulgation and implementation of the “Amendment (XII) to the Criminal Law,” the business environment in China will be optimized positively, and the crackdown on financial crimes, especially money laundering and bribery, will be continuously strengthened. The legitimate rights and interests of various business entities will be equally protected in accordance with the law, and the business environment will be improved in terms of criminal rule of law.

The number of serious violent crimes in China has dropped significantly, and the crime structure has shown a clear trend of minor offences. The crime situation and criminal social governance have entered a new stage. The number of serious violent crimes prosecuted by procuratorates nationwide dropped from 162,000 in 1999 to 61,000 in 2023, and the proportion has dropped from 25.1% to 3.6%. At the same time, the proportion of minor crimes sentenced to less than three years of imprisonment increased from 54.4% in 1999 to 82.3% in 2023.

In 2023, China stepped up legislation in the areas of artificial intelligence supervision, protection of minors’ personal information, and cross-border data flow, and continuously improved the modern legal and policy system for digital governance. The year of 2023 was the first year of generative artificial intelligence supervision. In order to cope with the security risks brought by generative artificial intelligence, the Cyberspace Administration of China and six other departments issued the “Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services.” The establishment of the National Data Bureau in 2023 was a milestone in the construction of Digital China, which will accelerate the opening, sharing, flow and utilization of data.

Source: The Supreme People’s Court, chinanews.com

The World

Amazon regulates employee behavior and prevents gender-based violence

According to the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Amazon.com provides a clean, safe and healthy work environment. Each employee has a responsibility for maintaining a safe and healthy workplace by following safety and health rules and practices and reporting accidents, injuries and unsafe conditions, procedures, or behaviors. Violence and threatening behavior are not permitted. Employees must report to work in a condition to perform their duties, free from the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol.

Photo: Amazon

In 2023, Amazon joined the advisory board of the Resilience Fund for Women in Global Value Chains, created to support women’s economic resilience, health, and well-being. Between April 2022 and March 2023, the fund committed more than US$1.7 million in flexible grant funding to women-led organizations in South and Southeast Asia that work on sexual and reproductive health programs and services or prevention of gender-based violence. 

Source: Amazon

Marriot advances human rights 

As a leader in the travel and tourism industry, Marriott has prioritized the fight against human trafficking, child exploitation, and forced labor. In 2023, Marriott embarked on the next step in their journey to address critical human rights issues and prioritize the protection of human rights for all people. Through engagement with the Internet Watch Foundation and Cisco, Marriott launched the first-of-its-kind initiative in the hospitality industry to block websites with child sexual abuse material from guest networks across nearly 5,000 managed and franchised properties in the U.S. and Canada. Throughout 2024, Marriott aims to expand this program globally and support a safer Internet not only for their guests but for the world.

Marriott has invested US$210,000 in organizations that promote a more peaceful and understanding world since 2019. Through the company’s engagement activities, Marriott works to elevate travel as a powerful tool for connecting people, promoting peace, and raising cultural awareness. In 2023, they maintained their support for the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Generation Change Fellows Program. Through this peacebuilding initiative, Marriott assisted six youth-led organizations as they launched projects to foster collaboration, build resilience, and strengthen capacity in conflict affected countries. Marriott also engaged with Global Glimpse to fund travel scholarships for students from low-income backgrounds, with the goal of promoting cultural immersion and leadership development. Across Marriott’s hotels, they work to enhance cultural understanding through the Cultural Competence program. This program provides education and awareness for associates through specialized training aimed at embracing inclusion and fostering a welcoming environment.

China

Bank of China popularizes financial and legal knowledge

Bank of China (BOC) has opened the BOC University for the Elderly, an online learning platform in mobile banking, providing free online courses for the silver-haired customers across the country. In accordance with hot topics and key issues in people’s livelihood, it has developed special courses suitable for the elderly, such as “Finance in Life,” “Financial Fraud Prevention,” and “Famous Doctors’ Health Tricks.” By the end of 2023, the BOC University for the Elderly has launched more than 650 courses, with more than 620,000 clicks.

Photo: Bank of China

For the elderly group, BOC focuses on popularizing rational investment concepts and financial fraud prevention knowledge, among others, and helps the elderly learn to use smart devices and master the use of mobile banking and other software. BOC Consumer Finance, in conjunction with the Beijing Financial Street Service Bureau, Beijing Financial Street Sub-district and other departments, has held the “Anti-Fraud Guards Entering the Community” event, raising community residents’ anti-fraud awareness in many ways, including on-site explanations of anti-fraud knowledge, distribution of anti-fraud brochures, and interactive games.

For the disabled, BOC has provided special education schools with exclusive financial courses focusing on the disabled. The course content has been closely related to the actual situation of special students, such as their limited social network and weak information discrimination ability. BOC has used easy-to-understand methods to explain knowledge such as anti-counterfeiting and prevention of telecommunication and Internet fraud, so as to better meet the financial needs of special groups.

Source: Bank of China

Tencent has established a content security management mechanism to ensure the safety of content. Based on the characteristics of different platforms, Tencent continuously promotes the credibility and reliability of platform content sources, strengthens control, and avoids various harmful information, including but not limited to violence, terrorism, extremism, hate, fraud, discrimination, online harassment, self-harm, pornography and so on.

WeChat’s various content regulation documents and the “WeChat Coral Security” official account provide content guidelines, enhancing creators’ awareness of content security. The guidelines cover topics such as online fraud, Internet rumors, online violence, personal information protection, and protection of minors.

Tencent clearly states that suppliers should avoid providing content (including advertising content) that contains gambling, violence and discrimination, affects children’s welfare, or endangers health and safety when providing text, images, audio, and video of all kinds. In 2023, Tencent’s Children Protection Workstation delivered cyber security knowledge to rural left-behind children, urban migrant children, and children permanently living in the urban communities through various methods such as entering schools and communities. The course content included personal information protection, online bullying and fraud, online obscenity and violence, mental health and other topics to help them grow up healthier and safer.

Photo: WeChat account of One Foundation

Source: Tencent

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiated by the United Nations

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change while ensuring that no one is left behind.