Ministers, Deputy Ministers and State Secretaries from 14 countries (Botswana, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Norway, Romania, Senegal, Singapore, Timor-Leste, the United States and Zambia) attended the anti-corruption roundtable in the Hague, hosted by the Foreign Ministers of the Netherlands, Canada and Ecuador, building on commitments made at the first Summit for Democracy. Some of the participating States appear supportive of the idea of an international anti-corruption court, others are only starting to develop a position on it; the United States has highlighted that it does not support a new court. Photo: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Representatives of some 40 countries, as well as several international organizations and NGOs, including the UNCAC Coalition, joined the discussions on the second day of the roundtable and highlighted needs and opportunities to advance the anti-corruption agenda in the short- and mid-run. For example, by allowing for civil society participation in UNCAC working group meetings; strengthening the UNCAC review mechanism to advance implementation of existing commitments; addressing barriers in asset recovery; advancing preventive measures such as publicly accessible registers of beneficial owners of companies and assets; and by providing countries with resources to act on reform needs identified through the UNCAC implementation reviews.
Judge Mark Wolf, the founder and Chair of Integrity Initiatives International (III), the lead proponent of an International Anti-Corruption Court, highlighted that a court would be complementary to other measures to strengthen the international anti-corruption framework.
The proponents have outlined their vision in a recent paper: “The Progressing Proposal for An International Anti-Corruption Court”.
Outlining the proposal for a new international court
Three leading legal experts – Justice Richard Goldstone (South Africa), Justice Maria Wilson (Trinidad and Tobago) and Ambassador Allan Rock (Canada) - who are part of an III expert committee that is drafting proposed statues for a Court, recently discussed the arguments for an international anti-corruption court with the UNCAC Coalition community in a session hosted by our working group on Grand Corruption and State Capture.
Critical view of a new international court
In a new UNCAC Coalition guest blog, Dr. Juanita Olaya argues that an International Anti-Corruption Court is not the answer: While the concern about better, effective and consistent international action is well grounded and the intention well-placed, concerned countries would be “well-advised to invest their political capital and energy in approaches that produce more immediate results. These will no doubt be more transformational than a court that may only be functional, at best, in 20 years’ time.”
