|  | ISSUE II - 14 DECEMBER 2021 | THE COSP OBSERVER | | NEWS AND VIEWS FROM CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS OBSERVING THE 9TH UNCAC COSP |  | Above: Civil society gathered in the NGO Lounge yesterday to discuss advocacy priorities during the CoSP. | CoSP9 opens, postpones discussion on objections to NGO participation to Wednesday UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly at the opening of the 9th UNCAC CoSP, in presence of the Egyptian Prime Minister, and following a message from UN Secretary General António Guterres, welcomed 2,100 participants. Ghada Waly highlighted the massive destructive force of corruption, mentioning that the African continent alone loses an estimated USD 88bn per year through capital flight. Egypt was elected as CoSP chair for the next two years, succeeding the United Arab Emirates. The Conference decided to postpone the discussion about objections filed against the participation of eight NGOs by a State Party to Wednesday morning. During the general discussion, which is expected to run until Tuesday night, several speakers, including Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and the EU’s Commissioner for home affairs highlighted the important role of civil society in anti-corruption efforts, in particular the UNCAC. Several countries, including Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan and Germany, underlined the need to advance transparency of beneficial company owners. This is the first CoSP where negotiations on most of the eight resolutions tabled had been agreed in Vienna ahead of the beginning of the Conference. The only resolution still being negotiated in “informals” is on advancing beneficial ownership, where some Western countries appear to push back against language on public access to beneficial ownership registries and verification on beneficial ownership data – crucial aspects where we had hoped to see progress at the CoSP. There appears to be a risk that the CoSP resolution may backtrack from – rather than build on – language agreed by all States just six months ago in the Political Declaration of the UN General Assembly Special Session against corruption. While other resolutions appear to be finalised, it is possible that States in the last minute may raise points on other resolutions, such as on one addressing follow-up to the June 2021 UNGASS against corruption. ‘Beneficial Ownership Transparency is Key to Tackling Asset Recovery’ | An interview with Mr. Emmanuel Nweke, Senior Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Nigeria, who is chairing the negotiations on the first-ever resolution focused on the transparency of ultimate company owners. Why did Nigeria decide to table a resolution that links beneficial ownership transparency to asset recovery? Nigeria tabled this resolution because we think that asset recovery can only be effective if it is possible to properly link illicit assets to their beneficial owners. The Pandora Papers have again shown that through tax evasion and the use of shell companies that hide the real beneficial owners of assets, millions of dollars are lost to corruption every year. We believe that the time is right to bring beneficial ownership transparency to the forefront of the international discourse on asset recovery. Therefore, Nigeria - together with like-minded countries - has tabled this resolution on ‘enhancing the access and use of beneficial ownership information to facilitate the identification, recovery and return of proceeds of crime’. What will be the added value of this new resolution? We expect that the resolution will request the UNCAC asset recovery working group to discuss challenges and best practices on beneficial ownership transparency. We also foresee that the resolution will request UNODC, in partnership with the StAR Initiative, to start collecting information and provide updates on countries that maintain a registry or other mechanism on beneficial ownership. Our preference would be to have centralized beneficial ownership registries that everybody can access. What are the main challenges that stand in the way of the resolution being adopted? In previous CoSP resolutions, including resolution 8/9 tabled by Nigeria, there are references to beneficial ownership transparency. However, there has never been a resolution that is solely focusing on beneficial ownership transparency. Many delegations want to ensure that previous commitments on beneficial ownership transparency are not being watered down, whilst others do not want the new resolution to prejudge work that other international fora, like FATF, are undertaking in the area of beneficial ownership. Yet, the fact that the resolution links asset recovery to beneficial ownership transparency is helping to facilitate consensus-building between different geopolitical zones and hopefully we will be able to adopt it during this Conference. | | Don’t miss these upcoming Special Events at COSP9Wednesday 15 December: Beneficial ownership: Advancing UNCAC commitments, 12.00-13.00 at Ste Catherine, co-organized by the UK and Open Ownership. Strengthening civil society's role in anti-corruption in Uzbekistan, 19.00-20.00 at El Wadi, co-organized by UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia, Uzbekistan, and UNODC Civil Society Unit. Do we need a special rapporteur on anti-corruption and if so, what should its mandate look like? 19.00-20.00 at Ste Catherine, Co-organized by the CCPR, Norad and the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.
| | | States must Deliver on the UNGASS Commitments to Advance Asset RecoveryBy the UNCAC Coalition’s Asset Recovery Working Group There have been small advances in asset recovery in the past 18 years since the first UNCAC CoSP. However, only a fraction of the amount looted from developing countries, where the resources are badly needed, has been returned. In most of the countries where the stolen loot is deposited, there is insufficient political will to apply the necessary detection and confiscation measures for prompt asset recovery and return. In many of the countries from which the assets have been plundered, there is no effort to recover them. And when there is asset recovery and return, it is often not done in a transparent, accountable and inclusive manner. A number of measures supplementing UNCAC provisions - including the commitments in the June 2021 UNGASS Political Declaration - could help achieve faster and more accountable asset recovery processes. Therefore both, origin and destination jurisdictions, should give the strongest possible interpretation to the UNGASS commitments and report on their progress. In particular, States Parties must deliver on the UNGASS commitment to enhance beneficial ownership transparency (UNGASS Declaration, para 16), as it is key for the effective tracing and freezing of illicit assets. The best way to achieve this is through centralised registries of beneficial ownership information that are freely accessible to the public. In addition, anti-money laundering requirements should be robustly applied to all professionals and entities providing services that offer risks of money laundering, with sanctions in place for non-compliance. |  | In line with para 40 and 47 of the UNGASS declaration, States Parties should further allow for non-conviction-based confiscation in asset recovery cases where a criminal conviction is impossible. This includes cases where the offender is dead, has fled the jurisdiction, is immune from prosecution or too powerful to prosecute. Where confiscation is only possible after a criminal conviction, countries should introduce a presumption of money laundering where certain criteria are met, to facilitate conviction of the offenders and confiscation of the proceeds of crime. Principles of transparency and accountability should further guide the entire asset recovery process and include consultations with a broad range of stakeholders prior to return as well as public reporting about the use of returned funds. As we are approaching the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UNCAC, now is the time to move ahead on asset recovery! | | UNCAC Coalition Special Event with Honduras The government of the Republic of Honduras and the UNCAC Coalition co-organized a side-event on “Multi-sectorial partnerships towards policy reform based on the implementation review mechanism”. The event aimed to highlight the best practices showcased by Honduras in the involvement of civil society and academia in anti-corruption policy formulation and implementation monitoring. Speakers were María Andrea Matamoros, the Minister of Transparency of Honduras; the Vice Rector of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, Julio Raudales; and Lester Ramírez from the UNCAC Coalition member organization Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa (ASJ). The event was moderated by Danella Newman, Project Manager at the UNCAC Coalition. |  | The UNCAC Coalition’s Project Manager Danella Newman moderating the event with Honduras, on ‘Multi-sectorial partnerships towards policy reform based on the Implementation Review Mechanism’. | The discussion by the three speakers centred on Honduras’ efforts to deepen its implementation of the UNCAC through multi-sectoral initiatives. Key among these were the government’s decision to sign the Transparency Pledge in 2020 and the publication of a UNCAC Implementation Review parallel report by ASJ. All three speakers recognized the challenges of working with a multi-sectorial approach, yet all agreed that corruption can only be effectively addressed when civil society, academia and the government work together. | Find out more about the UNCAC CoSP 9 here. | | Editorial Team: Denyse Degiorgio, Matthias Flug, Corinna Gilfillan, Danella Newman | |
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