The global civil society network for the implementation and monitoring of the
United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)
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Dear Reader,
the first-ever UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) against corruption from June 2-4 is just around the corner; diplomats are finalizing the Political Declaration over the next two weeks.
Once agreed upon, the Political Declaration will serve as the new reference for anti-corruption efforts. But will the UNGASS ensure any meaningful progress in the global fight against corruption?
In this newsletter, we highlight some of the final-hour advocacy efforts and opportunities to shape the UNGASS itself. We showcase several recent reports, including a civil society evaluation of Ecuador's UNCAC implementation, as well as relevant events. Also, we are currently looking for our next intern to join us in Vienna for a paid six-month internship.
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UN Headquarters in New York, where the UN General Assembly Special Session against corruption will take place from June 2-4. Credit: Wikicommons/Neptuul (CC)
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Run-up to the UNGASS 2021
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Nearly 100 civil society groups from more than 50 countries are calling on the UN General Assembly to take action on globalized corruption and to task a new multi-stakeholder expert group with proposing solutions in a joint letter. Supporters of the letter include the UNCAC Coalition and many of its member organizations, Transparency International, the International Bar Association's Anti-Corruption Committee as well as the International Chamber of Commerce.
- States and NGOs with ECOSOC status can propose side events until 30 April;
- The UNGASS Youth Forum will take place in late May; registration is open until 5 May;
- Now is the time for civil society to encourage States to use the high-profile UNGASS to show leadership, announce new anti-corruption commitments and reforms, and partner with like-minded States to advance specific anti-corruption policies and practices.
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Coalition briefs UNGASS Delegates on Asset Declarations and Beneficial Ownership Transparency
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See the UNCAC Coalition's comprehensive second submission to the UNGASS, now available in English, French and Spanish. The document outlines challenges and shortcomings in policy areas key to fighting corruption. It also provides examples of good practices and highlights the commitments Member States should make to ensure substantive progress in tackling corruption.
More information and general updates on the UNGASS can be found here.
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Are Victims of Corruption Compensated?
The UNCAC Coalition's working group on victims of corruption is building a database of legal frameworks and practices on the recognition and compensation of victims of corruption when corruption cases are resolved. We will publish the collected findings to advance discussions and inform national and global advocacy efforts.
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To contribute to this crowdsourcing effort,
please fill in this questionnaire by mid-May.
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Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarollo (FCD) has produced a parallel report on national UNCAC implementation in Ecuador, with support from the UNCAC Coalition. The report covers the implementation of Chapter II (Preventive Measures) and Chapter V (Asset Recovery) provisions of the UNCAC. It seeks to inform the ongoing UNCAC implementation review process.
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The report finds that Ecuador has made progress in areas including:
- Regulating political financing: reforms introduced in February seek to strengthen transparency, accountability and the capacity of the regulatory body to fight corruption;
- Public procurement: the country is adopting international standards and open procurement policies, and is amending rules that limit competitiveness and transparency;
- Asset recovery: confiscation of assets from legal persons has been made viable; a draft bill on asset forfeiture currently discussed by the National Assembly would enable the recovery of assets without a conviction and improve UNCAC implementation.
Areas where more efforts are needed include:
- Asset declarations and codes of conduct: regulatory and practical weaknesses in codes of conduct for public officials across all state functions are compounded by the absence of minimum standards for monitoring compliance;
- Judicial independence: interference in the system, especially by the executive branch through disciplinary procedures based on largely subjective grounds, has undermined the stability of the judiciary;
- Access to information: the existing law is weak and not in line with international standards; provisions on the protection of personal data are recurrently misused by officials to deny access to public information.
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A summary of the report's key findings is available here. You can also find the original report in Spanish here, or the full translated report in English here.
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First Regional Meeting for Latin America
The UNCAC Coalition hosted an engaging discussion on the crucial issue of public procurement in times of COVID-19, attended by around 25 representatives from civil society organizations from all over the region, with 3 guest speakers from Argentina, Mexico and Ecuador. See the highlights here.
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Prioritizing Transparency in Anti-Corruption, Post-Pandemic
The chair of the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group, A.D. Mangoni, Croatia's former Information Commissioner A. Musa, OCCRP's lead reporter on the OpenLux investigations, A. Iglesias, and UNCAC Coalition Chair H. Darbishire discussed the urgency to prioritize transparency as a key anti-corruption priority in a Knowledge Partner session at the OECD Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum. Find a summary here.
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First Regional Meeting for Asia-Pacific
Civil society activists from Malaysia and Nepal discussed corruption risks in the COVID-19 response at the Coalition's first regional meeting for CSOs from Asia-Pacific. Participants highlighted how governments in the region are using the pandemic as a pretext to limit civic space and public oversight. Read more about the meeting here.
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External Evaluation of UNCAC Coalition Project
The UNCAC Coalition has released an external review of its activities and programmatic work in the past two years that have been supported by the Norwegian government (Norad) and the Danish Foreign Ministry (Danida). Key findings and recommendations, along with the full report, are available here.
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Victims of Corruption Working Group discusses listening acts for justice and social chance
The UNCAC Coalition's Working Group on Victims of Corruption (VoC) met virtually to discuss the power of artistic forms to act as a form of justice for victims, accompanied by guest speaker Luis Sotelo. The group explored how art can be a transformative medium for both individual and collective voices, connected through oral history. See our blog post here.
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International Commitments on Corruption
The U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre's Helpdesk has published a useful overview of international commitments on corruption and illicit finance, providing a breakdown by subject areas. Find the policy paper here.
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Corruption & Illegal Wildlife Trafficking
Anne Aurore Bertrand from UNCAC Coalition member organization Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) writes about how corruption is one of the key enablers for illegal transnational trade in protected wildlife, with devastating impacts. Find the article here.
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Are EU Governments taking Whistleblower Protection Seriously?
Transparency International published a progress report on the transposition of the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive into national law in each of the 27 EU Member States. Although the Directive contains ground-breaking provisions for the protection of whistleblowers, many EU member states are slow to implement the provisions. See the report here.
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Tracking Corruption across the SDGs
Transparency International launched a new interactive data platform to track countries' progress on the four anti-corruption targets set out under Sustainable Development Goal 16, which focuses on peace, justice and inclusion. The data collected indicates that governments need to do much more, with alarming gaps in tackling political corruption and money laundering. Explore the data here.
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Nigeria's Asset Recovery Regime
Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) looks at developments, challenges and prospects for the extant regime for asset recovery and management in Nigeria, summarizing the country's experiences with the return of stolen assets. Read the policy paper here.
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Transnational Kleptocracy & the COVID-19 Pandemic
The National Endowment for Democracy published a collection of essays as part of its 'Global Insights' series, which brought together civil society representatives and journalists, among others, to discuss the intersection between COVID-19 and kleptocracy across borders. The collection explores topics like pandemic-related procurement, illicit financial flows and investigative journalism in the age of COVID. Browse the essays here.
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Read more about this month's Member in the Spotlight - Derechos Humanos y Litigio Estratégico Mexicano (DLM) - here!
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The UNCAC Coalition is hiring!
For its Vienna office, the UNCAC Coalition is looking to hire a paid intern (€1,400) at its Vienna Hub office for a duration of 6 months, starting in mid-June/early July, 2021. The closing date for applications is 30 April, 2021. Read more about the position and what we are looking for here.
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Do you have relevant news or a success story linked to the UNCAC that you would like to feature in our next newsletter? Send us an email with the subject line "Newsletter" at info@uncaccoalition.org!
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