On February 1st the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) concluded the Second Session of the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Ironically set in Bali against the backdrop of the recent death of arguably the most corrupt leader of the late 20th century, the gathering brought together government officials, civil society groups, and international organizations seeking to build on momentum generated during the first UNCAC session held in Jordan in December 2006. All the activity is being carried out in support of the UN’s anticorruption charter, which was adopted in 2003 and entered into force in 2005 and established a comprehensive framework for combating corruption globally.
The initial optimism shared among anticorruption advocates dissipated as the states parties were unable to reach consensus on a mechanism for monitoring anti-corruption measures, identified by the participants at the Jordan summit as an urgent priority. UNCAC encourages states to work together to implement anticorruption procedures in an effort to combat more graft more efficiently. However, over the course of the Bali conference government negotiators and international civil society groups fought over both the form and transparency of the country review process, with efforts to standardize monitoring practices hinging largely on disputes surrounding the specific roles to be played by civil society. Transparency International (TI), the Berlin-based nongovernmental organization leading the fight against global corruption, expressed dismay over the deadlocked negotiations, as the lack of a robust monitoring program will serve as a disincentive for full compliance by member states, rendering UNCAC a less effective tool in the worldwide fight against corruption. Furthermore, TI points out that the lack of progress threatens to diminish the visibility of the anticorruption agenda until the next CoSP convention in late 2009.
In addition to a comprehensive monitoring program, civil society participants lobbied delegates for greater safeguards for individuals and organizations speaking out against corruption. In its daily newsletter published at the convention, the Coalition of Civil Society Friends of the UNCAC – a network of over 50 international groups – called on governments to guarantee the security of anti-corruption whistleblowers and activists. The presence of a legal environment that protects those working to expose corruption is a key component in the methodology of Freedom House’s Countries at the Crossroads report.
The week-long conference did make progress in several important areas. With the death of Suharto overshadowing the conference, the issue of asset recovery assumed a central role among participants working to locate, seize, and redistribute stolen public funds. An emerging international consensus on this topic led to the establishment of the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR), launched jointly by the UNODC and the World Bank in September 2007 as an instrumental mechanism to combat the theft of public assets in developing countries (and previously discussed in this post). In August 2007, Indonesian government lawyers began court proceedings in the latest civil corruption lawsuit against Suharto (now his estate), seeking to recover US$440 million allegedly embezzled from a state academic scholarship fund between 1974 and 1998, as well as an additional US$1.1 billion in damages. While the process of recovering assets is arduous and confronted by numerous obstacles such as government obstruction, it nonetheless represents a promising growth area in the global campaign against corruption, particularly because of the financial incentives involved.
Interest in the anti-corruption campaign is high at present among countries, and it is incumbent upon international organizations and civil society groups leading this global fight to keep the issue on the radar screen of key politicians. While the inability of UNCAC member states to agree on a comprehensive monitoring program to evaluate the efficacy of anticorruption measures across nations presents a challenge to the broader movement, mechanisms such as StAR should help to sustain momentum in the global fight against corruption while providing valuable experience in examining test cases.
Photo Credit: Flickr user Catch the Dream
