UNCAC is the biggest convention against graft - what does it do?
LONDON (TrustLaw) – The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is the world’s largest convention against graft, with more than 150 countries having ratified it since its launch in 2003.
Signatories to the convention are meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, this week to review progress in implementing the UNCAC.
Here are some key facts about the convention:
- The UNCAC addresses the need for prevention as well as requiring countries to establish criminal and other offences to cover a wide range of acts of corruption. It criminalises not only basic forms of graft, such as bribery and embezzlement of public funds, but also trading in influence and the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption.
- It also addresses the cross-border nature of corruption by requiring countries to cooperate with one another in every aspect in the fight against graft, including prevention, investigation and the prosecution of offenders.
- The recovery of stolen assets is a fundamental principle of the convention, and one of its main innovations is the right to recovery of stolen public assets. Experts say this is the reason why so many developing countries have ratified it.
- The UNCAC does not cover political corruption, one of the major concerns of citizens around the world. Transparency in political financing is a mere recommendation.
- Some of the countries perceived to be least corrupt have not ratified the UNCAC. They include Germany, New Zealand and Japan.
SOURCES: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre
Click here for Secrecy undermines world’s biggest anti-graft convention – campaigners.
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