Executive director of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says civil society could be useful in helping govts fight sleaze
p>MARRAKESH (TRUSTLAW) - A senior United Nations official has said he hopes key U.N. anti-corruption talks this week will result in a solution that allows civil society to participate more fully in the process of reviewing how countries are doing in fighting graft.Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said civil society's participation could be useful in helping the governments of the 155 countries that have ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in detecting and fighting sleaze.
Even though non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are allowed to attend a high-level U.N. conference on anti-corruption efforts, held in Marrakesh this week, they are excluded from discussions by the main review body – the Implementation Review Group (IRG) – unless they are part of a government delegation, which only a handful of countries are allowing.
"That's why I hope that member states will be able to find a solution which would allow NGOs, without comprising the intergovernmental nature, of the convention to (have) a meaningful participation in the Review Implementation Group," Fedotov told TrustLaw in an interview at the conference.
Asked what this would mean in practical terms, Fedotov responded:
"I would think it would mean that maybe there will be special sessions or meetings involving participation of relevant NGOs and to discuss issues with them, to brief them and also to get their comments."
UNCAC explicitly recognises that anti-corruption efforts must go hand-in-hand with transparency and civil society participation, but some governments to reject this notion.
Civil society organisations, led by the UNCAC Coalition – a global network of more than 300 groups – have been lobbying for better access with government delegations at the conference, attended by more than 1,000 delegates from over 100 countries.
NGO sources said on Tuesday that a draft resolution had been circulated at the conference, supported by a group of Latin American countries, which included all three key issues of concern for civil society: attendance at IRG meetings, the ability to make oral statements at the gatherings and also to receive documents of the discussions.
"It is quite a big victory for us that this is out there now," a source said.
All depends now on more countries supporting the draft resolution, in particular those that have objected to fuller civil society participation in the past, such as Russia.
As part of a peer-to-peer review process into countries' efforts in implementing UNCAC, started last year, each country is assessed by two other states. The results of the first round, with 26 countries under the microscope, is being debated at the conference.
Campaigners have voiced concern that only a minority of countries under review had consulted civil society in drafting their reviews, or publicised information about points of contact for input into the reports.
Governments are only required to make public an executive summary of their findings. Only one – Finland, which regularly ranks among the least corrupt countries in the world in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index – has published its full report.
MORE FROM THE CONFERENCE:
Campaigners urge Morocco to clean up its act on corruption
Arab Spring “emphatic rejection of corruption” – UN official
Secrecy undermines effectiveness of world’s biggest anti-graft convention – campaigners
FACTBOX: Five key facts about UN Convention Against Corruption
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(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
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