Consensus Reached on UN Convention Against Corruption

The announcement that an agreement was reached on the text of a new Convention against Corruption was the focus of a press briefing held today at the Vienna International Centre (VIC) in Vienna.

Mr Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Mr. Eduardo Vetere, Director, Division for Treaty Affairs and Mr. Dimitri Vlassis, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Office of UNODC, addressed the briefing.

The seventh session of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Convention against Corruption had begun discussions at the VIC on 29 October 2003 and concluded on the evening of 1 October 2003. The Convention will be submitted to the General Assembly, which is expected to adopt it and open it for signature by Member States in Merida, Mexico, from 9-11 December 2003. It will come into force after 30 countries have ratified it.

During the briefing, Mr. Costa spoke on key aspects of the Convention. He expressed his satisfaction over the fact that Asset Recovery was part of the fundamental basis of the Convention. He described it as a “major breakthrough”. He also drew attention to the balanced nature of the Convention, in that it addressed the law enforcement aspect of corruption as well as preventive measures. “The convention is one with teeth”, he said.

A Question and Answer session followed the briefing where several issues were raised by the press, who were interested in how the Convention would address the issue of corruption in the private sector. Mr Costa pointed out that the mandate and focus of the convention was corruption in the public sector, that it applied to public officers – “to us, the UN as well.” He expressed his satisfaction that it represented a formal commitment from countries, and said much would depend on the implementation process. In that respect, he also pointed out that an important chapter of the treaty was the one on Technical Assistance to enable countries to implement the convention.

Mr Costa also said that once the Treaty was in force, they hoped that a day would be formally adopted and celebrated every year as the World Anti-Corruption Day.

The press briefing was attended by about 20 representatives of international news agencies (Reuters, Agence France Presse, Associated Press etc) based in Vienna, and other media.

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