International Protocols 

The United Nations (UN) Convention Against Corruption

Convention Highlighs

Prevention
The first step towards tackling corruption is preventing it. An entire chapter of the Convention is dedicated to prevention. It has measures directed at both the public and private sectors, and touches on the day-today interactions in public life. The measures proposed by the Convention include model preventive policies, such as the establishment of anti-corruption bodies and enhanced transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties. ..........

Criminalization
The Convention requires countries to establish criminal and other offences to cover a wide range of acts of corruption, if these are not already crimes under domestic law. Some provisions create a legal obligation for States to establish offences. In other cases, in order to take into account differences in domestic law, States must consider doing so. The Convention calls for criminalizing bribery and the embezzlement of public funds, as well as the laundering of the proceeds of corruption and obstruction of justice. It also calls upon countries to consider the criminalization of trading in influence and the concealment of the proceeds of corruption. ..........

Asset Recovery
In a major breakthrough, countries agreed on asset recovery, which is stated explicitly as “a fundamental principle of the Convention.” Identifying and recovering stolen assets is a major challenge. This is a particularly important issue for many developing countries where high-level corruption has plundered the national wealth, and where resources are badly needed for reconstruction and the rehabilitation of societies under new governments. Reaching agreement on this chapter involved intensive negotiations, as the needs of countries seeking the illicit assets had to be reconciled with the legal and procedural safeguards of the countries whose assistance is sought. Several provisions specify how cooperation and assistance will take place. .................

International cooperation
Eliminating corruption would be next to impossible without certain laws and practices that apply across the board to countries and governments all over the world. This is where the Convention comes in. With this Convention, countries have agreed to cooperate with one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation, asset recovery and the prosecution of offenders. The idea is to leave criminals nowhere to hide. Individuals will no longer be able to escape their home countries and live without fear of prosecution. Countries are bound by the Convention to render specific forms of mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence for use in court and to extradite offenders. Countries are also required to undertake measures that will support the tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of corruption.

Implementation Mechanisms
To improve the capacity of States Parties to the Convention, a Conference of these Parties will be established to promote and review its implementation. Pursuant to the Convention and to achieve its objectives, the Conference of the States Parties has competence over the following aspects: mechanisms to facilitate activities by States Parties under articles 60 (Training and technical assistance), and 62 (Other measures: implementation of the Convention through economic development and technical assistance), as well as under chapters II to V of the Convention (Preventive measures; criminalization and law enforcement; international cooperation; and asset recovery), including by encouraging the mobilization of voluntary contributions; mechanisms to facilitate the exchange of information among States Parties on patterns and trends in corruption and on successful practices for preventing and combating it, and for the return of protocols of crime; mechanisms to cooperate with relevant international and regional organizations and non-governmental organizations; mechanisms to review periodically the implementation of the Convention, including technical assistance requirements; mechanisms to make recommendations to improve the Convention and its implementation.

For further information:
www.unodc.org and www.unis.unvienna.org

  


 The African Union (AU) Convention on Prevention and Combating of Corruption




Features of the Convention

The Convention is targeted amongst other things towards the following:

• Prevention
• Punishment
• Cooperation
• Education

In this regard it

• Strengthens the law on corruption by listing offences that should be punishable by domestic legislation
• Outlines measures to be undertaken to enable the detection and investigation of corruption offences
• Indicates mechanisms for the confiscation and forfeiture of the proceeds of corruption and related
• Determines the jurisdiction of State Parties
• Organizes mutual assistance between countries, in relation to corruption and related offences
• Encourages the education and promotion of public awareness on the evils of corruption
• Establishes a framework for the monitoring and supervision of enforcement of the Convention.

Offences Covered by the Convention

The Convention (Article 4) deals with four offences:

• Corruption
• Embezzlement
• Illicit enrichment
• Money laundering

The convention comprehensively describes bribery. To ensure that the differences in legal and judicial cultures do not adversely affect its application, the work bribery itself is not used.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Corruption





Highlights of the Protocol

In developing the Protocol the experts did not attempt to reinvent the wheel but were guided to a large extent by similar documents existing in other parts of the world, notably the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. The Protocol therefore attempted as far as possible and where necessary to embrace good practices and experiences in other parts of the world.

The Protocol has twenty two articles setting out the purpose, defining corruption, providing for preventive measures, defining jurisdiction of States Parties in corruption cases, harmonization of legislation, confiscation and seizure of instrumentalities and proceeds of corruption and related offences and monitoring and implementation procedures.

It also addresses corruption in both the public and private sectors and bribery of foreign officials. Another important aspect of the Protocol which distinguishes it from other similar instruments and which reflects on the seriousness of the states parties involved is that it does not allow for reservations.