More background information on this Convention..
Taken from http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/crime_convention_corruption.html
In its resolution 55/61 of 4 December 2000, the General Assembly
recognized that an effective international legal instrument against
corruption, independent of the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (resolution 55/25, annex I) was
desirable and decided to establish an ad hoc committee for the
negotiation of such an instrument in Vienna at the headquarters of
the Centre for International Crime Prevention, Office for Drug
Control and Crime Prevention. The text of the United Nations
Convention against Corruption was negotiated during seven sessions
of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of the Convention
against Corruption, held between 21 January 2002 and 1 October
2003.
The Convention approved by the Ad Hoc Committee was adopted by the
General Assembly by resolution 58/4 of 31 October 2003. The General
Assembly, in its resolution 57/169 of 18 December 2002, accepted
the offer of the Government of Mexico to host a high-level
political signing conference in Merida for the purpose of signing
the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The Assembly
invited all States to be represented at the Conference at the
highest possible levels of Government.
Convention highlights
Prevention
Corruption can be prosecuted after the fact, but first and
foremost, it requires prevention. An entire chapter of the
Convention is dedicated to prevention, with measures directed at
both the public and private sectors. These include model preventive
policies, such as the establishment of anticorruption bodies and
enhanced transparency in the financing of election campaigns and
political parties. States must endeavour to ensure that their
public services are subject to safeguards that promote efficiency,
transparency and recruitment based on merit. Once recruited, public
servants should be subject to codes of conduct, requirements for
financial and other disclosures, and appropriate disciplinary
measures. Transparency and accountability in matters of public
finance must also be promoted, and specific requirements are
established for the prevention of corruption, in the particularly
critical areas of the public sector, such as the judiciary and
public procurement. Those who use public services must expect a
high standard of conduct from their public servants. Preventing
public corruption also requires an effort from all members of
society at large. For these reasons, the Convention calls on
countries to promote actively the involvement of non-governmental
and community-based organizations, as well as other elements of
civil society, and to raise public awareness of corruption and what
can be done about it. Article 5 of the Convention enjoins each
State Party to establish and promote effective practices aimed at
the prevention of corruption.
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. In some cases, States are
legally obliged to establish offences; in other cases, in order to
take into account differences in domestic law, they are required to
consider doing so. The Convention goes beyond previous instruments
of this kind, criminalizing not only basic forms of corruption such
as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds, but also trading
in influence and the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of
corruption. Offences committed in support of corruption, including
money-laundering and obstructing justice, are also dealt with.
Convention offences also deal with the problematic areas of
private-sector corruption.
International cooperation
Countries agreed to cooperate with one another in every aspect of
the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation,
and the prosecution of offenders. Countries are bound by the
Convention to render specific forms of mutual legal assistance in
gathering and transferring evidence for use in court, to extradite
offenders. Countries are also required to undertake measures which
will support the tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation 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.
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 has 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 be
rendered. In particular, in the case of embezzlement of public
funds, the confiscated property would be returned to the state
requesting it; in the case of proceeds of any other offence covered
by the Convention, the property would be returned providing the
proof of ownership or recognition of the damage caused to a
requesting state; in all other cases, priority consideration would
be given to the return of confiscated property to the requestin[g
state, to the return of such property to the prior legitimate
owners or to compensation of the victims.
Effective asset-recovery provisions will support the efforts of
countries to redress the worst effects of corruption while sending
at the same time, a message to corrupt officials that there will be
no place to hide their illicit assets. Accordingly, article 51
provides for the return of assets to countries of origin as a
fundamental principle of this Convention. Article 43 obliges state
parties to extend the widest possible cooperation to each other in
the investigation and prosecution of offences defined in the
Convention. With regard to asset recovery in particular, the
article provides inter alia that "In matters of international
cooperation, whenever dual criminality is considered a requirement,
it shall be deemed fulfilled irrespective of whether the laws of
the requested State Party place the offence within the same
category of offence or denominate the offence by the same
terminology as the requesting State Party, if the conduct
underlying the offence for which assistance is sought is a criminal
offence under the laws of both States Parties".
Implementation mechanisms
The Convention needs 30 ratifications to come into force. A
Conference of the States Parties is established to review
implementation and facilitate activities required by the
Convention.
Documentation
