9 February 2016

THROUGHOUT the Pacific Islands region corruption remains a significant concern, slowing development and shaking public trust in public officials. Corruption can be encountered in a variety of sectors such as the process of harvesting and manufacturing illegal wood based products, illegal fishing, migrant smuggling and working illegally, amongst other crimes. In addition, corruption often facilitates transnational organized crime moving goods across borders and laundering money.

To confront this challenge over 60 representatives from 13 Pacific Island countries and territories met in Fiji in December 2015 for the Anti-Corruption Workshop for Pacific Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to discuss challenges, good practices and innovative anti-corruption reforms. The Workshop is providing participants with an opportunity to consider how corruption can be addressed in the Pacific, consistent with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

The opening day sessions built upon the work completed at the recent 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference, highlighting the challenges faced regularly by anti-corruption advocates through sessions including ‘The Courage of a Whistleblower’ and ‘People. Accountability. Integrity’.

Banking and Mexican drug cartel whistleblower Martin Woods, now head of Financial Crime at Thomson Reuters, spoke of the courage officials need to honestly respond “I don’t know” when presented with disguised corruption-prone proposals.

UN-PRAC Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser, Ms Annika Wythes, told the workshop that civil society participants were a key to interrupting corruption. “When we talk about preventing and fighting corruption you are often the glue between the people and the Government – the way that you see an issue, address it and seek to tackle it is crucial. You are the ones who can bring about cultural change in attitudes and behaviors towards corruption. You can identify champions and start direct, open discussions on this topic that is necessary to making any headway on this issue in your countries,” said Ms Wythes.

A strong focus of the workshop was on the sharing of experiences by CSOs, including a Transparency International session on ‘What is People’s Power? How does it Impact Corruption?’, ‘The Devil is in the Details – Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’ and another by the youth, ‘The Youth have the Numbers – Now, How the Pacific Youth are Standing Up to Corruption’. The gendered nature of corruption was highlighted during the session, ‘Gender Focus: Sextortion – Where Corruption and Sexual Exploitation Meet’ and corruption was also linked to human rights abuses through a specific advocacy training session.

As innovation is required to get ahead of corruption it was addressed during the session, ‘How to Engage Citizens Using Social Networks, Research and Social Media’, drawing on Pacific and international examples. The workshop also raised awareness of the assistance available to Pacific countries in implementing UNCAC under the United Nations Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption (UN-PRAC) Project and the link to the Sustainable Development Goals, recently adopted by the UN General Assembly.

The Workshop was an activity of the UN-PRAC Project jointly implemented by the UNODC and UNDP, with funding from the Australian Government. The Project is a four year initiative that aims to help Pacific Island countries fight corruption by: supporting the ratification of UNCAC; implementing UNCAC through the strengthening of anti-corruption policies, laws, measures and institutional frameworks; and enhancing Pacific Island State’s active participation in the UNCAC processes, including the UNCAC Review Mechanism. The Project draws on the strong global partnership and comparative advantages of both organizations in the fight against corruption.

For more information contact UNODC Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser Ms Annika Wythes: annika.wythes@unodc.org  or GOPAC Oceania Chair John Hyde: gopacau@gmail.com

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COOK Islands parliamentarians committed to enhancing their oversight of anti-corruption and engage more strongly with the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) during a workshop at the Legislative Assembly Chamber of the Cook Islands Parliament.

“After celebrating our 50th year of independence last year, Cook Islands needs to focus on implementing our commitments under UNCAC this year,” said Cook Islands GOPAC Chair and Minister for Justice, Hon Nandi Glassie.

Two-thirds of the Cooks’ Parliamentarians joined the two-day United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Global Organization of Parliamentarians against Corruption (GOPAC) workshop on strengthening anti-corruption efforts.

“The more we are open and transparent as a Government, the more we can contribute to creating a remedy to address corruption,” said Minister Glassie.

In opening the workshop, Cook Islands Speaker Mrs. Niki Rattle said that increased transparency must be accompanied by heightened accountability.

“We also need to ensure that we couch our anti-corruption prevention in ways that are easily understood by our diverse and isolated population,” said Mrs. Rattle.

The Parliamentarians at the workshop included the Deputy Prime Minister Honorable Teariki Heather, several Ministers and Leader of the Opposition, William Heather. All the women parliamentarians in parliament, who are also active GOPAC members, also attended.

UN-PRAC Adviser Annika Wythes emphasized that “Parliamentarians have a key role to play in preventing and indeed fight corruption, often leading by example.”

Parliamentarians also have a major role in approving and reviewing international obligations such as those contained in UNCAC. The Global Organization of Parliamentarians against Corruption (GOPAC) works with UN-PRAC on parliamentarian engagement in the Pacific and GOPAC Oceania chair John Hyde helped facilitate the Cook Islands workshop along with elections for the GOPAC Cook Islands committee.

The second day of the workshop concentrate on a new Code of Conduct for Cook Islands Parliamentarians and strengthening oversight through a newly constituted Public Accounts Committee, along with the biennial elections for a new GOPAC Cook Islands committee.

The Australian Government is supporting the UN Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption (UN-PRAC) Project, a four-year USD$4.3 project in the 15 Pacific nations being implemented by UNODC-UNDP.

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Promoting the engagement of the youth against corruption in Jordan and Lebanon

The Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries (ACIAC) regional project cooperated with the UNDP Country Offices in Jordan and Lebanon to raise the awareness of the youth and promote their constructive engagement against corruption. 

In Jordan, UNDP worked with the University of Jordan and the Anti-Corruption Commission to engage students in the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day under the slogan of “Jordan’s Youth against Corruption”. The campaign was structured around a contest for students to formulate and share messages that represent their views on corruption in Jordan. To that effect, a preparatory session was held at the University, with more than 600 students in attendance, providing them with background information on the contest and raising their awareness on related concepts and issues.

With 23 submissions, including caricatures, slogans, poems and articles, the results of the contest were announced on 9 December at a major commemorative event that was held at the University. It was attended by more than 800 participants including students and senior representatives from governmental and non-governmental bodies. The event featured official statements by the organizing partners and contributions by students including presentations of related poems and acting scenes and recitations of the Holy Quran. The campaign was accompanied by strong media coverage, namely through the national television and the University Campus Radio.

In Lebanon, UNDP worked with six university teachers to engage their students, hailing from various disciplines, in a series of outreach activities that were held in five leading universities including the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, the Antonine University, the Haigazian University and the Notre Dame University of Louaize. The activities reached more than 450 students, raising their awareness on corruption and the roles of the different stakeholders in confronting it, while also enhancing their own capacities to engage in constructive action against it.

Those activities culminated in a main commemoration event that was held in Beirut on 18 December, with more than 120 participants in attendance including students and senior representatives from governmental and non-governmental bodies. The event featured official statements and student presentations followed by an interactive discussion with a high-level panel comprising the Minister of Justice, a key parliamentarian and leading civil society representatives. The campaign was also active on social media and received strong coverage by news agencies and local television networks.

In both countries, key stakeholders agreed to replicate and scale up related activities in 2016 to reach more students and promote more sustainable platforms for dialogue between the youth and key decision-makers and reform advocates.

Linking anti-corruption to sustainable development in Tunisia

In Tunisia, the ACIAC regional project worked with UNDP Tunisia to hold a special session on the linkages between anti-corruption and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 16 on “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”.

The event, which took place on 9 December, came as part of a national event held by the Country Office in partnership with the Government and the National Anti-Corruption Authority in commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day.

More than 50 participants joined the special session and were introduced to the SDGs and its added value as another international framework that promotes concrete action against corruption. They were enabled to develop a deeper understanding of their country’s commitments under the SDGs, and to identify avenues of collaboration to share and produce more reliable data on the progress of anti-corruption efforts in Tunisia, noting their dissatisfaction with the results achieved so far.

At the end, participants formed a network that would act as a participatory platform for monitoring the efforts aimed at implementing SDG 16 and the national anti-corruption strategy, which is expected to be completed in 2016. This would be based on a joint effort to formulate and propose specific indicators at various levels; collect and share existing data; and advocate the production of new data wherever needed.

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