Sharm El-Sheikh, 3 January 2022 (TDI): The UN and its executive organs covered the most urgent economic and health relief expenditures globally. Due to these tremendous efforts to achieve the maximum level of relief for all humans under disasters around the world, it was found that corruption was the stumbling block to achieving this goal.
According to the UNCAC, this was not new information for this international organization. However, the COVID-19 disaster scale was huge, and it may be the largest in civilized mankind’s modern history. Corruption came along with it in every necessary step of combating this humanitarian disaster.
It was an enormous loss, and organized crime and money laundering saw the pandemic as a golden opportunity to develop and expand beneath the skin of every nation by exploiting their suffering and fears.
Dr. Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, sounded the alarm called for extensive preparation in the Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration. At the UN anti-corruption conference, the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration sufficiently protects emergency response and crisis management.
Announcement of UN Information Service, December 17, Sharm El-Sheikh
On the last day of the ninth executive session of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration and seven other resolutions were adopted, along with a decision regarding the country that will host the tenth session of the largest anti-corruption conference.
The #UNGASS2021 Political Declaration entitled “Our common commitment to effectively addressing challenges and implementing measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation” has been adopted #UnitedAgainstCorruption pic.twitter.com/Q5MlArUG6I
— UN Office on Drugs & Crime (@UNODC) June 2, 2021
By highlighting the increased risks of corruption related to urgent economic and health relief expenditures, Sharm el-Sheikh calls on state parties to develop guidelines to identify, investigate, and prosecute corruption during times of crisis and humanitarian emergency.
According to Dr Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, “the Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration on combating corruption in a crisis will help us recover from this pandemic with integrity and help countries prepare for emergencies of tomorrow. 2022 will be the year of action after the historic year of 2021, with all its challenges and commitments to combat corruption. Let us keep our promises to the people and the youth, enabling no one to go down and not leaving anyone behind.”
Sufficiently developing ethical guidelines will positively enhance international cooperation under the Convention. Other resolutions adopted at the session address domains like beneficial ownership in asset recovery, regional and international cooperation, education for youth empowerment, and strengthening cooperation between supreme audit institutions and anti-corruption authorities.
It was also adopted to obtain a resolution to follow up on the political declaration from the first-ever special UNGA session against corruption in June. Furthermore, the State Parties agreed that the tenth session would be held in the year 2023 in the United States.
Over 150 countries participated in the ninth session in Sharm El-Sheikh, including governments, regional and intergovernmental organizations, civil society, modern academia, and the private sector.
During the session, over 70 side events took place, including panel discussions on corruption, women’s rights, health care, COVID, sports, education, and youth issues. UNODC also announced the five winning teams from the Coding4Integrity hackathon in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa.
Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption
The UN Convention against Corruption remains the sole legally-binding global instrument against corruption. As of December 2005, it arranged 189 parties and was near-universal.
To comply with the convention, countries must prevent and criminalize corruption, promote international cooperation, recover and return stolen assets, and improve technical assistance and information exchange.
The Implementation Review Mechanism, which covers criminalization and law enforcement as well as international cooperation, was established in 2010. The second cycle of the review was launched in 2015, covering preventive measures and asset recovery. UNODC provides anti-corruption assistance to 116 countries through its Global Program against Corruption and field presence.
The UNODC is hosting a series of side events at the 9th session on tackling corruption in sport, whistle-blower protection in the health sector, addressing the gender dimensions of corruption, and addressing corruption challenges in the COVID-19 response and remarkable recovery.
