The tenth session of the Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) was launched this week by Ghada Waly, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in Atlanta, USA.
This conference is held every two years and is the largest anti-corruption conference in the world. This year's session coincides with the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The conference aims to evaluate global efforts to combat corruption.
In her address, Waly said: "The Convention has become a universal standard and tool that has been the basis for transformative legal and institutional reforms in many countries, as well as international cooperation, supported by UNODC."
She continued: "The launch of the UNCAC Implementation Review Mechanism in 2010 accelerated the implementation of the Convention. Since its launch, almost 1,500 good practices have been identified, alongside more than 9,000 challenges and more than 4,300 technical assistance needs."
Waly also highlighted that UNODC data shows that 90 percent of States took legislative measures after completing their country reviews, with the direct support of UNODC and other development partners.
She further mentioned that in the last five years alone, UNODC has supported developing and revising over 140 anti-corruption laws and policies in more than 60 countries to ensure their alignment with UNCAC.
"We have also taken notable strides in asset recovery," said the UNODC Director-General, adding that more than 4.3 billion dollars in corruption proceeds have been returned to the countries they were stolen from since 2010.
"We must recognize the immense impact of corruption today, and the need for urgent action," Waly noted.
"Corruption not only robs resources, but it also robs people of hope," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the world’s largest anti-corruption gathering.
In turn, the UNDP representative said: "While we celebrate this progress, we also recognize the urgent need to do more by strengthening the effectiveness of norms, laws and institutions against corruption, and the measurement of corruption and anti-corruption efforts to track and monitor progress. In 2024, together with our partners, we will focus on developing indices for tracking progress on public procurement and business integrity, and UNCAC compliance."
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