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Overview of international commitments on corruption and illicit finance

Query

Please compile a list of all significant commitments in international fora on anti-corruption and illicit finance - presented by multi-lateral institution and easily searchable by thematic/subject area.

Introduction

The adoption of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption in 1996, as the first international convention to corruption, marked an important step towards the adoption of many various international instruments.

Since then, many international commitments on corruption and illicit finance have been adopted by various multi-lateral institutions, with the epitome being the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2003 as the only truly global anti-corruption convention.

Regional multi-lateral institutions that have agreed on anti-corruption commitments include the African Union and sub-regional committees in the region,ce879b40ea91 the League of Arab States, Asia Pacific region, European Union and Council of Europe, the Organisation of American States. Intergovernmental economic organisations and task forces have also adopted useful international commitments against corruption and illicit finance, and these include the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Group of Twenty (G20), the Group of Eight (G8), the Group of Seven (G7), and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

This paper compiled various commitments by these multi-lateral institutions, categorised into eight thematic or subject areas. These are illicit finance, asset recovery and international cooperation, public integrity, business integrity, foreign bribery and lobbying, anti-corruption agencies and supreme audit institutions, tax-related measures, and aces to information. In addition, there is an “undefined theme” containing topics such as protection of whistle-blowers.

Each listed commitment has details such as the responsible multi-lateral institution, year, name of the full commitment, a brief description, as well as some excerpts from the agreed text.

This Helpdesk paper may be a useful resource for referencing existing commitments in the development of new ones.

Subject areas covered:

  • Anti-Corruption Agencies and Supreme Audit Institutions
  • Access to Information
  • Asset recovery and international co-operation
  • Business integrity
  • Foreign bribery and lobbying
  • Illicit finance
  • Public integrity
  • Tax, base erosion and profit shifting
  • Other themes

The full list of commitments can be found in the PDF document.

  1. These are the Southern African Development Community, East African Community and the Economic Community of West African States.