Anti-Corruption Measures

Anti-Corruption Measures are measures that aim at tackling Corruption. They include measures at all governmental levels as well as private sector and civil society initiatives.
Anti-corruption treaties
The United States were the first country to pass a comprehensive anti-corruption law that criminalized the bribery of foreign public officials by American firms, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, approved by the US Congress in 1977. Joint international initiatives to tackle corruption did only start after the end of the Cold War when security concerns were slowly overcome by the changing global political framework. The first regional convention, the Inter-American Convention against Corruption was adopted in 1996 by the Organization of American States. Just one year after, and both due to pressure exerted by the US whose enterprises until then were the only ones that were bound by an anti-corruption law while doing business abroad and concerns about the amount of money lost by enterprises based in industrialized countries due to corruption abroad lead the OECD to adopt its Convention against Bribery of Foreign Public Officials. In 1998 and 1999, the Council of Europe produced two anti-corruption treaties, the Criminal Law and the Civil Law Conventions on Corruption. The United Nations recognized the need for a global convention focused only on corruption in the year 2000, when they also adopted the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The General Assembly then authorized an ad-hoc group to negotiate a “broad and effective” treaty that takes a “comprehensive and multidisciplinary” approach to the problem. This treaty, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, was adopted in 2003 and came into force after its 30th ratification in December 2005. Another regional anti-corruption treaty, the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption as adopted in 2003.
Many countries also observe the Forty Financial Action Task Force Recommendations, revised in 2003.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu