UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION

1 UNITED NATIONS CONVENTIONAGAINST CORRUPTIONV ienna International Centre, PO Box 500, A 1400 Vienna, Austria Tel: +(43) (1) 26060-0, Fax: +(43) (1) 26060-5866, in Austria August 2004 copiesUNITED 17/08/2004 12:33 Page 1 UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIMEV iennaUNITED NATIONS CONVENTIONAGAINST CORRUPTIONUNITED NATIONSNew York, 2004iiiForewordCorruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effectson societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violationsof human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organizedcrime, terrorism and other threats to human security to evil phenomenon is found in all countries big and small, rich andpoor but it is in the developing world that its effects are most hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended fordevelopment, undermining a Government s ability to provide basic services.

2 Feeding inequality and injustice and discouraging foreign aid and is a key element in economic underperformance and a major obsta-cle to poverty alleviation and am therefore very happy that we now have a new instrument to addressthis scourge at the global level. The adoption of the UNITED NATIONS Conventionagainst CORRUPTION will send a clear message that the international communityis determined to prevent and control CORRUPTION . It will warn the corrupt thatbetrayal of the public trust will no longer be tolerated. And it will reaffirm theimportance of core values such as honesty, respect for the rule of law, account-ability and transparency in promoting development and making the world abetter place for new CONVENTION is a remarkable achievement, and it complementsanother landmark instrument, the UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION againstTransnational Organized Crime, which entered into force just a month ago.

3 Itis balanced, strong and pragmatic, and it offers a new framework for effectiveaction and international CONVENTION introduces a comprehensive set of standards, measuresand rules that all countries can apply in order to strengthen their legal andregulatory regimes to fight CORRUPTION . It calls for preventive measures and thecriminalization of the most prevalent forms of CORRUPTION in both public andprivate sectors. And it makes a major breakthrough by requiring Member Statesto return assets obtained through CORRUPTION to the country from which theywere provisions the first of their kind introduce a new fundamentalprinciple, as well as a framework for stronger cooperation between States toprevent and detect CORRUPTION and to return the proceeds.

4 Corrupt officials willin future find fewer ways to hide their illicit gains. This is a particularly impor-tant issue for many developing countries where corrupt high officials haveivplundered the national wealth and where new Governments badly needresources to reconstruct and rehabilitate their the UNITED NATIONS , the CONVENTION is the culmination of work thatstarted many years ago, when the word CORRUPTION was hardly ever uttered inofficial circles. It took systematic efforts, first at the technical, and then gradu-ally at the political, level to put the fight AGAINST CORRUPTION on the globalagenda. Both the Monterrey International Conference on Financing for Devel-opment and the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Developmentoffered opportunities for Governments to express their determination to attackcorruption and to make many more people aware of the devastating effect thatcorruption has on CONVENTION is also the result of long and difficult negotiations.

5 Manycomplex issues and many concerns from different quarters had to be was a formidable challenge to produce, in less than two years, an instrumentthat reflects all those concerns. All countries had to show flexibility and makeconcessions. But we can be proud of the me to congratulate the members of the bureau of the Ad HocCommittee for the Negotiation of a CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION on theirhard work and leadership, and to pay a special tribute to the Committee s lateChairman, Ambassador H ctor Charry Samper of Colombia, for his wise guid-ance and his dedication. I am sure all here share my sorrow that he is not withus to celebrate this great adoption of the new CONVENTION will be a remarkable let us be clear: it is only a beginning.

6 We must build on the momentumachieved to ensure that the CONVENTION enters into force as soon as possible. Iurge all Member States to attend the Signing Conference in Merida, Mexico,in December, and to ratify the CONVENTION at the earliest possible fully enforced, this new instrument can make a real difference to thequality of life of millions of people around the world. And by removing one ofthe biggest obstacles to development it can help us achieve the MillenniumDevelopment Goals. Be assured that the UNITED NATIONS Secretariat, and inparticular the UNITED NATIONS Office on Drugs and Crime, will do whatever itcan to support the efforts of States to eliminate the scourge of CORRUPTION fromthe face of the Earth.

7 It is a big challenge, but I think that, together, we canmake a A. AnnanSecretary-GeneralvContentsPageGener al Assembly resolution 58/4 of 31 October 2003 .. 1 Annex. UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION .. provisions .. measures .. and law enforcement .. cooperation .. recovery .. assistance and information exchange .. for implementation .. provisions .. 531 General Assembly resolution 58/4of 31 October 2003 UNITED NATIONS Conventionagainst CorruptionThe General Assembly,Recalling its resolution 55/61 of 4 December 2000, in which it establishedan ad hoc committee for the negotiation of an effective international legal in-strument AGAINST CORRUPTION and requested the Secretary-General to convene anintergovernmental open-ended expert group to examine and prepare draft termsof reference for the negotiation of such an instrument, and its resolution 55/188of 20 December 2000.

8 In which it invited the intergovernmental open-endedexpert group to be convened pursuant to resolution 55/61 to examine thequestion of illegally transferred funds and the return of such funds to thecountries of origin,Recalling also its resolutions 56/186 of 21 December 2001 and 57/244 of20 December 2002 on preventing and combating corrupt practices and transferof funds of illicit origin and returning such funds to the countries of origin,Recalling further its resolution 56/260 of 31 January 2002, in which itrequested the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of a CONVENTION againstCorruption to complete its work by the end of 2003,Recalling its resolution 57/169 of 18 December 2002, in which it acceptedwith appreciation the offer made by the Government of Mexico to host a high-level political conference for the purpose of signing the CONVENTION and re-quested the Secretary-General to schedule the conference for a period of threedays before the end of 2003,Recalling also Economic and Social Council resolution 2001/13 of 24 July2001, entitled Strengthening international cooperation in preventing and com-bating the transfer of funds of illicit origin, derived from acts of CORRUPTION ,including the laundering of funds, and in returning such funds.

9 Expressing its appreciation to the Government of Argentina for hosting theinformal preparatory meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation ofa CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION in Buenos Aires from 4 to 7 December 2001,2 Recalling the Monterrey Consensus, adopted by the International Con-ference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico, from 18 to22 March 2002,1 in which it was underlined that fighting CORRUPTION at alllevels was a priority,Recalling also the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development,adopted by the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held inJohannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002,2 in parti-cular paragraph 19 thereof, in which CORRUPTION was declared a threat to thesustainable development of people,Concerned about the seriousness of problems and threats posed by corrup-tion to the stability and security of societies, undermining the institutions andvalues of democracy, ethical values and justice and jeopardizing sustainabledevelopment and the rule of law, note of the report of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiationof a CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION ,3 which carried out its work at the head-quarters of the UNITED NATIONS Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna.

10 In whichthe Ad Hoc Committee submitted the final text of the draft UNITED NationsConvention AGAINST CORRUPTION to the General Assembly for its considerationand action, and commends the Ad Hoc Committee for its work; the UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION annexedto the present resolution, and opens it for signature at the High-level PoliticalSigning Conference to be held in Merida, Mexico, from 9 to 11 December2003, in accordance with resolution 57/169; all States and competent regional economic integration organi-zations to sign and ratify the UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST Corruptionas soon as possible in order to ensure its rapid entry into force; that, until the Conference of the States Parties to the Conven-tion established pursuant to the UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST Corruptiondecides otherwise, the account referred to in article 62 of the CONVENTION willbe operated within the UNITED NATIONS Crime Prevention and Criminal JusticeFund, and encourages Member States to begin making adequate voluntarycontributions to the above-mentioned account for the provision to developing1 Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March2002 ( UNITED NATIONS publication, Sales No.)