Bali anti-corruption meet opens Monday

Over 1,000 people including government officials, business leaders, journalists, crime-busters, entertainers and civil society representatives from more than 100 nations will gather in Bali of Indonesia for a United Nations (UN) anti-corruption conference beginning Monday.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will inaugurate the five-day meet where the States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) will review implementation of the convention and discuss ways to step up international efforts to prevent and fight corruption.
The conference, second of its kind after the inaugural session held in Jordan two years ago, will also include discussions about an asset recovery mechanism, an issue figuring prominently in anti-corruption agenda of the third world countries including Bangladesh.
UNCAC, in force since December 14, 2005, is the first legally binding global anti-corruption instrument. So far, it has been signed by 140 states and ratified by 105 including Bangladesh.
In a statement in the run-up to the event, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), noted, “Since corruption hurts us all, we have a shared responsibility to stop it.”
Among other things, the UN anti-corruption convention requires states to prevent corruption, make it a criminal offence, cooperate in stamping it out and return stolen assets.
Costa added that the Bali meeting “provides a chance to replace a culture of corruption with an environment of integrity.”
A key item on the meeting's agenda will be to create a means to review the treaty's implementation.
“The UN anti-corruption convention provides benchmarks to plug holes in domestic legislation and strengthen national capacity to fight corruption,” added the UNODC official whose office is custodian of the convention.
“An effective review mechanism will ensure that this powerful piece of international law lives up to its potential.”
To promote a greater engagement of the civil society in the fight against corruption, a number of special events will take place in Bali.
One of such events will gather one senior journalist from each of the least developed countries (LDCs) that have ratified the convention. Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mauritania, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen are among the LDCs.
Renowned journalists, who have devoted their careers to reporting on corruption, will participate in a peer-to-peer media forum during the conference.
The goal of the media forum is to provide an international stage for the media from developed and developing countries to unite and lend each other support on an issue of global concern.
Of the other special events, the launch of UNDP Asia-Pacific Human Development Report on Corruption, and Human Development and Artists for Integrity will take place on January 28, ministerial roundtable on Asset Recovery and Forum for Non-Governmental Organisations on January 29, Business Coalition: The UN Convention against Corruption as a New Market Force on January 30, and Peer-to-Peer Media Forum: Covering Corruption with Integrity on January 31.