UNODC, Sweden Support Crime Prevention and Anti-Corruption Education in Uzbekistan

From 2-6 March 2020, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) facilitated a visit of Professor Steven Sampson of Lund University, Sweden, to the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Professor Sampson taught a one-week anti-corruption course for the Academy’s graduate and post-graduate students and discussed the further development of anti-corruption programs at the Academy.

Lectures and debates focused on corruption as a moral, legal or political problem, anti-corruption investigations and prosecutions, whistleblowing incentives, business compliance, anti-corruption agencies, strategies, policies and campaigns. The activities at the Academy included preparing a collection of anti-corruption texts, articles, reports and laws for use by students; individual consultations with students about their master’s thesis projects; and recording a video presentation about the anthropological approach to corruption for use by the GPO academy in its teaching program on corruption issues.

“With Uzbekistan planning to establish a new anti-corruption agency and investing in compliance mechanisms, anti-corruption education for a wide variety of government and civil society stakeholders is essential”, noted Mr. Koen Marquering, UNODC International Program Coordinator.

As part of the visit, the GPO Academy hosted a seminar on anti-corruption in the public sector with participants from other educational institutions, such as the Academy of the Ministry of Interior, the Higher Military Customs Institute and universities.

Professor Sampson’s visit took place within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the University of Lund, Sweden.

Earlier, another Professor from the University of Lund, Dr. Patrik Olsson, visited Tashkent on 27-28 February to participate in an international conference on anti-corruption in higher education and to deliver a lecture for students at the Tashkent State University of Law on sociology of law. With Dr. Olsson’s support, students looked at crime and crime prevention through a socio-legal perspective, discussed why laws and norms are followed by individuals and groups and compared various social institutions that support crime prevention, such as the makhalla in Uzbekistan.

UNODC supported these initiatives with support from the Government of Sweden within the framework of its 2015-2020 Program for Central Asia, which includes a dedicated component on criminal justice, crime prevention and integrity.

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