26-28 October 2018, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The third South Eastern European ACAD meeting was held at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, with the support of UNODC and the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Centre (ROLACC) Geneva.
UNODC launched the ACAD Initiative in 2011, following the notion that one of the best ways to fight corruption, is to have an educated population, and that reinforcing a culture of integrity at all levels is amongst the most powerful tools against corruption. ACAD aims to produce comprehensive anti-corruption academic support tools to be used by universities and academic institutions, in their existing programmes. Among such tools, is the Model Academic Course on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), developed in 2013, which in fifteen units covers global corruption, good governance and the UNCAC. ACAD also offers a Menu of Resources with over 1000 publications, articles, presentations and other teaching tools. Participants discussed these tools, as well as the educational materials developed by UNODC under the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative, particularly the University Modules on Integrity and Ethics and the forthcoming University Modules on Anti-Corruption.
The meeting reviewed the situation in the anti-corruption field in the region and the implementation of UNCAC, focusing on the Implementation Review Mechanism and Chapter V on Asset Recovery. The meeting concluded with a discussion addressing the possibility of a regional Masters programme on anti-corruption, as well as future activities of the SEE ACAD members and possibilities for cross-fertilization.
The meeting in Ljubljana was the third one for South Eastern Europe, following the previous event in November 2016 in Tirana, Albania, and the meeting in May 2015 in Doha, Qatar, where South Eastern European representatives have participated for the first time.