Corruption is a complex social, political and economic phenomenon that affects all countries, undermining democratic processes, hindering economic development and dropping the quality and quantity of services a state can offer to its citizens.
The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. The Convention's far-reaching approach and the mandatory character of many of its provisions make it a unique tool for developing a comprehensive response to a global problem. To eradicate the corrosive effects of corruption, international cooperation is required and as such is one of the key elements of the Convention.
UNCAC contains specific thematic areas such as: prevention, i nternational cooperation, asset recovery, education, integrity in the criminal justice system and the private sector, corruption in specific areas, economic fraud and others. To provide guidance and assistance for the prevention of and fight against corruption, economic fraud and identity-related crime, UNODC has developed several tools, manuals and publications and is constantly developing new ones with a view of enhancing knowledge of challenges, policies and good practices on the implementation of UNCAC in line with the needs identified through the Review Mechanism.
In this context, Sub-Programme 2 supports countries in their efforts to fight corruption, implement the UNCAC and promote a culture of integrity in all sectors of the society.
In the framework of the SP 2, experts from the region have recently been trained for the first time on the functioning of the Review Mechanism of the UNCAC.
Furthermore, SP2 is actively engaged in supporting regional countries to establish an asset recovery interagency network (ARIN) in West and Central Asia. After two preparatory meetings, where experts from the region agreed on the need to establish an ARIN, a drafting meeting will take place in July 2018. In this meeting, regional practitioners will set the fundamentals of the network (i.e status of intent, membership, Secretariat etc.)