The Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption is one of the largest anti-corruption events, bringing together representatives of state bodies of the Convention's participating countries, as well as international organizations, civil society, the private sector, and the media.
Delegates gather at the CoSP every two years to discuss the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). In addition, the conference traditionally addresses issues related to the development and application of anti-corruption tools and possible ways to strengthen international cooperation in order to more effectively prevent, investigate, and minimize the negative consequences of corruption offenses.
The eighth session of the CoSP was held in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). During the session, fifteen resolutions were adopted on various aspects of combating corruption, including:
- the work of anti-corruption and audit bodies, financial intelligence units, and parliaments;
- strengthening measures to combat bribery, including the bribery of foreign public officials;
- the return of assets obtained as a result of corruption offences;
- measuring corruption;
- the role of anti-corruption in environmental protection;
- continuing to monitor the implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption, etc.
One of these resolutions, which focused on combating corruption in sport, was adopted on the initiative of the Russian Federation. It recommends that participating countries ensure compliance with national legislation aimed at combating bribery and other corruption offences in the field of sport, develop cooperation between law enforcement agencies, implement a number of measures to minimize corruption risks in this area, including the creation of a transparent procurement system, the development of rules for the protection of whistleblowers, the introduction of a wide range of ethical standards, and others. The resolution also calls for an in-depth study on combating corruption in sport and the formation of a Group of Friends on the subject, based on the permanent representations of countries to international organizations.
More than 45 events were held on the sidelines of the conference, dedicated to the application of various anti-corruption tools, as well as discussions on the state of anti-corruption activities in specific areas and countries. Among other things, topics such as the functioning of specialized anti-corruption bodies, the establishment of a system for whistleblowing and the protection of whistleblowers, anti-corruption training and education, gender-related aspects of anti-corruption, planning anti-corruption reforms, the use of information technology to combat corruption, etc. were discussed. A separate series of seminars and round tables was held by the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Bank.
The Russian Federation, with the participation of Brazil, India, and China, organized an event dedicated to international cooperation in bringing to justice those guilty of corruption offenses in civil and administrative proceedings. Participants noted that countries have recently been increasingly applying not only criminal but also civil and administrative legislation to combat corruption. International organizations have repeatedly called on countries to improve mechanisms for cooperation in investigating corruption offenses that are subject to civil or administrative liability. However, despite this, international cooperation, including in terms of providing necessary information and freezing assets, is still largely limited to criminal proceedings. This issue is particularly relevant for Russia, as a number of anti-corruption mechanisms in our country are implemented within the framework of civil and administrative legislation. This primarily concerns bringing legal entities to justice for illegal remuneration under Article 19.28 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, as well as the transfer of officials' property to the state if no evidence of its acquisition through legal income has been provided in accordance with paragraph 8 of part 2 of Article 235 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Considerable attention was also paid within the framework of the CoSP to preparations for the first-ever special session of the UN General Assembly on anti-corruption in 2021. Approaches to the organization of the special session were also agreed upon in a separate resolution.
A detailed report on the work of the 8th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption will be posted on the UNODC website
within two weeks after the event.
The previous session of the UN Conference was held in November 2017 in Vienna (the Russian-language version of the report is available at the link
), and the ninth session of the CoSP is planned to be held in 2021 in Egypt.
*The UN Convention against Corruption has 186 participants and is the most comprehensive international agreement in the field of anti-corruption. It covers five main topics: prevention of corruption, criminalization of corrupt practices and law enforcement, international cooperation, return of criminally obtained assets, technical support, and information exchange. Methodological and organizational support for the implementation of the Convention is provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.