Two weeks ago, we began an examination of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption (IACAC) which was signed on 29 March 1996 and which came into force on 6 March 1997. It is the first international anti-corruption treaty that influenced the adoption of a number of other international instruments. These include the UN General Assembly’s major resolutions about its concern for corruption (1996); the Inter-American Program for Cooperation in the Fight against Corruption (June 1997); the OECD Convention on Combatting Transnational Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in Inter-national Business Transactions (December 1997); the African Convention Against Corruption (July 2003); and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (December 2003).
We highlighted some important points in the preamble about the effects of corruption. These include:
Corruption undermines the legitimacy of public institutions and strikes at society, moral order and justice, as well as at the comprehensive development of peoples;
Representative democracy, an essential condition for stability, peace and development of the region, requires, by its nature, the combating of every form of corruption in the performance of public functions;
Fighting corruption strengthens democratic institutions and prevents distortions in the economy, improprieties in public administration and damage to a society’s moral fibre;
There are steadily increasing links between corruption and the proceeds generated by illicit narcotics trafficking which undermine and threaten legitimate commercial and financial activities, and society, at all levels; and
It is the responsibility of Member States to hold corrupt persons accountable in order to combat corruption and to cooperate with one another if their efforts in this area are to be effective.
We also outlined the main objectives of the Convention; preventive measures that Member States are required to take to combat corruption; applicability
