By Erkki Tuomioja and - -
HELSINKI, Jun 1 2006 (IPS)

At the Helsinki Conference last September, the need to promote global cooperation in the fight against corruption emerged as a central issue, write Leena Luhtanen, Finland\’s Minister of Justice, and Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs. In this article the authors write that in recent years, the globalisation of corruption has spurred the international community to acknowledge the problem and demand action that is not restricted to mere recommendations but aims at creating binding international legislation. Perhaps the best example of this is the UN Convention against Corruption, which has been signed by 140 states and ratified by 52, and which went into force in December 2005. Indeed, implementation and effective oversight are the Achilles\’ heel of the UN Convention against Corruption as well. Recognising that corruption must be met with cross-border cooperation, Finland has developed a Road Map for action which is being realised together with Friends of the Helsinki Process governments — Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom — and in cooperation with other active governments as well as representatives of the private sector and civil society.

Global corruption has become a focus of the Helsinki Process, a joint initiative of the Finnish and Tanzanian governments to advance a multi-stakeholder approach to solving global problems. At the Helsinki Conference last September, which brought together 700 participants from over 60 countries, the need to promote global cooperation in the fight against corruption emerged as a central issue. Corruption is a problem for both developing and developed countries. It threatens economic growth and social development as well as the establishment and consolidation of democracy. It also has a detrimental effect on the building of a fully-functioning nation state and is a major hindrance to eradicating poverty at the global level, reaching long-term economic, political, and social goals, and implementing the rule of law. Corruption is commonly understood as the exploitation of public means and power for private gain. So-called grand corruption is the misuse of public or corporate assets for private purposes — often by high-ranking civil servants, politicians, or businessmen — for example, in connection with the privatisation of state-owned companies or a tender award in competitive bidding. Petty corruption — the lesser and more common type of corruption — often takes the form of small bribes paid to speed up processes that could otherwise take months, such as acquiring a passport or driving license. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has stated that “corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government’s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice, and discouraging foreign investment and aid.” The Helsinki Process is not the only forum where the role of corruption as an obstacle to global development has been raised. In recent years, the globalisation of corruption has spurred the international community to acknowledge the problem and demand action that is not restricted to mere recommendations but aims at creating binding international legislation to support different kinds of anti-corruption activities. Perhaps the best example of this is the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which has been signed by 140 states and ratified by 52, and which went into force in December 2005. The Convention requires countries to implement a wide range of anti-corruption measures affecting their laws, institutions, and practices in order to promote the prevention, detection, and sanctioning of corruption. The Convention is different from other conventions particularly because of its global coverage, the extensiveness of its provisions, and its effort to promote the cooperation of states to combat corruption. In today’s global economy corruption has also become a global phenomenon which must be met with cross-border cooperation, for which the UN Convention against Corruption provides a much needed framework. There are nevertheless numerous examples of good conventions which have not amounted to much due to the lack of political will to implement and abide by them. Indeed, implementation and effective oversight are the Achilles’ heel of the UN Convention against Corruption as well. This concern regarding implementation was also evident in the discussions during the Helsinki Conference, which challenged the Second Phase of the Helsinki Process with promoting the effective implementation of the Convention. In answer to this challenge, Finland has developed a Road Map for action which is being realised together with Friends of the Helsinki Process governments — Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom — and in cooperation with other active governments as well as representatives of the private sector and civil society, such as the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Economic Forum, and Transparency International. How to review the implementation of the Convention is a difficult and politically sensitive question on which different countries have different views, so we must be considerate and inclusive in order not to do a disservice to ourselves. Accordingly, the Road Map facilitated by Finland has sought to launch broad consultations on different ways of organising the review of the implementation of the Convention against Corruption well in advance of the first Conference of States Parties, scheduled for December 2006. Already the first informal consultations meeting, held in Lisbon in March 2006 at the initiative of the Finnish and Portuguese governments, proved the usefulness of this approach. Through these consultations we hope to identify the necessary elements from which a review mechanism could be constructed perhaps already during this first conference, which takes place during the Finnish presidency of the European Union. Finland has repeatedly appeared at the top of the list of least corrupt countries, according to the Perceived Corruption Index compiled by Transparency International, and our anti-corruption efforts have earned us international respect. The Helsinki Process initiative seeks to capitalise on this reputation in order to put into place a global framework for fighting corruption. It is not only in our national interest, but also a necessary step toward fair globalisation, eradicating poverty, and strengthening the rule of law. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

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