REPORT OF THE GENERAL DISCUSSION
Chairperson:
Co Chairperson:
Rapporteur:
Co Rapporteur:
Members:

Ms Deana Perez
Mr Roberto Javier Moreno
Ms Yara Esquivel Soto
Mr Mwape Dancewell Bowa
Mr Mohammad Mohiuddin
Mr George Svanidze
Mr Ramji Lal Koli
Mr Purbatua Hutabarat
Mr Zulqarnain Bin Hassan
Mr Kedar Prasad Chalise
Mr Daniel Isaac Centeno Espinoza
Mr Jim Wala Tamate
Ms Wassa Chaimanee
Mr Shin Hashimoto
Mr Yosuke Kodama
Ms Mihoko Tanabe
Ms Chadarat Anakkaorn
Mr Piset Nakhaphan
Mr Salem Oustas
Ms Sirirat Vasuvat

Visiting Experts:Judge Anand Satyanand
Mr. Chua Cher Yak

Advisers:

Director Kunihiko Sakai
Deputy Director Tomoko Akane
Professor Toru Miura
Professor Yasuhiro Tanabe
Professor Keisuke Senta(Philippines)(Panama)(Costa Rica)(Zambia)(Bangladesh)(Georgia)(India)(Indonesia)(Malaysia)(Nepal)(Nicaragua)(Papua New Guinea)(Thailand)(Japan)(Japan)(Japan)(Thailand)(Thailand)(Thailand)(Thailand)(UNAFEI)(UNAFEI)(UNAFEI)(UNAFEI)(UNAFEI)

I. INTRODUCTION
The participants of the Sixth International Training Course on Corruption Control started the general
discussion after having heard lectures from visiting experts, ad hoc lecturers and UNAFEI professors aswell as individual presentations from each participant. They had before them various materials
concerning corruption, including the text of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which
was adopted by the General Assembly on October 31st, 2003. The discussion of the participants focusedon how to implement the provisions of this Convention, so that their countries could become parties tothis instrument.

II. POLITICAL WILLIn addition to legal and technical questions related to the implementation of the Convention, the groupemphasized the necessity for political will on the part of government leaders, law makers and top
officials, to actually fight corruption and become an effective party to this Convention. It is essential forthis purpose to raise public and political awareness, and the existence itself of the UN Convention can beused for this campaign.
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The participants agreed that political will is the main ingredient necessary when dealing withcorruption. It has been established that their legislation include several provisions to deal with this illness,but depicting them on paper is not enough. The political will has to be manifested with actions in orderfor it to be brought down from Legal Heaven into reality. However, political will is not present in mostof our government s underlying behaviour. It can easily be inferred from almost all the individual
presentations of this Course, mentioning that it is necessary to obtain congressional approval in order tolift immunity for some politicians, or when anti-corruption institutions are forced to work withinsufficient tools, technology and financial support.

III. CRIMINALIZATION AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
The participants reviewed the provisions in the Convention related to the criminalization of certain
conduct related to corruption. All countries have enacted laws against embezzlement, misappropriation orother diversions of property by public officials. Thus, the main issue seemed to be the criminalization ofbribery of foreign public officials and officials of public international organizations. Many participants
stated that their countries have to revise their domestic legislation to meet the requirements of Article 16of the Convention. The criminalization of bribery of domestic officials does not pose any serious
problems, since all countries have provisions to criminalize this conduct. However, some countries haveto revise their laws because a simple offering of a bribe is not enough to constitute a crime. Manycountries also need to revise their laws to criminalize the conduct of the obstruction of justice as required
by Article 25. Although most countries include intimidation of witnesses as a criminal offence in theirlegislation, they lack provisions for paragraph (a) of this article on the influence to the witnesses. The
main issue brought up by this article is the action of the briber in influencing the witness more than thereaction of the latter, because failure to testify by the witness has consequences but bribery of a witness toinfluence him/her goes unpunished. Although all countries have a law to punish money laundering, themeeting noted that in order to fulfil the obligations under the convention, there is a need to expand thescope of predicate offences. Most countries manifested that their legislation includes the laundering ofproceeds of corruption crimes in some way or another. However, it is yet to be seen if their legislation
covers all the offences established by this Convention.
While some articles were established as mandatory by the Convention, others were left to thediscretion of the State Parties. To illustrate, paragraph two of Article 16, merely suggests thecriminalization of solicitation or acceptance of bribery by a foreign public official, etc. However, theparticipants agreed on the advantages of making this provision mandatory. Regarding this matter,international mutual assistance becomes essential, because investigators have to gather evidence outside
their own jurisdictions.

IV. PREVENTIVE MEASURES
Preventive measures are even more necessary than repressive actions. The latter become redundant
once the problem is treated from the root. The participants concluded that preventive measures and anti
corruption policies are best conducted by an independent body. To complement such a body, there is aneed for the legislation of free access to information to be enacted in all jurisdictions, in order to arm andempower all sectors of society in matters of transparency and good governance.
Out of several measures included in the Convention, the participants emphasized educational
strategies targeting the youth, such as the inclusion of an ethics programme in school curricula and values
formation in order to reshape the countries consciousness. For example, the Zambian Community
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participate in essay competitions and theatre performances on the theme of corruption. Also, in Thailand,
the NCCC publishes and distributes children s story books which depict honesty and integrity as noblevalues.
Awareness campaigns for the general public are instrumental. The public should be conscious of theevils of corruption, as well as their capacity to carry on the necessary actions to prevent, report andsuppress it. A strong and educated media is essential for these purposes. Providing the press withreasonable access to governmental offices and documentation is a helpful tool for the civil society in thefight against corruption. It helps in maintaining constant public scrutiny over public officials, therefore
making it more difficult to commit wrongdoing.
Involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations should be promoted, as it gives private citizens oneof the last resorts against corrupt public officials belonging to government institutions perceived by themas insensitive to their concerns. Finally, the control of campaign contributions during election periods wasdiscussed. The participants agreed that even if most of their countries have the legislation requiring thedisclosure of the origin of such contributions, there is no real criminal sanction, or at least administrative
sanction, for concealing or altering this information.

V. ASSET RECOVERYThe participants noted that most jurisdictions have legislative provisions for asset recovery, however,in practice, these provisions have proven ineffective. Different procedures to obtain banking information
are common to all the countries, but there are subsequent difficulties and delays to secure the documents
needed for investigation.
The main problem revolves around the implementation or enforcement of the law, particularly whenassets are deposited in foreign jurisdictions. Therefore, the participants believe once more thatinternational mutual legal assistance should be encouraged. The participants also expressed concern withthe fact that confiscated assets from corruption offences can seldom be returned to their origin, andpossibly utilized by law enforcement institutions to continue with their efforts. On the other hand, mostlegislation obliges governments to maintain all income in one single account managed by the treasury,emphasizing the difficulty of the recovery. The only real mechanism established in most of theirlegislation for the recovery of proceeds of crime, is the interposal of civil actions, which has proven to beineffective, as these assets are easily distracted.
Furthermore, the recovery of property acquired with proceeds of corruption offences in otherjurisdictions is quite difficult when there are no international treaties that bind foreign governments tocooperate. The participants agreed that the UN Convention provides the basis to recover such property ina swifter manner.

VI. OTHER ISSUES
Other issues discussed by the participants included the need for the establishment of a merit based
civil service system, in which public officials would be selected and promoted according to their skills,
knowledge and experience, rather than their political connections. This new system is required to provide
public servants with an adequate work environment, in order to avoid the attraction of bribes. Measures
such as the increase of salaries for public officials and security of tenure that prevent their removal after
new elections are held are imperative to achieve this. It was noted that although this has financial
implications on the national treasury of each country, governments should consider making this issue apriority, in light of the important role that public workers play in the delivery of social services, as well as
attending to the high economic cost that corrupt officials represent year after year.
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The participants also manifested concern in regard to the issue of immunity and concurred that eachcountry s law should be revised to limit the extent of the immunity granted to politicians, so that it does
not hinder the investigation and subsequent prosecution of these people.
The importance of human resource development through training activities in the general field ofcorruption was also considered by the participants and it is recommended that governments invest in this.
It was underscored that certain provisions in the convention had financial implications, such as the callfor a witness protection programme. However, this poses an enormous difficulty for most of theircountries, due to their small populations and the lack of financial resources to provide the required
protection and benefits for witnesses. Thus, international cooperation, as stipulated in paragraph 3 ofarticle 32 of the Convention, particularly in the area of witness relocation, is essential to achieve this.
But international cooperation should go beyond this matter. Chapter VI of the Convention deals withinternational technological and training assistance. This subject was introduced when discussing the lackof technology and modern surveillance equipment in most of their countries, which contributes to the rateof failure of detection and investigation of these offences. It has become clear that white collar criminality
is transcending the borders, and this means that law enforcement agencies must transcend these borders
themselves, through international cooperation.

VII. RECOMMENDATIONSAt the end of the discussion, the participants agreed to adopt the following recommendations:
1. Countries should seriously consider signing and ratifying the UN Convention Against Corruption
without any reservations.
2. Countries should implement in full the mandatory provisions of the Convention by enacting necessary
legislation and taking other measures.
3. For that purpose, countries should examine their domestic legislation and their practices in corruption
counter fields vis-a-vis every provision of the Convention.
4. Subject to the basic principles of their domestic legal systems, countries are encouraged to implement
the optional provisions of the Convention.
5. Countries are also encouraged to adopt, as appropriate, more strict or severe measures than thoseprovided by the Convention for preventing and combating corruption, in accordance with article 65 ofthe Convention.
6. Countries should enhance international cooperation, including extradition, mutual legal assistance andlaw enforcement cooperation, to effectively cope with corruption.
7. United Nations and other organizations, as well as countries, should play an active role in facilitating
the signing and ratification of the Convention through technical assistance and technical cooperation.

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